Operations Research and Information Engineering - Interview with Student Ellie Perlitz

Welcome to VIEW! Voices of Incredible Engineering Women! In our first episode we explore the world of Operations Research and Information Engineering by talking with current student, Ellie Perlitz.  We discuss what ORIE is, how it is used in the world, and why it is important to study. We hear more about her journey and where ORIE is going to take Ellie in the future. Plus, we will talk with Scott Campbell, Director of Cornell Admissions about how our majors work here at Cornell and how you can use Linked In as a part of your application!

Transcript

Hi, I'm Teri Carey and welcome to VIEW, Voices of Incredible Engineering Women. Are you interested in math and science? Are you curious about the world? Are you an engineer? Well, maybe you don't know yet! The world of engineering is huge and we want girls to be included in the future of it. So grab a cup of coffee, get your curiosity going and listen in as we talk to real women studying engineering at Cornell.

We hope you enjoy our view.

Teri 

Hello, everyone. Welcome to VIEW, Voices of Incredible Engineering Women. This is so exciting to have our first episode. I'm your host, Teri Carey. I'm Assistant Director of Admissions at Cornell Engineering. A little bit about myself, I am not an engineer, but I have been reading engineering applications since 2012 and have read thousands of them. I actually have a degree in college student personnel. And basically, that means I work at a college and I help college students.

A big part of my job is to introduce engineering to women. So that is exactly what I hope to do through this podcast. Each episode, we will explore a different major here at Cornell. I'll introduce a small history about what the major is, and then we are going to bring the microphone to the female voices of Cornell engineering and talk to current students, faculty, and alums who have all studied here at Ithaca, New York. They're going to tell you their stories of how they got into engineering and why this field is worth exploring.

Finally, we will chat with our Director of Admissions, Scott Campbell, to see if he can answer some common questions we get about our program and also give us some tips on the admissions process to help take some of the stress out of it. Today, we are going to explore the world of operations research and information technology and talk to Cornell engineering student Ellie Perlitz. But before we do that, let's take a brief dive into history to set all of this up.

Cornell has been a place welcoming women since the doors opened. If you didn't know, Cornell was founded by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dixon White back in 1865. Ezra donated his farmland and his personal fortune as the initial endowment to the university and Andrew became the very first president. And when dedicating the land, Ezra famously said, "'I would found an institution where any person "'can find instruction in any study,' which is now the university motto.

And back then, this was crazy. Many colleges at this time only accepted white men. And here comes Ezra and Andrew saying, this college is for any person, including women, and they should be able to study anything, including math and science. The College of Engineering didn't come to be until 1870. And there was still a disproportionate population of men to women. But since then, Cornell has grown to reach gender parity in engineering. Okay, so now we have heard some history. Let's focus on the future, which is why we are here. 

We want you all to be a part of the future of engineering. So let's take a look at how you can join in the field of operations research and information engineering, also known as ORIE. Basically, ORIE is using data to make better decisions. It finds ways to optimize things by utilizing math models,data and statistics and to show companies and organizations how to improve their ways of doing things. They can use simulations to show what the best path forward is towards their end goal, which could be things like maximizing a profit margin, reducing risk, or minimizing the time it takes to create something. It can be used in a wide variety of sectors, anything from finance to technology, healthcare, even in disaster logistics, like how to evacuate an area when a storm is approaching.

Let's take, for example, the COVID-19 pandemic. ORIE was a fundamental tool used by Cornell University to get students, faculty, and staff back on campus. Cornell asked PhD students and faculty in the ORIE department to inform decisions about when and how to open the university again. They used data to figure out things like how much quarantine capacity they had, how to schedule classes so the classroom capacity kept everyone safe, and what mask mandates looked like to help prevent the spread of COVID. ORIE was in every fundamental decision used to make sure the campus was safe, but also operational. It gave the administration informed support on how to open the university again. So if you like math, computer science, statistics, and making decisions, then maybe you're a future operations research engineer like our first guest, Ellie Perlitz.

Ellie is a senior here at Cornell, and I loved sitting down with her to chat more about this fascinating field and her journey to Cornell. Hope you enjoy it as well.

