Watch the moment a high schooler gets accepted to Cornell

‘I was in shock and didn’t know what to do’

Marigot Fackenthal, a high school senior from Sacramento, recently got into the school of her dreams – she won early acceptance to Cornell.

Her reaction was posted in a video that perfectly captures the moment we found out we would be going to Cornell, as her classmates scream around her.

As a freshman at Cornell, I spoke to Marigot about how excited she is to join the Class of 2021 this fall.

How did you react getting in?

I was at school in one of the English classrooms at the time. My reaction was actually pretty tame, but mostly because I was in shock and didn’t know what to do. Then these other random kids in the classroom started yelling and congratulating me. Actually, there is a video.

Why Cornell?

Lots of reasons. Firstly, their engineering program is one of the best, specifically the mechanical and aerospace engineering. Like there’s an entire school dedicated to just MAE, and the classes are all set up already – I don’t have to do a double major or something, I can just follow the track and do mechanical engineering with an aerospace focus. It’s clear that there was a lot of thought put into the classes at the Sibley School, so I don’t need to worry about not taking the right ones.

Secondly, there are lots of amazing extracurricular opportunities like Cornell’s project teams (I really want to join CUAir or the Cornell Rocketry team). Plus, there are so many research and internship opportunities that are very undergraduate-focused. At other schools I was looking at, like Stanford and MIT, there are those opportunities, but they are a lot more focused on graduate students. Third, I like secluded areas, not places like MIT and Harvard where you’re not really sure where the school stops and the city starts. At Cornell it’s pretty obvious – it’s literally on top of a hill. I like that it is separated.

You are going to like living on North Campus as a freshman. It’s the top of the hill.

Yeah. Also, I love the campus in general. It is the least important of my reasons for choosing Cornell, but it’s beautiful, and the engineering quad is so nice. All the other schools that I visited except MIT had practical but ugly engineering buildings. It just kinda shows Cornell puts effort into the engineering department.

What are you nervous about?

Oversleeping. I have a habit of sleeping through all of my 11 alarms. I need to get a roommate who will wake me up.

Anything else?

Not in particular. I’m just super super excited. I wish I could go right now.

What was your Common App essay about?

It was kinda complicated. The beginning was about saving a spider, and then it transitioned into astronomy and how my studying astronomy has shaped the way I think.

That’s beautiful.

I tried.

Did you apply anywhere else?

Nope. Cornell was my only school.

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