Cornell is my dream school! My numbers are a little bit low (35/3.85+), but I am going to apply any way! Go big or go home!
Your stats are perfectly fine to be considered at any top US medical school, and they actually fall right in the middle of Cornell's accepted students according to last year's MSAR (35Q/3.86). The question is, what your personality/activities/life story are. Cornell seems to be less stats-focused than some other schools and more activities/personality-focused, so something like this is not unusual for Cornell:
I know a guy who got an interview with fairly similar stats (33-34 MCAT, 3.9+) but also a guy with a 37 MCAT and 4.0 who did not get an interview.
It seems like Cornell will rather accept a very interesting person with slightly lower stats than an academic all-star who is not quite as interesting.
Any current students care to tell us what Cornell looks for in an applicant?
Another incoming MS1, I don't know much about the school yet but I'm very enthusiastic about sharing what I do know
😛 I hope my classmates and I will be useful to you guys by sharing our experience with the new curriculum etc. once we start.
I second
@yankees26 post; the Cornell students I've met (both current and accepted aka my class) are all very intelligent, diverse and interesting people, they have all done some fascinating things. If there is one unifying theme about Cornell, I'd say it's diversity, and it's diversity in just about anything - race/ethnicity/national origin, social background, educational background, age, sexual orientation, life experiences etc. Cornell consistently has some of the highest, if not the highest, percentages of URM, non-traditional (both in terms of age and educational background - think music and dance majors) and foreign students among the US medical schools. So make sure to bring your unique life experiences to Cornell.
Also, it's kind of anecdotal but it seems like Cornell gives a lot of weight to research and international experience (be that educational/service/etc trips to other countries or actually coming to the US from a different country). It doesn't mean that if you don't have much of these you shouldn't apply to Cornell, but it's just something I've noticed. It's also consistent with the awesome research and international opportunities Cornell offers to its students, so it makes sense for Cornell to accept students that will take advantage of these opportunities.