Teri 

Hi, Ellie. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being brave and being our first guest on the episode. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Ellie Perlitz

Yeah, definitely. Thanks for having me on the podcast. My name is Ellie. I'm from Simsbury, Connecticut. I'm majoring in Operations Research and Information Engineering, otherwise known as ORIE. And I'm also minoring in Business and Data Science here at Cornell. I'm a senior this year, so I'm the class of 2024. And yeah.

Teri 

Awesome. Thank you so much again for coming. I'm also from Connecticut, so we're two nutmeggers in the engineering school.

Ellie Perlitz 

Oh really?

Teri

Very cool. So let me kind of start at the beginning. Can you remember the first time or maybe just the start of when you first learned about engineering in general? Was this in middle school and high school? What was that like when you first were exposed to engineering?

Ellie Perlitz 

Yeah, so I would say the first time that I was exposed to engineering was in middle school. So in Simsbury, they had a program called Simsbury Girls in Engineering where they would take girls from the middle school to the high school and kind of introduce the engineering program at the high school and show everyone some of the projects and the offerings at the high school. And so I would say that was my first exposure to it, but I feel like early on I had a very vague understanding of what engineering was. And I knew that it was a very technical field and that you had to be good at math and science. But until I kind of took some of those classes at the high school, I didn't really understand what it was. And so I followed the pattern of the classes that they suggested to take for someone who is interested in pursuing engineering. So those were kind of like... principles of engineering, there's aerospace engineering, and then they had this design and development class where senior year you had to work with your class to kind of build a electrical car,

Teri 

Wow.

Ellie Perlitz

which was pretty cool. And while I liked those classes, I feel like that kind of engineering wasn't necessarily what I wanted to go into. I knew that I had always really liked math and that was kind of my main thing. So I wanted to go into something that I could use those math skills and apply it, but I didn't love like that type of engineering in those classes. So yeah, 

Teri 

So you were able to kind of find a niche within engineering that wasn't necessarily like the mechanical, the civil, the that kind of thing. So is that how ORIE was introduced to you?

Ellie Perlitz 

Yeah, so I would say, so in addition to those engineering classes that I took in high school, I also took a business class and I kind of thought it would be cool to do a major where I could apply both math and business. So when I was looking into majors, I did some research on what offerings there were that combined those two skills. And one of the main majors that I found when doing some of the research was industrial engineering. So that was kind of what I started to look for when entering into the college admissions process.

Teri 

Awesome. And so I'm going to back up just a little bit. I want to go back to when you were kind of figuring it out in high school. Did you talk to your teachers and your guidance counselor and you said there was like a path that you were on? Did they identify that for you? Did you find that? How did that work?

Ellie Perlitz 

Yeah, so our high school had a program where they kind of had different paths of classes suggested for different potential career paths. So technology and engineering was one of them. And so they kind of laid out like what classes you should take freshman year, sophomore year, all the way through senior year to kind of pursue that path later in college. So I kind of just followed that path, not necessarily being super sure that I wanted to go into engineering, but I knew that it was a field that applied math. And I knew I didn't really necessarily want to major in just math. So I knew it was a good applicable field to go into. So I kind of just did the classes, but I wasn't necessarily like engineering is my passion and all that. I just kind of did the classes. So.

Teri 

Right.

Teri 

Yep.

Teri 

Yeah, you found what you were interested in, what you liked, and that was math and science, and you were kind of like, well, let's see what this can turn into and what it can lead to. Okay, so when you're thinking about the college admissions process and you were talking about industrial engineering, and we've been throwing around this world word ORIE, operations research and information engineering.

Ellie Perlitz 

Yeah.

Teri 

And we're going to get to that. I want to break that down because to be honest, I don't think many people even know that this is a field. Or maybe they kind of know it's a field, but they don't have a label for it or understand what it is. So we're going to get to that in just a moment. But I wanted to talk more about your application process because you were almost there when we were talking. Can you tell me a bit about how Cornell came into view and why you applied to Cornell, how you found Cornell?

Ellie Perlitz 

Mm-hmm

Teri 

and basically what that was like in your admissions process.

