Cornell’s regular decision admitted students screamed and jumped for joy on Thursday, as March 26 marked the release of Ivy League admissions results and a welcoming of new Cornellians.
Although Cornell decided not to release its application statistics for the Class of 2024, it informed accepted students of their opportunity to spend four years in Ithaca.
For many students, this fateful day was the climatic culmination of years of hard work and ambition. The Sun spoke with some newly admitted students who shared their experience of “Ivy Day.”
Subharghya Das, a prospective studio art major in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, said he had been determined to attend Cornell since 2014, when he visited the campus for his older brother’s graduation.
Congratulations, #Cornell2024! During this challenging time, it is especially important to celebrate major accomplishments. To that extent, we’d like to celebrate our newest Cornellians. Welcome to @Cornell and the Big Red Family! 🐾 pic.twitter.com/jKQY4muDg1
— Cornell Admissions (@CornellUAO) March 26, 2020
Das, who grew up in Kolkata, India, said he previously thought he would enter the engineering world, following the footsteps of his mom, dad and brother. But his lifelong passion for art led him to look beyond engineering, and his 2014 visit to AAP was his first glimpse into the art industry.
Das credits Cornell with giving him both “hope” and now, the opportunity, to pursue his real calling at what he called “one of the world’s best art schools.”
Originally deferred from his early decision application, Das had to wait for a regular decision notification, which he called an “absolutely nerve-wracking” experience.
The stressful anticipation of admissions decisions was exacerbated by compounding circumstances — Ivy Day was sandwiched between Das’s grade 12 board examinations and a “complete citywide COVID-19 lockdown.”
Das said he is “extremely glad that things finally worked out” and looks forward to Cornell’s beauty and the chance to join an a cappella group as a beatboxer.
“For me, Cornell most definitely lived up to its ‘any person, any study’ mission,” Das said.
Sophie Barth, a prospective psychology major in the College of Arts and Sciences from Butte, Montana, is “overjoyed” to be accepted by Cornell — her “dream school.”
“Waiting for results on Ivy Day didn’t feel real,” Barth said. “I put off checking because I knew that all of the work I had put in since August only mattered up until that moment. I had been telling myself for months that I probably wouldn’t get into any highly selective schools to prepare myself for the worst.”
However, she realized that checking her results would mean her college options would no longer be “hypothetical.” While Barth said she was nervous, she was also curious to take the plunge and find out.
Barth said touring Cornell’s campus heavily influenced her decision to attend. She toured Cornell’s campus in fall 2019 and said she could “feel a tangible sense of excitement about learning” in what “seems like a very inclusive community with a lot of interesting individual stories.”
For other students, Ivy Day yielded mixed results and new decisions to make.
Sydney Kim, a prospective student in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations from Buffalo, was offered the Transfer Option, which guarantees her a spot at Cornell for her sophomore year if she fulfills certain requirements her freshman year at another institution.
Kim initially applied early decision to Cornell and was deferred, and said she was “expecting a TO” for regular decision, making it less stressful than the wait for her ED result.
“I think I will likely take the transfer option if my other top choices, Fordham and Rice, don’t offer much financial aid,” Kim said, who is still waiting for official communication from Cornell with the terms of the TO.