How to Get Into Cornell | Isabel from Cornell

In this one part episode, Isabel shares all the components of her application that got her into all but one of the schools she applied for, including Cornell.

Transcription

Kamila
Hey, college kids, welcome back to my podcast, who cares about college? In today’s episode, I’ll be interviewing Isabel. So if you could introduce yourself?

Isabell
Yeah. Hi, I’m Isabelle. I’m from DC, and I’m a sophomore at Cornell majoring in mechanical engineering and minoring in French.

Kamila
Alright, so let’s start from the very beginning. What were your expectations going into high school with college? Were you expecting to apply to like top universities? And hopefully placed in one of them?

Isabell
Yeah, well, I mean, I definitely went in like not really knowing that much about the admissions process. But I think around maybe probably like sophomore year of high school, I started deciding, like, like figuring out where I wanted to apply and what I wanted to, like, follow as a career path in life. So I started looking at like, what sort of majors would relate to that. So that’s how I kind of like found, like schools like Cornell, or like, top tier, engineering universities, because like, sometimes in the workforce, like the degree kind of matters a little bit because, like connections and stuff like that, right.

Kamila
And let’s start from like, the actual high school you go to, can you describe the, you know, the high school you went to was a public private? And did it offer those advanced like AP IB? honors courses?

Isabell
Yeah. So I went to a school that was high school in DC, it Republic Magnet High School, so the public school, but you have to apply to it. So it’s a little bit selective. And there, but it’s actually humanities based High School, so they didn’t really have that many STEM classes, as many as I would have wanted. So I did take a lot of APS, but they were mostly humanities based only a couple of STEM focused AP classes.

Kamila
Okay, so if you know your mechanical engineering, now, if your school was a humanities school, and they concentrated in the humanities, how did you figure out? I guess you were more of a stem person? Like, where were you given the opportunity to show that interest?

Isabell
Well, it’s just really liked math way more than anything. So I was like, I guess, like, just a stronger stem student in general, but also, with like, I joined the robotics club. So that’s why I found specifically what I wanted to do, because it was like, I really like robotics. I’m having a great time with the club. So I kind of felt like do that as a career. That’s how I decided like, specifically what major I wanted to do.

Kamila
So let’s quickly get to your like grades and like standardized test scores, and then we’ll go into like the extracurriculars that you did. So in the end, how many APS did you take throughout high school?

Isabell
I took 13 AP exams, but only took 11 classes, like AP classes.

Kamila
So you self study for two of them?

Isabell
Yeah, technically, I mean, one of them. There were both language APs. One of them was Spanish, and I’m a native speaker. So I just took that. And I took French as well. And I, the reason I wasn’t in the class was just because it didn’t fit into my schedule, but I was taking it like I guess I did technically self study for it. I was just taking an after school class at GW University.

Kamila
How many classes do you take at GW?

Isabell
I took four because my high school is like, without walls is on GWS campus. So they offer sort of like, they offer the option to take classes through their, through them. So I took I did three French classes and one math class there.

Kamila
And were you hoping to earn like, regardless of which school you went to, were you hoping to earn college credit to like meet some sort of requirement.

Isabell
Um, I was, I wasn’t really doing by taking the classes with the intent of like, using that credit in college, it was more so just for me, because mainly the reason I was taking French was, like I said, it didn’t fit into my schedule anymore. So I just I really enjoy French and that’s why I’m minoring in it. So that’s why I wanted to be able to like, keep taking it, even though I couldn’t take the class at my high school.

Kamila
Okay, and one thing when you are a high school and not just for you, but when your high school is affiliated with some sort of college or university, when you if you do apply to that school, does it give you an advantage in the process when you apply to that school?

Isabell
Um, a little bit will stay like there was the program that I did, which is like a couple of classes through GW, but there was this other program where it’s like your junior and senior year you do it fully at George Washington University. So you’re graduating high school with your high school diploma and an associate’s degree from George Washington. So that one gives you way more preference than the one I did use the one I did doesn’t really, like it helps you get a few credits out of the way. But the other program, they kind of want the people who are graduating with an associate’s degree from GW to still continue at GW.

Kamila
Another quick question. So when you’re at if you’re at GW, and let’s say you do your junior senior year completely at GW, if you get accepted and decided to go, do you still do a four year bachelor’s there? Or are you just doing two years after high school?

Isabell
Well, it sort of depends. I actually know a couple of people who stayed at who went from my year who stayed at GW. Some of them yeah, they only stay too many years, because they already did the first two years. But some other people, since they, they weren’t, did it, like I think I have a friend that I know she did the program. And she didn’t really know that she wanted to like, first of all, stay at GW for the rest of her college career. And she also didn’t know what she wanted to major in yet. So she hadn’t got like all the like, intro level credits for her major that she’s currently studying. So I think she’s gonna stay like, like, a few more years, like she’s not gonna finish in two years, she could probably finish in three years.

