Cornell successful applicants?

[Artery]

Hey all,
I'm starting this thread to really just get people's opinions/real life experiences on what it takes to get accepted at Cornell's vet school. I was denied for this year's class, but I believe that my application was very competitive.
When I called the admissions office (as they advise you to do to ask about how to make your application more competitive), the admissions director ran through the "admissions formula" with me, and went through each factor, only to tell me that I surpassed the mean significantly for every point she mentioned.
So, I guess I'm just really confused at this point. She wasn't very helpful as to how I could improve my app.
Any successful applicants want to share how they got in/what their credentials were? I'm thinking that I might reapply sometime in the future...

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[NStarz]

Try this thread for starters...

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=776924

There's also one for last year.

 

[Artery]

Not much data on Cornell as a whole. Oh well. Thank you though

 

[bonaparte]

I'm an OOS applicant who was accepted into Cornell this year.

I'm not comfortable posting my stats publicly [just yet], but if you PM me I'll send them to you.

 

[rosyreef]

I'm an OOS applicant who was accepted into Cornell this year.

I'm not comfortable posting my stats publicly [just yet], but if you PM me I'll send them to you.

Same here (PM me if you want), but accepted as an IS student.

 

[PendantWorld]

Same here (PM me if you want), but accepted as an IS student.

Also accepted IS. I will be posting in the Successful Applicants Stats at some point in the near future, but if you want my stats sooner, feel free to PM me.

 

[sumstorm]

If you are really strong on the parameters, you may need to look beyond that.

Are you sure your PS and LORs are excellent?

Is the quality of your experience/education at all questionable?

Do you represent (on paper) what they see as an idea student/vet?

Now, those are just the things I suggest really starting with if you are above and beyond on the metrics. I'm 99% sure Purdue didn't admit me because the majority of my education had 'aged' as I was off the charts on all the stats except GPA which I was slightly over on general and well above on science. I didn't match their parameters for an ideal student (and I know several of the ad coms and have worked with them off and on for a couple of decades.)

Doesn't Cornell require LOR's from all experience? that might be where an issue pops that won't be shared with you on a review.

 

[rosyreef]

Doesn't Cornell require LOR's from all experience? that might be where an issue pops that won't be shared with you on a review.

The situation with Cornell's eLORs had been explained to me by admissions the summer before I applied. On their supplemental application, Cornell requires eLORs from people you worked for/were supervised by in animal/veterinary/biomedical research situations for them to be considered as experience in those areas. On my VMCAS application, I included over 400 hours spent at a small animal clinic, but I was unable to have the veteriarian write me an eLOR so those hours were not considered as veterinary experience in my Cornell application.

Their supplemental also includes eLORs from academic evaluators and other non-veterinary related employers.. although you are already probably aware of that, Artery, since you applied this past cycle?

 

[Artery]

Well, I have no way of assessing the quality of the eLORs but everybody I asked (1 professor, 2 vets, 1 phD/vet director of research) did so very willingly and enthusiastically.
And yes, rosyreef, I had an associate professor write one of my eLORs so that it showed my academic ability. I didn't provide any eLORs from non-veterinary related employers though...I think at the time I just thought 4 eLORs was enough? I'm not sure.
Anyway, I'm not sure what Cornell thinks of as their ideal student. Perhaps the disadvantaged statement has something to do with it...

 

[sumstorm]

. Perhaps the disadvantaged statement has something to do with it...

Depending on what you included and how it was written, that is a possibility.

LOR's can be tricky.... some folks are very enthusiastic, absolutly adore the applicant, and write terrible LORs. I say that from reading LOR's for internship applicants (some of the LORs came from individuals that I knew, have a great deal of respect for, are experts in the zoo field, and were still very poor because they lacked any actual information other than the author thought the applicant is great.)

 

[Artery]

That is definitely a possibility, sumstorm. I mean, it could be a variety of reasons, but I just found that the director of admissions was very unhelpful when I asked what else I could do, hahah. No problem though. Probably end up at Tufts Thanks, all.