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agold
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Thought this was interesting from the Cornell.. 30 Jul 2008, 12:18
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ryguy904
"Two people read each application - the first read is one hour in length, and the second is 30 minutes."

Are they saying that they will spend 90 minutes on my app? That seems like a looooooong time. I mean last year, they only had 2 essays. What are they looking at?
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Probably your quantitative ability because they don't know what the CFA is.
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VictoryMBA
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Thought this was interesting from the Cornell.. 30 Jul 2008, 12:31
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IHateTheGMAT
Wow, 64% of their applicants were international but only 37% of their students. That is shocking. The admit rate for US students must be much higher than the overall admit rate.

I just did some back of the envelope calculations (assuming 50% yield all around) and got about a 35% admit rate for americans vs an overall admit rate around 20-21%. Can this be true? If it is, I'm pretty damn excited about it as a US Cornell applicant.
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I'm feeling you on this one IHateTheGMAT...best little piece of bschool news I've heard all week.
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kidderek
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Thought this was interesting from the Cornell.. 30 Jul 2008, 12:32
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ryguy904
"Two people read each application - the first read is one hour in length, and the second is 30 minutes."

Are they saying that they will spend 90 minutes on my app? That seems like a looooooong time. I mean last year, they only had 2 essays. What are they looking at?
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I'm 99% certain that at least 25% of the apps go straight into the "ding" pile. The next 25% probably go into the "take a glance for anything exceptional, otherwise ding" pile. Then they earn their money with the rest of the applications.
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Thought this was interesting from the Cornell.. 30 Jul 2008, 12:33
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Yea, I would be curious to know at the top schools how many apps don't receive much attention beyond a glance, then straight into the 'sorry, not going to happen' pile.

It is tough to think that a lot of the time, people have poured in energy on apps that may not even receive consideration.

I bet 25% sounds about right though, and another 25% that aren't very realistic.

~Sam
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Thought this was interesting from the Cornell.. 30 Jul 2008, 12:49
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sam77sam7
Yea, I would be curious to know at the top schools how many apps don't receive much attention beyond a glance, then straight into the 'sorry, not going to happen' pile.

It is tough to think that a lot of the time, people have poured in energy on apps that may not even receive consideration.

I bet 25% sounds about right though, and another 25% that aren't very realistic.

~Sam
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The effort and energy people put into their applications is what makes me believe that not too many apps are just glanced over and sent straight to the ding pile.

Personally, when I collect resumes and interview people, if they are a so-so fit and do not write a cover letter, they will go straight to the ding pile. If they are a so-so fit but they take the time to write a solid individualized cover letter, I will interview them. If they are a so-so fit and they write me a terrible, generic cover letter, they go to the ding pile too. Effort counts.
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Thought this was interesting from the Cornell.. 30 Jul 2008, 12:52
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ryguy904
"Two people read each application - the first read is one hour in length, and the second is 30 minutes."

Are they saying that they will spend 90 minutes on my app? That seems like a looooooong time. I mean last year, they only had 2 essays. What are they looking at?

Probably your quantitative ability because they don't know what the CFA is.
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:lol:
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Thought this was interesting from the Cornell.. 30 Jul 2008, 17:26
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sam77sam7
Yea, I would be curious to know at the top schools how many apps don't receive much attention beyond a glance, then straight into the 'sorry, not going to happen' pile.

It is tough to think that a lot of the time, people have poured in energy on apps that may not even receive consideration.

I bet 25% sounds about right though, and another 25% that aren't very realistic.

~Sam

The effort and energy people put into their applications is what makes me believe that not too many apps are just glanced over and sent straight to the ding pile.

Personally, when I collect resumes and interview people, if they are a so-so fit and do not write a cover letter, they will go straight to the ding pile. If they are a so-so fit but they take the time to write a solid individualized cover letter, I will interview them. If they are a so-so fit and they write me a terrible, generic cover letter, they go to the ding pile too. Effort counts.
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There are people who just dont have the raw stats at all though. I know where I work they had a lower limit for GPA and NEVER went below it...no matter how great a person seemed to be. If you had a sub 2.7 you werent even getting an interview. We would get 500+ applications from college seniors a year for 25 positions and the quickest way to get through was eliminate a huge swath of them quickly.

I would say that for b-school applications they at least give people the curtesy of reading their applications. You pay $200+ and put a lot of effort in and they realize that. However, when it comes time to decisions I would say a there are definitely a lot of the applicants at a top school who are eliminated without any real debate. They just dont stack up to what the school has admitted in the past several years and people who have read thousands of applications in the recent past can spot people that just wont make the cut so they eliminate them and dont really spend much time thinking about it. There are also the people who are easy decisions the other way...maybe half of the people admitted are quick and painless admits for the schools. They make it through all votes and get the thumbs up from all without people thinking too hard about it...once again because they are the cream of the crop in the past years.

Its the remaining folks that the schools actually focus their attention on. With the increase in applications there may be fewer spots because there were more "cream of the crop" types or during down years they may need to go a little further into the pool. Some of the remaining people will get admitted, some will get WL, and plenty more will get dings.

Don't think because you pour your heart and soul into an application the adcoms are going to spend much time on it. They have to work through far to many to really dig deep into all of them. They are going to focus on the group that may or may not make it in...not everyone since some definitely wont make it and others are easy admits.
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Thought this was interesting from the Cornell.. 31 Jul 2008, 09:05
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sam77sam7
Interesting that their offered GMAT was higher than their accepted... that signals that perhaps Cornell was used as a back-up for some top applicants. Not taking anything away from Cornell, it is an incredible school, just something I noticed.

Also, a little insight into their procedure, each app gets an hour and a half of attention... I wonder how this compares to other schools. Certainly seems like a lot!

~Sam
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Unless it's Harvard or Stanford (maybe Wharton), I would bet that every other school will have accepted/offered GMAT higher than enrolled GMAT. I actually find it impressive that the difference between the two stats for Cornell is small (only 8 pts difference), so that means they are generally getting the ppl they want out of their applicant pool. I would be concerned if the accepted GMAT is like 20+ pts higher than enrolled GMAT, but that's not the case for Cornell.
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Thought this was interesting from the Cornell.. 31 Jul 2008, 09:28
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aceman626


Unless it's Harvard or Stanford (maybe Wharton), I would bet that every other school will have accepted/offered GMAT higher than enrolled GMAT.
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I agree. It makes perfect sense to me.
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