Kamila
That’s incredible, though. Okay, so in the end, what did your GPA come out to be both unweighted, which is a 4.0. And then the weighted which is, whatever skill that your school used?

Isabell
I will actually don’t know because because of COVID. I’d never really actually got my like, full report card back for I don’t know my actual GPA for like all the high school but like, as of junior year, I had a like, I feel like 3.89 unweighted and 4.31 weighted, but that’s just like, that doesn’t include my senior year classes, because I like never got my report card. And so I don’t really know

Kamila
what so if you didn’t get your report card, did they just send out the junior year GPAs. To

Isabell
date. They said, like I know, my school said, Cornell like they sent them my stats from like, senior year, they just never sent it to me because they usually like your official report card comes in the mail. So I never got it mailed to me. But we know

Kamila
it was good enough for Cornell. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So let’s go on to SCT AC T, just walk me through, like when did you start preparing? What preparations did you do? And then in the end, what was your super score that you send to colleges?

Isabell
Um, so I started preparing, like in the beginning of junior year to take the LSAT, because I took it. I think the first time I took it was December of junior year, and I studied a little bit on Khan Academy, but not as much as I should have. I think I was just kind of doing it as like a side thing, just like a couple of like multiple choice questions a day, but like, not probably definitely not as much as I should have. Because I definitely did not do as well as I wanted to. But then my school offers an in school testing. Sad day. So it’s like on a random Wednesday in March, and it’s completely paid for which is really nice. Like, I kind of like don’t really, I’m not as like, I don’t really realize how expensive and like that people actually pay for like the SCT or like APS like I they were all free for me, which is really nice. Did your school Wait? No. So actually, the DCPs the DC public school system pays for all APS for students to take like in the public school system, as well as in school. fit testing days, will like the one I took in December I had to pay for because I it wasn’t like an in school testing day. It was like a regular like on a Saturday. So like the one that I in school, one that I took in March I started studying for in January, and I did around like 10 hours of studying a week through this like tutoring program. And it significantly raised my score, but like, still, like, it wasn’t like it felt like your fabulous score. It’s like really not amazing. It’s it. Was

Kamila
this tutoring program offered by your school or was it some private?

Isabell
No, it was a private program. And it was kind of expensive, but my dad had heard of it from one of his colleagues and my dad kind of like when it comes to like school. He’s like, and just like, achieving academically, he’s, he’s willing to pay the money. He’s Yeah, he’s definitely willing to pay. So he was like, I felt really bad. But he was like, No, I’m paying for this program for you. Like you’re gonna get like you need to get I want you to get a good LSAT score. So it was like okay, so yeah, so they’re very intense on studying. So it’s like, like, so, yeah, so like, ends up being 10 hours a week and they send your emails and they’re like, remember that you needed like read your, like your goal for today for studying. And then there’s like, so it’s kind of like, on your own. You do videos like Academy style sort of. And then like, there’s like once a week, I had a session with like a private tutor and we we like go over what I missed and like strategies and stuff. And then I took the shp again in June of junior year. And I just felt sorry for that, like Khan Academy. And then again, I took it in October senior year. And I also feel studied for that.

Kamila
And we’re the last three tests not the first is but the last three tests you took these are all waived by your school?

Isabell
No, just the the march you want to do in March and when I took in October, okay, because those are both in school testing days.

Kamila
Okay, and what did your superscore end up being? Or if you don’t mind, can you share like the progression of your scores? Yeah.

Isabell
Okay, I think my first one I got a 1280 and then I got a 1430.

Kamila
And then was the 1280 to 1430 after the tutoring

Isabell
program. Yeah, yeah. I got I can’t remember. I think I got like a 1420 on the next one. And the last one I took I can’t remember what I got to like my super score ended up being a 1440 which is like, not that impressive considering I go to Cornell, but like also like that, just like goes to show that they really don’t care all about stats as like that as much as like people think

Kamila
you did say you were much more of a stem person. Was it the reading section that stumped you during the test?

Isabell
Um, I really my my super scores split like 727 20. Oh, wow. Okay, yeah.

Kamila
Okay, so, GPA is at APS out of the way. Let’s go on to extracurriculars. So I’ll let you take it from here. Can you list like the main extracurriculars that you did? And he talked about the approach you took for extracurriculars? Because in the American school system, it’s really like me, you need the good grades and stuff with extracurriculars really make your application? So coming coming into high school, what was your approach of extracurriculars? Did you try out a bunch and then filter it out? Or were you intent on like these few clubs? And you’re like, I’m just going to stick with them all throughout high school?

Isabell
Well, okay, I did like actually, like quite a few extra curriculars. And I started off high school just doing like what I wanted to, but then, sophomore year, I have like a really kind of like, not the mindset that you should have for extracurriculars. Like you should be doing extracurriculars, because you want to be doing them. But I was kind of like, No, I have to do like certain ones. Because I want to like, look like this on my application. I want to do something like I remember, I joined like, it was like a service like a community service club. I forgot what it was. It was like for nonprofit, sort of like a chapter of it. And I was like, Oh, I’m going to join this because I want to look like a good person on my application, which is like not really the approach that people should be having to this. So like my extracurriculars there were I did robotics, like I mentioned, and I was captain junior and senior year of high school, and then I did Spanish honor society for three years, so I did robotics, all of high school and then Spanish Honor Society. I did it. My sophomore, junior and senior year and I was president. I, my junior and senior year, yeah. And then as well as that I did. In the fall, I played soccer. For most I did varsity soccer for most of high school. I didn’t really do senior just because I had a lot of time conflicts. And then the spring starting junior year, I played Ultimate Frisbee. And then on top of that I did like I kind of like was a floater and like electric car club and the Student Government Association and then on the weekends, I would volunteer as a tutor in this like local thing in DC

Kamila
do so I want to do a little bit more of a deep dive into all these your main extracurricular. So you mentioned robotics a couple of times. So you said you were Captain junior senior year and I think with robotics, at least how would they do it at my school? There’s like competition. So it’s not just a club, there are competitions you go up to Nationals. Yeah. Can you explain, you know, how far did your team make and what was your responsibility as captain?

Isabell
Well, we were actually pretty bad like a really bad team. We’re really under like I said humane school, so like, really underfunded. And the bad thing is, like, for robotics account, like, like, funding kind of like makes or breaks your team, like all the good teams have a lot of money. And the bad teams are like three four, usually so like we were like on the poorer side so we were really not that good. But like as the cat it was also like, we had a pretty small team too, but like as captain, I was just kind of a response. to go for like, just like delegating tasks. And just like organizing people and organizing, like the workplace, I guess, because it can get a little bit crazy because it’s like, there’s like, I mean, sometimes people just like, like, I don’t know what to do. So it’s like, okay, like, maybe you could do this or like walk people through problems.

Kamila
Can you like, tell us the different parts of a robotics team? Because I had a friend, she was a senior, like, last year. And she told me she had to stay up like 17 hours straight with her team, because they were like, programming something for the competition was like a state or, yeah, state or county competition or something like that. So can you explain like, the different parts? Because robotics seems like the most intense club that I have heard of in high school

Isabell
is pretty intense. But I mean, I didn’t I never stayed up, like 17 hours. I probably would have though. But like that, because yeah, the like, adults in charge of the club were very much like, we’re not going to stay very late. Like, we want to sleep. I don’t care if you guys want to keep working. We’re leaving. So you have to leave. But yeah, it is definitely really, really intense. I think like I would say I would usually like it’s like, it was like an after school commitment, like every day during like, the actual season. So I would stay like, every day after school until like, as late as I could stay. Like until I got kicked out of school. And then on Saturdays we’d work for like 12 hours, maybe sometime, maybe like 10 hours, but like, we’d still use a lot of working and like, and it was it was pretty fun to like, that’s a good thing is like, it sounds like a lot but it’s like it was really enjoyable for me. So I didn’t really feel like I was like, kind of like endlessly working. I felt like more I was like just having fun.

Kamila
And when you were doing robotics, when did you realize that you think of this as like a viable career option, or you want to major in it when you go into high school, I mean, into college.

Isabell
I think for like, maybe my either freshman or sophomore year, because I remember my freshman year, we were like really, really small, like a five person team. And the captain was he was like, the only he was a junior. So like, I kind of like would talk to him about his college process and stuff because I wanted to like learn more. So like, while I was a sophomore, he kind of like walked us through the process, because he ended up getting like two full rides to Caltech, which was crazy. Like, we were so proud of him. So I just like would talk to him about it. And oh, yeah, so then he was like, Oh, I’m going to tell tech to study mechanical engineering. So I was like, oh, like, I want to, like, learn about that. So like it kind of like googled it and was like, Oh, this definitely seems like exactly what we’re doing right now. Robotics, so that’d be cool. That was

Kamila
okay, when it comes to the college app, we only have a limited amount of space. So for college purposes, when you wrote that you did robotics team for all four years of high school, what did you write for the colleges to see, like, what were the main points that you got across? Because you can’t write like paragraphs and paragraphs?

Isabell
Honestly, can’t really remember. Yeah, I feel like I just wrote, like, just kind of like my responsibilities as like, a small team. And also, I definitely mentioned like, what it’s like, for me being a woman stem, like at some point, because like, I feel like a lot of the time I’ve just like experienced a lot or a lot of experiences where there’s a lot of bias towards me, like negative bias, whereas the only woman on the team, know, but I definitely had like a lot of very, like condescending moments from a certain guy, even though like I was a captain, and people would be like, Oh, that’s how you use a wrench. And I’d be like, first of all, that’s like, the easiest thing to do. Second of all, like, I think I would probably know, if I’m the captain of the robotics team, how to use a wrench.