Ellie Perlitz 

Yeah, so I was exposed to Cornell pretty early on in my high school career, but it wasn't really on my radar for a long time during the actual admissions process. So how that kind of worked was during my sophomore year, my dad went to Colgate actually, so he kind of just wanted to visit. That was like the first like college visits that we did. So we went to Colgate and Cornell was really close by. So we stopped by after going to Colgate.

Teri 

Mm.

Ellie Perlitz 

And at that point, I didn't really know what I wanted to go into because it was like sophomore year of high school. 

Teri 

Oh, so you were early. That's early for a lot of people.

Ellie Perlitz

Yeah, it was very early. So later on in high school, when I kind of knew I wanted to do something related to math and business,

Teri 

Right.

Ellie Perlitz 

I, like I was saying, I was doing some research about majors and I found industrial engineering. And so I also had this idea that I wanted to go to a smaller school. So I was looking mainly at schools that were small in size and were very flexible with majors because I was pretty unsure about this whole industrial engineering thing. Like I had read about it online, but I still didn't have a great understanding of what it was. I just knew that it applied both those math and business skills.

Teri 

Yeah.

Ellie Perlitz 

So when I was looking at colleges, I was mainly focused at small schools that had engineering. And Cornell wasn't on my radar for a while because for some reason, I had the idea that it was hard to change majors because I knew you had to apply to different schools. So I thought once you applied to the engineering school,

Teri 

Right.

Ellie Perlitz 

like you were kind of stuck there in case you wanted to like change, which obviously is not true.

Teri 

Right, so you're talking about the decentralization of all of our admissions. So for those who don't know, Cornell, when you apply, you have to apply to a college. And we have eight different colleges at Cornell, and one of them is engineering. And you can only apply to one when you're a first year applicant. So when you apply, you apply to engineering, and that's where you get your admit from, not from Cornell University as a whole. So just so people understand how we work we are a little bit different than other colleges.

Ellie Perlitz 

Yeah.

Ellie Perlitz 

Yeah, so then towards the end of the process, so this was senior fall, I kind of visited Cornell pretty last minute in the process. My mom and I were just kind of like, let's go, because the last time I had went was obviously very early and I did a general Cornell tour, not like an engineering specific tour. So we went and...

Teri 

Mm-hmm.

Ellie Perlitz 

It was great and I noticed ORIE and how that seemed to align really well with what I wanted to do. And there were a ton of different things about the engineering program that really impressed me and seemed different from the other schools I'd been looking at. And it was actually the biggest school that I looked at. But I realized that I had the wrong idea about the flexibility and I was just kind of

Teri 

Mm.

Ellie Perlitz 

impressed by how many opportunities and different options there were at the school and that you have the flexibility to kind of take classes in other schools as well. So yeah, so for that, that kind of made me realize that I wanted to apply early decision to Cornell.

Teri

Yeah.

Teri 

Awesome. So you applied early decision. And early decision is different in the fact that it's obviously earlier in the admission cycle that you apply. It's November 1 is our due date. But it's also binding. So if you get in early decision, you have to come unless our financial aid package does not meet the needs of your family. So tell me about that. You're admitted into Cornell. What did you do? Did you scream and  say, woohoo, I'm so excited to go? Or are you like, okay, here we go? What was your reaction like?

Ellie Perlitz 

Mm-hmm.

Ellie Perlitz

No, yeah, I was very excited. So I remember when that whole acceptance letter came out, so I was actually working at Starbucks at the time, like after school and everything. 

Teri 

Oh cool!

Ellie Perlitz

So I remember I actually had a shift like during that period where they were sending the letters out. 

Teri 

So you had to check while you were working?

Ellie Perlitz 

So, yeah, so I remember I asked my manager to, take a break exactly at that time. I think it was seven or something. And my mom and sister came to the store. 

Teri 

That is so sweet. Oh my God.

Ellie Perlitz

And it was just so funny. Because it was funny because I had to immediately after just keep working. And I had a lot of people texting me too. So I was trying to balance making drinks and checking my phone, which was... Yeah.

Teri 

Oh.

Teri 

You gotta get your head in the game of being a barista, but at the same time, you were just admitted to Cornell!

Ellie Perlitz 

Yeah, no, yeah, so it was very exciting, but hard to like control my excitement while like having to work. So, yeah.

Teri 

Oh my gosh. Oh, that's so cool. What a cool story. 

Ellie Perlitz

Yeah

Teri

And you'll never forget that. You know exactly where you were. You'll come back and show your kids. That was the Starbucks mom was working at when I got into college. Oh, that's awesome. Okay. All right, so let's talk about what ORIE actually is. Somebody walks up to you on the street, a teenager who maybe doesn't have a background in engineering or math and science and

Teri 

They find out what your major is in college and they say, what is operations research? What is that? What would you tell them?

Ellie Perlitz (11:43.854)

Yeah, so this is a question I feel like I get a lot because it is a very confusing major. And I feel like even sometimes I'm confused about how to specifically describe it.

Teri 

Hahaha!

Ellie Perlitz

But the first way I usually describe it to people is that it's a mix of math, statistics, business, and computer science. And it is a very complex and broad major. And there's a lot of different requirements and like classes offered. But I feel like the main part of ORI is somewhat of a applied math and statistics. And I think like the computer science aspect of it, for example, is a way to kind of assist you to solve like complex problems with math and statistics. I guess that's a pretty...uh, high level, definitely a lot of math for sure.

Teri 

Yep. It's a lot of math. It sounds like it's a lot of math. 

Ellie Perlitz

Definietly a lot of math for sure

Teri

So can you give me a concrete career in what ORIE would bring you into? I have heard, and this is me not being an engineer on the outside, I have heard there's actually a lot of different spaces you can be in with this. It could be anywhere from planning out how a theme park is laid out. Disney, I think, uses a lot of operations research.

Ellie Perlitz

Mm-hmm.

Teri 

Or it could be like Amazon getting a package from A to Z. And so tell me like a concrete like this is what a job would be if you majored in ORIE.

Ellie Perlitz 

So yeah, I think the special thing about ORIE is that there isn't necessarily a concrete job that you go into right after. So I think you can pretty much go into any industry with this major and there's a lot of different problems that can be solved using ORIE techniques. One of the biggest parts of ORIE is optimization, which is kind of...

Teri 

Mmm.

Ellie Perlitz 

It uses something called linear programming and that's kind of like solving problems like maximize this, like maximize profit or minimize something.

Teri 

So your business minor comes in with this a lot, right? Because it sounds to me like these words, optimizing profit, that's to me sounds like a business spin on it. Is that something that you've seen or interested in?

Ellie Perlitz 

Yeah, so I think that you can definitely go into that like business side, like financial area. I think you could also go into tech companies, do that kind of thing. And I think logistics is a huge thing too, like supply chain. And I'm in a consulting class right now, which is an ORIE class. And so I think there's just so many different ways to apply it.

Teri 

Mmm.

Teri 

Yeah.

Ellie Perlitz 

Um, like you have to take an accounting class, you have to take computer science classes, you have to take data science, you have to take, uh, multiple statistics classes and probability. So I think it's just kind of one of those things where it's so broad. There's so many different places you can apply it.

Teri 

That's awesome. And that's what you were looking for, right? You wanted that flexibility of what you were going into to be something that can be applied to many different things. 

Ellie Perlitz 

Yes.

Teri

Awesome. OK. So now that we know what ORIE is, tell me about your favorite class that you have taken in ORIE.

Ellie Perlitz 

Yes, definitely.

Ellie Perlitz 

Yeah, so I would say my favorite ORIE class was probably ORIE 3120, which was the Data Science and Machine Learning for Operations Research class. And that was one of the, that was the first main ORIE class I think you had to take. So other than the introduction one. And this class was my favorite, I think, because it was the first time I was introduced to the concept of data science and machine learning.

Teri 

Mm-hmm.

Ellie Perlitz 

And it was a very collaborative class too, which was different from some of the other classes I had taken because there was an engineering communications class that was attached onto it. And I think it was cool to be able to understand how to manipulate and analyze data in a way to be able to create visuals and like interpret results and communicate certain solutions. So at the end of the class, there was a final presentation or final project where we were able to work with a group. And I really enjoyed being able to collaborate on a project with people and we got to choose the topic as well. So it was very applicable and I could totally see how...it could be used in a real job. And I thought it was cool to be able to like learn about data science.

Teri 

Oh, that's so cool.

Teri 

Yeah, we're big on collaboration here at Cornell. That's a huge thing for us. We want the students to work together. There's a lot of opportunities for that. And it's cool that you do it in your actual classroom

Ellie Perlitz

Yeah.

Teri

as a part of your fundamental learning, right? 

Ellie Perlitz 

MM Hmm

Teri 

Awesome ok, So talking about collaboration in your class, there's also a lot of other opportunities for collaboration outside of the classroom. And one of those here at Cornell is project teams and research and working with faculty. Can you tell me about an experience that you've had with a project team or any of those topics here at Cornell?

Ellie Perlitz 

Yeah, so I was able to join one project team actually for much of my time here. So I'm on a project team called Hyperloop and I've been on the business team for that. And Hyperloop has been a great experience to be able to get some leadership skills. I was the business team lead last year. So that was a great experience. And it's also...

Teri 

What does Hyperloop do? Can you tell me the main goal of what Hyperloop is?

Ellie Perlitz

Yeah, so Hyperloop is mainly a project team for like mechanical engineers and electrical engineers. So the business team is pretty separate from that, but we like work with them to kind of get the parts they need and stuff like that and broadcast and use social media and everything. So Hyperloop is it's kind of a frictionless form of transportation that it's kind of on a track and it just goes at speeds that are way faster. Yeah, there's like a

Teri 

Does it use magnets? Is that how it works?

Ellie Perlitz 

There is like a magnetics team also, and yeah, so it's kind of this, I guess the high level overview is that it's a new form of transportation that's, more sustainable and more, and faster.

Teri

Right.

Yep. Cool. So you're working with people outside of your major, obviously, across the Cornell Engineering College. Is it also across Cornell University? Are there people who are not in engineering on this team?

Ellie Perlitz 

Yeah, so on the business team especially, there's people that are in Dyson, the business school, and other schools too. Anyone can pretty much get involved in the business team. I think there's some more requirements for getting into the electrical and mechanical engineering or the computer science. But yeah, project teams take majors all over the university. So it's a really cool way to get involved.

Teri 

Yep.

Teri 

Awesome. And so have you enjoyed the project team experience? You said you got some leadership skills out of it. You're working with people from all over the university. 

Ellie Perlitz 

Yeah, so yeah, it's been a great experience. So yeah, I was the business team lead last year, but I handed it over this year. So now I'm kind of just advising the team lead, but. Ha ha ha.

Teri 

It's not just advising, you are helping them out in ways that they probably really need. So that's awesome.

Ellie Perlitz 

Yeah, so it's definitely been a great experience to get involved. And I kind of always wanted to join a project team and get involved that way because I had seen that through the admissions process and freshman year as well. So yeah, it's been a good experience.

Teri 

Right.

Teri 

Very cool.

Awesome. All right, What is it like to be a woman in engineering? Have you encountered anything that you think maybe your male peers have not had to deal with, have not had to think about? Or do you feel like it's something you don't realize or notice? I know that Cornell engineering has gender parity, which means that 50% of our undergraduate students are women. But that doesn't necessarily mean that you don't experience something differently than your male peers. So can you speak to that a little bit, whether it's at Cornell or in high school or in other experiences just being in the field?

Ellie Perlitz 

Yeah, so honestly, this is not something that I think about at all here at Cornell. And that was one of the main things that appealed to me when applying, because I noticed there was over a little over 50% women in engineering and a lot of the other schools I was applying to did not have anywhere close to that percentage. And I had also like heard about things that potentially go on within engineering schools and I did not hear anything about that here. And yeah, I've never had anyone feel like I couldn't do something because I'm a woman or I've never had issues on group projects.

Teri 

You felt included.

Ellie Perlitz

And I know I can't speak for all the majors, but I've never heard anyone in ORIE having any issue with that at all. And in high school, I didn't necessarily have an issue with this either, but it definitely was more of an imbalance. I remember in one of my engineering classes, I was the only girl in the class. And I did have some friends that were also doing engineering classes at different times. So I did have other women involved too, but it was definitely an imbalance. So it was really amazing to come to Cornell where there was none of that.

Teri 

where you see people who look like you, right? That are, it's like, okay, this isn't weird that I'm the only girl in here. Why do I feel different? