Cornell NROTC

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LakeErie69

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Can anyone on here speak on behalf of the NROTC unit at Cornell University? I was recently awarded the NROTC scholarship and am just seeking some further thought on it. Will receiving this scholarship have any positive impact on my admission to the university? Between here and USNA, I will have a tough decision to make.
 
LakeErie69 said:
Can anyone on here speak on behalf of the NROTC unit at Cornell University? I was recently awarded the NROTC scholarship and am just seeking some further thought on it. Will receiving this scholarship have any positive impact on my admission to the university? Between here and USNA, I will have a tough decision to make.
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I can't speak for the unit, although I'm confident it's excellent. If you like walking up and down steep hills while enjoying beautiful views of Cayuga Lake, you'll love Cornell. Ithaca is a fairly small college town/city whose main industries are education, seasonal tourism, wine-making, and imbibing of same. :biggrin:
 
I was awarded an NROTC scholarship to Cornell last year. The admissions process is independent of any ROTC, so it won't have any positive impact. However, since Cornell is a difficult school to get scholarship to, it helps you out in that it's much easier to transfer your scholarship to another school in the situation that you don't get accepted into Cornell.
 
awl13188 said:
since Cornell is a difficult school to get scholarship to, it helps you out in that it's much easier to transfer your scholarship to another school in the situation that you don't get accepted into Cornell.
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I don't get that. If it is easier for Battalions at less academically hyper-selective schools to fill up their annual scholarship allocation (because the Awardees DID get in through Admissions), wouldn't it make sense to list an easier admissions school as #1 on the AROTC application, with Cornell down the list, than vice versa?

For example, I would think it would be easier to transfer a Scholarship Award from, say, Fordham to Cornell, than vice versa. On April 2, 2014, the Fordham Battalion will likely have been filled in late February, (and therefore wouldn't be able to budget for the transfer), whereas the Cornell Battalion might have unfilled spots (from Scholarship Awardees who didn't make it in through Admissions) and quickly approve the transfer of the Award originally for use at Fordham, to Cornell.
 
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kinnem said:
I can't speak for the unit, although I'm confident it's excellent. If you like walking up and down steep hills while enjoying beautiful views of Cayuga Lake, you'll love Cornell. Ithaca is a fairly small college town/city whose main industries are education, seasonal tourism, wine-making, and imbibing of same. :biggrin:
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I know I will love the location in the event that I go there!
 
awl13188 said:
I was awarded an NROTC scholarship to Cornell last year. The admissions process is independent of any ROTC, so it won't have any positive impact. However, since Cornell is a difficult school to get scholarship to, it helps you out in that it's much easier to transfer your scholarship to another school in the situation that you don't get accepted into Cornell.
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Were you accepted into Cornell? I see what you're coming from in that it will be easier to transfer the scholarship elsewhere since Cornell was my most difficult to get into college on my list. It does make sense however what the other poster below has stated too, that by the time I may have to transfer the scholarship, the units elsewhere may be filled up by then. If anyone has any further insight on such situation it would be greatly appreciated.
 
LakeErie69 said:
Were you accepted into Cornell? I see what you're coming from in that it will be easier to transfer the scholarship elsewhere since Cornell was my most difficult to get into college on my list. It does make sense however what the other poster below has stated too, that by the time I may have to transfer the scholarship, the units elsewhere may be filled up by then. If anyone has any further insight on such situation it would be greatly appreciated.
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Methinks you should simply plan on it being difficult to transfer the scholarship and do anything you can to get the best possible package in front of Cornell admissions. Hopefully you will get accepted there. If you also get accepted to USNA you will have a difficult decision to make. I would envy you for having that problem.

One thing you can do is inform Cornell admissions of your NROTC scholarship. It may have no impact. However, if they realize they won't need to award any financial aid for you to attend, leaving those dollars for someone else, it might possibly make a difference. But then I don't sit on any admissions board so I'm just guessing. I'm assuming, of course, that your application to Cornell is already complete. (Right?)
 
awl13188 said:
I was awarded an NROTC scholarship to Cornell last year. The admissions process is independent of any ROTC, so it won't have any positive impact. However, since Cornell is a difficult school to get scholarship to, it helps you out in that it's much easier to transfer your scholarship to another school in the situation that you don't get accepted into Cornell.
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This is incorrect information, with the exception of admissions being an independent process.
 
P-Flying17 can correct any errors, but here are my thoughts.

All of the Ivy League schools consider the same three things NROTC does when selecting students for admission; they just have a different weighting process.

Academics: Surprising enough, this is a pass/fail. GPA, board scores, and class rank via high school rank. The colleges keep a data base on high schools. The higher the school rank, the lower the acceptable class ranking. 1500+ SAT (Math and Eng), 34 ACT, 3.9+ UW GPA, top 10% are all minimums. Everyone has heard of people with less, but they were probably an All-American athlete.

EC's: If you received an NROTC scholarship, you should have enough of these for a top 25 school, but possibly not a top ten.