Kamila
Alright, so let’s go to your other extracurriculars. And the other one I remember was Spanish honor society. And you were you joined sophomore year, but you were already like, President, your junior year. So can you explain how you so quickly climbed up to that position?

Isabell
I don’t really know. I think that I mean, the halligan application because the president, the president, but it was two of them. were graduating, so they kind of like send out an application. So I filled that out. I got the position so

Kamila
and what do you do in Spanish honor society or just honor societies in general?

Isabell
Well, in Spanish honor society we would like to because the presidents before me hadn’t really done that much. I wasn’t really exactly sure what we were supposed to do but like so for example, like for Hispanic Heritage tonight, we kind of organized like a school wide event. We’re not like it was a potluck, but like in the sense that like we all brought food for everyone else to have for free. So like we had music and like pure food. And then we also just like, participated in it. assemblies like international assembly, then just things like that.

Kamila
Okay, and again, for college purposes, what did you write when you put Spanish Honor Society?

Isabell
Um, I just mainly wrote Yeah, that I was like responsible for like organizing like school wide events. Because like, that’s kind of what we did and like just participating or like making kind of like, Hispanic culture much more like appreciate that my high school because like it was we were really small population. So a lot of the times people were just kind of like, dismiss not dismiss it, but like, not really thinking about it. Like we used I remember that like, for like my first three years of high school during Black History Month, we were like, every day we’d have, like, we would have announcements every day, during Black History Month every day have like, a fact or like a black history flat fact, which I thought was pretty cool. But we never did that for Hispanic Heritage Month. And a lot of the times, like, just because the population was so small and like no one really. Yeah, so no one really talked about the Hispanic Hispanic culture, especially since like a really big thing in DC, but not at my high school. So I kind of like decided to have, you know, maybe like during Hispanic Heritage Month, we had like, during like, with the announcements, we had like the facts every day, which was pretty cool.

Kamila
Okay, okay. And last extracurricular, you mentioned that I remember was like, the main one was a tutoring company that you work for. So can you explain, first of all how you got into that was like, affiliated with your school? And then you know how long you did it for and what were your responsibilities? Like? How often would you meet up? And stuff like that?

Isabell
Well, wasn’t actually a company. It was a nonprofit. Oh, no. So the nonprofit is called the Latino student fund. And basically, it’s just you have volunteers come, it was volunteer, it was always on like Saturday mornings, like nine to 12, I would tutor so it’s like the volunteers come and then you get assigned the kid and you just work with them on like, the worksheet the like, the nonprofit itself has like worksheets to work on. So we work on those worksheets, or homework if they want to work on it, or just like whatever they want. The kid wants to work on for that session. And it’s completely free for the families.

Kamila
Oh, wow. And what subjects did you tutor on?

Isabell
So the nonprofit does. The worksheets that they have are math, reading comprehension, vocab, and reading out loud. So the reading comprehension is just kind of like, if you read a thing in the unit, some multiple choice questions about it. But then the reading out loud is just kind of like it’s like a paragraph or like one or two paragraphs, and then you’re supposed to like, give them a minute to read as much as they can and then like Mark where they messed up and kind of like help them. It’s like pronunciation. Thanks. Okay.

Kamila
This is one thing I’ve always wondered with tutoring. Like, I’ve never done it myself. What happens if you’re tutoring and you don’t know the answer to it? Or?

Isabell
I? Yeah, I like have a few times. That has happened to me a few times. And like, I, because I was tutored also, and like, I feel like it’s nice when it’s like, if you don’t know, I’m just like, I’m sorry. I don’t know. Like, that’s what try to work with through this together. Do they still cheer now now? Now I do like private tutoring myself. But like, I feel like it’s just like, it’s nice to like, kind of like remind the kid like we’ve been the person you’re tutoring but like, you’re also a human like you don’t know everything. So like, no, cuz especially when I was tutored, I felt like, like, I felt like the person who was cheering me was like, kind of condescending a little bit. I’m like, oh, like you don’t know that. Like, why wouldn’t you know that? So it’s like, it’s nice to be like, okay, they don’t like, I don’t know, they don’t know that. It’s like, okay, like, it’s stupid. Yeah.

Kamila
Okay. And how long did you do this tutoring for?

Isabell
Under, kind of like on No. Sophomore, Junior, or the end of sophomore year, in junior year, beginning of senior year.

Kamila
Alright, alright, so I think we went over like at least the main extracurriculars that you did that you mentioned to us. Oh, you also did soccer. That’s pretty self explanatory. It’s just like a sport. Right. Okay, so, and I have a question when you do these like extracurriculars? Obviously, there are some that are much more important or take more of your time than others, like the three that we kind of went over with the smaller extracurriculars that you like, maybe attend a club meetings and such. Do you bother to put those on your application?

Isabell
I mean, I feel like I would only put them on my application and I felt if I felt like I contributed something because like there’s always like, write your extracurricular you have to like write what it is what like position you held and then also like what you did so if I just went to meetings and didn’t actually do anything, I feel like that’s not worth it. It looks like I’m just putting it on to put it on. Like only if it’s like, like I am contribute actively to the clubs and I would put it on application.

Kamila
And I think there’s 10 spaces, right, like a limit of 10. extracurriculars. How many of the spaces? Did you end up filling out?

Isabell
I have no idea. I cannot remember maybe 10? I don’t know. I have no clue. I have no. Okay, so

Kamila
let’s move on to number one, the colleges that you decided to apply to, and then we can get on to the actual application. So you said that you started what was it sophomore year looking at the different colleges that you wanted to apply to? So what were the things that you were looking for in colleges? And how did you narrow down your list?

Isabell
Um, well, I think, first of all, I was looking at like, counting ranking, like how good the program like the mechanical engineering program actually was. But then also, I was looking at like, size and location, because I didn’t want to be too far from home, just in case like, like, for me, just like if there’s like an emergency or something, I like to be within like, like a day’s drive maybe, or something like I’m even, like, closer than that. But like, just like, if anything does happen, then I could just like call my parents and they could come up, like, ASAP. And they don’t have to, like fly or anything. So yeah, that’s like the distance and I, at first, I initially thought size was an issue, like I wanted a small school. But Cornell was not a small school. So clearly, that didn’t really matter that much to me. But yeah, mainly, that’s it.

Kamila
And was cost an issue for you are were you given financial freedom to apply to these top schools?

Isabell
Or what I mean, like I said, like my dad, when it comes to academics, he’s like, willing to put in the money. So he said, like, my parents were like, Don’t Don’t worry about the cost. Like we’ll deal with that you just deal with getting into the actual schools. Okay,

Kamila
and what are the schools that you eventually did apply to? Like, can you give us a list of them?

Isabell
Cornell MIT, Carnegie Mellon. Back now be high. Rochester Institute of Technology. W WPI.

Kamila
What’s WP

Isabell
Worcester Polytechnic Institute? Purdue. Georgia Tech. Northwestern. I think I’m doing well. And then like five abroad? Six abroad? Yes.

Kamila
Why did you apply to abroad? What was it your own?

Isabell
Yeah, well, one in Mexico, which was just the school that my dad went to. Just because. And then I applied to Andhra in Scotland, Glasgow, Scotland.

Kamila
Why were you interested in going to international schools?

Isabell
I don’t know. I just was appealing. It just sounded cool. I just wanted, you know, because also, I think degrees are shorter there. It’s three years instead of four years. I wanted to check that out. But I just was there too, right? Yeah, yeah. I applied to came, yeah. Cambridge, Southampton. And one other one, which I forgot.

Kamila
Alright, so let’s go on to college app. And then we can see which schools you got accepted, or deferred and rejected from? So did you apply common app besides international schools? The ones in the US? Did you apply common app to all of them?

Isabell
Except MIT? Because MIT doesn’t take the comment off.

Kamila
Okay, so can you tell us about what you like wrote your big 600 I always forget 600 650 word like, personal statement, you know, which topic or question did you choose? And what did you end up writing about?

Isabell
I chose like, I think the last prompt, which is just from what I remember, just write whatever you want to write.

Kamila
Why do you approach that? It doesn’t literally mean write anything? Yeah,

Isabell
I think, like, if you want to write like, I don’t know, like, submit an essay that you wrote for a class, you could do that? Because I Yeah, so I just I wrote about this basically my experience growing because my family’s from Mexico. And just writing about my experience, like how every summer I just like we kind of like there’s just like some like, it’s just like, honestly, it’s like, so hard to explain, but like, just like how we like my relationship with like, my family in Mexico, and stuff that we do together.

Kamila
So like every summer you would visit Mexico and was there like a, I guess, would you say like a point or like a central theme that you got across in your application?

Isabell
I’m sure. How we were talked about was how, like, despite everything in like, where my grandparents live, despite it all because like I talked about like it’s visiting like my grandparents and my cousins, despite like the whole area change Engineering and like urbanizing a little bit more. And just like change like environmentally and stuff like that, how we still always do the same thing we always every summer like all the time we would there’s like a 711, like acurately, like around in the area. So every single time every single summer, we always have like a route that we take to 711. So it just like talked about how we think like, every single time we visited, we do the same trip. But when even though everything’s changing, we still like do the same thing.

Kamila
So it’s like continuous even though the environments changing. And let’s see, can you quickly talk about the MIT application? Like I don’t know if you got accepted, deferred or rejected from MIT. But can you describe the application MIT house? Like, how does it differ from the traditional personal statement with a few supplemental essays?

Isabell
So they have six 250 word essays? Okay, so I guess like not essays, like little paragraphs, or no? Well, no. Okay, actually. No, it’s not six to 50. It’s six essays total. I think it’s like, three to 50.

Kamila
They don’t have one big essay. No, it’s just a bunch of little small ones. And what are those small ones about? Is it like why MIT and stuff? Yeah, there’s

Isabell
one like why MIT there’s like, talk about like, your, your cultural background, or not your culture, just your background as a person. So it could be I took it like culturally, but it’s like, they say like culturally like we’re like, racially, like, whatever you want. You interpret your background to be you want to talk about and I think like one of them was like, like a hobby you have. Yeah, I can’t really remember but like

Kamila
to just like about you. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And in terms of the schools that you did apply to what was your like, number one dream school, they really wanted to go to

Isabell
MIT? Yeah, well, I’m actually so glad I got deferred, and I got rejected. I was so excited when I got deferred, because it was like, at least I’m not rejected, like, I’d rather. So I was really happy about that. But I got rejected, and I didn’t I wasn’t really that bummed out because it was like, it was already like, so um, they’re, like, unachievable, that I was like, not really, it was like, okay, like, before the application like MIT was like, up here. But like, now that I applied, I got rejected. It’s still like up there. Like, nothing changed about it. Like I still like it’s still kind of like unattainable.

Kamila
No fall on your list of things. It was my second choice. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. So Which school did you get accepted, differed and rejected from?

Isabell
I went accepted everywhere, except for MIT records. And I got weightless at Carnegie Mellon.

Kamila
And then did you get off the waitlist at Carnegie Mellon?

Isabell
Well, big no, because there was like, a part there. I had to like, kind of like to accept my spot on the waitlist, I had to kind of like, do this extra thing. And I was feeling really lazy. And Cornell was like, higher priority than Carnegie Mellon. And then also, I was having like, a struggle figuring out where I wanted to go anyway. So it was like, I’d rather not create more options. And just like deal with like, try to figure it out from what I have right now.

Kamila
How did you feel when you got accepted into Cornell?

Isabell
I was really excited. Yeah, I was. So I was like, shocked because I also just because I got a likely letter and I wasn’t expecting it was actually March the 13th. So like, the day that like, everything shut down, like the COVID so it was just like, I was coming home from from something and I like always check my email. So I was like, checking my emails. And I’ve been getting a bunch of emails from Cornell saying, like, we need your SAP scores, like please send them because I needed to send them through the College Board. So I’ve been getting a lot of like, it was like the the like the email who sent it always have like from Cornell admissions, like, please send your sad scores for the night. So it was like another email from them. And that was like opened it expecting it to be like, please send us a T scores. And it was like, like, I just wanted to let you know that we’re going to offer you admission to Cornell engineering. I was like, what, like, I think this is not what I was expecting to be reading right now.

Kamila
We saw I’ve heard of dislike the letter thing. And I interviewed a girl from Duke who also got to like the letter. How likely are these likely letters? Like how common are they

Isabell
hope I don’t know how common they are. But like, yeah, yeah. Like, I don’t know how many how many people they send it to, but like, I know that like for some of them, it’s like, some of the letters are kind of like a little bit vague and they’re like this saying like, they say, like one of my, like the letter said, like, your odds are looking good. So it’s not like like you’re guaranteed to get in, but it’s like you’re probably gonna get in. But like the Cornell was like, we’re going to like we are going to offer you admissions for just like, yeah, so that was exciting.

Kamila
So did you get into Cornell without even sending your LSAT score? I think, but because if you thought it was,

Isabell
well, the first because they sent like several send your LSAT scores. And the first, you know, that they sent I immediately sent them because it was like I don’t, I don’t want them to get lost or anything because they take a long time. Like, because it’s like a whole process like from the College Board to like, get to Cornell officially, it’s a long process. So as soon as I got my first email, I sent it to them, but they kept on sending me emails. Because I just haven’t gotten them yet. Because it does take like, like, a couple, like more than a couple of days. Like I want to say like five to seven days or something. I don’t know how long it takes. But it’s not like, like, super easy, like a one day thing. Like it takes a while. So like they had still been like every two or three days sending me an email saying like, please send your SAP scores. I guess like they got them. And,

Kamila
and then you got in. Okay, so you’re in Cornell, can you tell us a little bit about Cornell as a school? Like, how big is it? Where is it located? And are there any? Obviously it’s an ivy so like, it’s good at a lot of things. But are there any special programs that Cornell has that people come specifically for to Cornell for?

Isabell
Yeah, so Cornell is? We have 1500. undergrad, I believe 1500. So it’s like, it’s the biggest IV means? 15,000 Yeah, what I say 15 times 15,000. Oh, is Yeah. 15,000. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And it says the biggest IV and so it’s located in Ithaca, New York. So it’s like upstate New York. And it’s a really nice area. Like it’s really, really kind of in the middle of nowhere. But there’s like a little town. So it’s not that isolated.

Kamila
How far are you from New York City? Like if you want to go with your friends for the weekend,

Isabell
maybe two or three hours driving? So it’s kind of like not as close as you would think. Like, I’ve felt like it should have been close in but it’s not. And yeah, like one of the like, the better. Like some of the better programs like a good programs here like is the hotel school, which is like one of the best hotel schools in the country? I mean, the world. And it’s just like Hotel Administration. Like how to run a hotel? Yeah, like hotel management. Yeah. Yeah, cuz there’s only very few hotel management schools in the world. So Cornell, it’s like one of the best because there’s so few. There’s also the engineering, the School of Engineering is the best out of all the IVs. So yeah, so that’s another good thing that, like something Coronel is good at. I think also, there’s a lot of like, something like another like, side of Cornell, a lot of people don’t know is that part of it is technically like a New York State schools. Because some, like some, like some part of the schools like land grant. So like, for the colleges, for example, international industrial labor relations, called the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Human Ecology, and the College of Architecture, art and planning, those are all state schools. So they obviously like it’s cheaper, and they have to accept, like a certain number of New York State residents, as well as like they wouldn’t they get cheaper tuition because it’s a state school. So they get in state tuition.

Kamila
Is it still as selective as Cornell usually is? Or do they have a higher acceptance rate?

Isabell
I would Yeah, I would say it is selective, just like so were selected for New York State presidents just because like, they have like, I think it’s like 25% of their their population for the each of these colleges has to be New York State residents.

Kamila
That’s incredible to go to Cornell was like, state level tuition. Oh, but those are very, like niche interests that you need.

Isabell
Yeah, yeah. Okay, so

Kamila
I guess we’ll move on to your experience. Obviously, you came in, in a COVID year and still COVID Because you’re a sophomore now. Can you tell us about how Cornell Cornell Cornell, Cornell handled the COVID situation. How were they was like communication, making sure students got what they needed with like the Housing and stuff with testing all of that, like was Cornell a big mess? Or were they one of the more organized schools because I’ve heard of a lot of kind of horror stories with COVID Oh, yeah,

Isabell
yeah, I’ve heard of those too. But ya know, Cornell definitely did a really good job of actually, when I was arriving on campus for the first time. We all had to get everyone had to get tested in a row first arrive. Yeah, for freshman year because I was on like, we I had some on like, in person classes like but very small ones. But yeah, so like, when I was getting there to get my testing my tests my COVID test. The one of the ladies is like, like, we’re the only IV opens. Let’s make sure we keep it that way. And we did. I was so afraid that we were gonna mess up and like, because we already are, like, get a lot of hate from other IVs I was like, afraid we were gonna get even more fake because we couldn’t even keep ourselves at what

Kamila
why do you keep hate? Why do you guys get hate from another Ivy’s

Isabell
will be heard the state school aspect, I think, which kind of like a little bit of prejudice against, like, state schools, like oh, like state scores are like not as good as private institutions, which like, obviously isn’t true. So there’s that and also, like, because it’s such a big school, it can be viewed as like, less selective, cuz like Brown is like, tiny and it’s like really low acceptance rate and like, so it’s Harvard, like all the other Ivy’s are really small and have really low acceptance rates, but soon as Cornell but like we’re just like a large. So yeah, so I was like, super worried that we weren’t going to be able to do it. But we definitely did. We had COVID tests TWICE, Like mandatory COVID test twice a week. Like if you didn’t go you’d get like locked out of Canvas. So like you couldn’t get your assignments or like go to class or anything like on Zoom. And then we had to do like every morning do like a daily checks are like, are you getting a fever? Like, are you feeling well, I’ve been in contact with anyone that has COVID. And then also, they did like a really good job at handling like, contact tracing. So like people who had COVID and like they’re like, immediate bubble kind of like all quarantining them, because since we have a hotel on campus, like since we have like the Hotel Management school, we also have like an actual hotel on campus, which belongs to Cornell. So we kind of can just like put people there, which I think like, thinking back, I think it’s really nice that we had the hotel because a lot of schools weren’t able to quarantine as effectively because they had to pay for the other hotels, but like we have one so we don’t have to like pay save money. Yeah, yeah. So I feel like because they weren’t like worried about cost. It’s just like, let’s quarantine as many people as we, we need to,

Kamila
were you ever quarantine? No.

Isabell
Okay, survive the pandemic without getting COVID.

Kamila
And one more thing, like, not one more thing, but how do you I don’t know if this is just me. But like, every time I saw the news, like this was like earlier days, like, we were like at the peak of COVID. And, you know, colleges were like a mess. They were showing how like a lot of the students, the colleges weren’t even providing them like good dorms, or like food and such, and like contact and stuff like that, like the quarantine situation was bad. How was it for Cornell students?

Isabell
Well, the food definitely sucked, like, even like the quarantine food and the regular food was really bad. And I cannot explain why. Like, I don’t understand why that had to be the case. Like I truly can’t wrap my head around. Like why during a pandemic, food quality goes down. I don’t understand. But yeah, but like definitely, like, the quarantine meals, we would call them because they’re the meal that they give you during quarantine were really bad because you had to get them if you’re quarantined, like, because you had COVID You had them but also, like when we arrived on campus, we had to quarantine for a few days. And we got those meals and they were really bad. And I don’t know why

Kamila
did Cornell stay open throughout the entire pandemic?

Isabell
I was gonna say yes, but actually, no, we first semester after Thanksgiving break. We just stayed online for like two more weeks. And then so we did like the first chunk of fall semester in person like everyone on campus, but during Thanksgiving break, everyone went home and just did the rest of the semester online. But then the spring it was all all not all in person because we had online classes but like, all on campus.

Kamila
That’s great. Like, again, I introduced someone from Brown someone from Wisconsin, Madison, you know them or they were like, it was horrible how they can that’s good that your school handle it well. Okay, so one more thing I want to talk about before we wrap up here is Cornell’s I guess we can say curriculum. A lot of you know for example, Brown is absolutely like free reign there. barely had any, like core requirements or general requirements? Can you tell us about how Cornell structures, their requirements? You know, how much is there? How much freedom do you have as a student?

Isabell
Well, as an engineer, I really don’t have that much freedom, which is like, I mean, I think it’s not just the Cornell thing is like, a universal thing. Like engineering is just like a more rigorous, rigorous, rigorous, rigorous, Major. So there’s, like, in general, less freedom, but I know like a lot of my friends, that who aren’t engineers definitely, like, have more space in their schedules to just take classes they enjoy and just like random classes, and I kind of like have a little bit of that freedom because I do have to, like fulfill. It’s called the Liberal Studies requirement, which is just like, I had to take liberal arts classes just to like how like, balance out my major and I’m not just like a full stem, like some

Kamila
free does everybody have that liberal requirement? Or is it like humanities kids have like a stem requirement that they need to do?

Isabell
I think, at least for the College of Arts and Sciences, they do have like a stem requirement or not requirement, like a requirement, like, I guess, like the basic subjects. But I’m not really sure about other schools. I mean, I think they definitely do like, have, like the other colleges, I think they definitely do have like, probably like math requirements, and like, English requirements and stuff like that.

Kamila
Anything else you want to add on? I mean, because you’re only a sophomore, you don’t even you don’t really know that much. And I think you said earlier you minored in French, how did like when you minor or major in a language? What do you learn, do not just learn like the language, but the culture of the people as well.

Isabell
So for my minor, like the classes that I I’m done taking like language classes, like now I’m just taking right now taking literature boards. And I think I have like, my next class is maybe going to be like, a history course. But it’s all in French. So it’s like, like French literature in French. And then I also I’m going to study abroad. So like, that’s going to catch with my minor too. So when you study abroad, I think not spring 2022. It’s like not the spring, but next spring, spring 2023.

Kamila
Wow, that sounds so fun. isn’t like mandatory for you to study abroad. If you’re on Oh, it’s just not

Isabell
just a choice of mine. I just really want to visit France.

Kamila
Okay, so I guess we can wrap up here. Again, you’ve only been through a little bit of college and it was COVID There’s not much to share. So at the end of every episode, I do advice. So one piece of advice for high schoolers. This can be anything general life advice, something specific to the college app extracurriculars, ICT, ICT, whatever you want it to be. And then if you do have any advice for incoming college students, you can share that as well. So one for high school and if you have something for college students show that as well.

Isabell
Going for high school, definitely. Probably like I guess like in terms of like college admissions process, maybe you start looking a little, a little earlier than you think because a lot of the times you there’s some like hidden requirements that you might not know of until your senior year and it’s too late because you can’t like take the one class that you need to take or like the one test or something. And then for incoming college students definitely like plan out your major because you don’t want to like barely like not graduate because you missed this one class that you didn’t take your freshman year or something.

Kamila
Okay, so thank you for coming on Isabel. Hope you have a good evening.

Isabell
Yeah. Okay. Thank you. You too.

Kamila
Yep. Bye bye. That’s it for my interview with Isabel I hope you enjoyed and I hope you subscribe. Also, make sure to check out my blog college reality check com for more college related content. Next week I’ll be releasing an episode with Margarita from Brown University. You do not want to miss that. Hope to see you