Other: What makes you a top 1%er or what will you bring to the campus that they don't already have? Some people call this the hook. Athletes, concert level musicians, national science contest winners are examples.
I wouldn't call NROTC a hook, but it is a huge tie breaker. It is larger at some schools than others. If you are competitive it can make a difference.
 
Cornell ROTC

kinnem said:
Methinks you should simply plan on it being difficult to transfer the scholarship and do anything you can to get the best possible package in front of Cornell admissions. Hopefully you will get accepted there. If you also get accepted to USNA you will have a difficult decision to make. I would envy you for having that problem.

One thing you can do is inform Cornell admissions of your NROTC scholarship. It may have no impact. However, if they realize they won't need to award any financial aid for you to attend, leaving those dollars for someone else, it might possibly make a difference. But then I don't sit on any admissions board so I'm just guessing. I'm assuming, of course, that your application to Cornell is already complete. (Right?)
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The fact that Cornell "won't need to award any financial aid" will not make a difference - Cornell, like all of the Ivys, is completely need-blind (meaning that they will not allow the admissions committees to even know if you are applying for aid in making an admissions decision) - a policy that the Ivys take quite seriously. The scholarship will have zero bearing on the admissions decision, and even the cadre will tell you they have no pull with admissions. Only 3 scholarships enrolled this past year as freshman, and there are only 3 seniors graduating in May. Cornell has a very small but tight-knit NROTC unit that is very proud of being one of the toughest ROTC units around, but they are also very supportive. By the way, of the 3 graduating seniors, two got flight school and the other got SEALs - and one of the flight school guys DIDN'T EVEN REQUEST IT. That's the kind of respect this unit has. But you better like to run!
 
LakeErie69 said:
Were you accepted into Cornell? I see what you're coming from in that it will be easier to transfer the scholarship elsewhere since Cornell was my most difficult to get into college on my list. It does make sense however what the other poster below has stated too, that by the time I may have to transfer the scholarship, the units elsewhere may be filled up by then. If anyone has any further insight on such situation it would be greatly appreciated.
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I was not accepted into Cornell. I apologize if my information is wrong, but that's what I was told by my NROTC recruiters and I also had zero problems transferring my scholarship to less selective schools after not being accepted. I can relate to your situation between choosing ROTC and a Service Academy because I was in it myself; I ended up electing the latter option.
 
Sorry for my delayed response, I've been without power for several days from Sandy.

I talked to my regional coordinator the other day and he told me that it should not be too difficult to switch my NROTC scholarship to my #2 choice, which is a state school. This being in the event that I'm not accepted into Cornell. I will just have to wait and see what happens. I'm submitting my Cornell application in the next few days, so then I will just have to wait it out. Hopefully it all ends in deciding between Cornell and NROTC or USNA.
 
LakeErie69 said:
Were you accepted into Cornell? I see what you're coming from in that it will be easier to transfer the scholarship elsewhere since Cornell was my most difficult to get into college on my list. It does make sense however what the other poster below has stated too, that by the time I may have to transfer the scholarship, the units elsewhere may be filled up by then. If anyone has any further insight on such situation it would be greatly appreciated.
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With "Lake Erie" in your user name perhaps you are form NY. If that is the case, have you thought about applying to one of the 3 land grant colleges within Cornell? I have heard, though you would want to verify, that the admissions' statistics are more favorable for those schools. Those colleges are Agriculture & Life Sciences, Human Ecology, and Industrial and Labor Relations.
 
jocomom said:
With "Lake Erie" in your user name perhaps you are form NY. If that is the case, have you thought about applying to one of the 3 land grant colleges within Cornell? I have heard, though you would want to verify, that the admissions' statistics are more favorable for those schools. Those colleges are Agriculture & Life Sciences, Human Ecology, and Industrial and Labor Relations.
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Nope, from Ohio unfortunately. My family does have a lake house on one of the Finger Lakes in NY, but I don't think that will qualify me for "in-state" residence.
 
Have you met or spoke with the Cornell NROTC unit regarding your interest in their unit and Cornell? Back in 2008 my son was very interested in Cornell and we met with the unit commander and officers. They were very excited to meet a potential qualified candidate and instructed us that unlike other Ivy's they had a relationship with admissions and volunteered to personally shepherd his application into admissions.
He was admitted to Cornell... though he ultimately chose to attend another Ivy.
My son will graduate and be commissioned this coming May 2013.
Best of luck!
 
Ivydad said:
Have you met or spoke with the Cornell NROTC unit regarding your interest in their unit and Cornell? Back in 2008 my son was very interested in Cornell and we met with the unit commander and officers. They were very excited to meet a potential qualified candidate and instructed us that unlike other Ivy's they had a relationship with admissions and volunteered to personally shepherd his application into admissions.
He was admitted to Cornell... though he ultimately chose to attend another Ivy.
My son will graduate and be commissioned this coming May 2013.
Best of luck!
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I have not yet. It might be in my best interest to do so. Thank you for the idea!
 
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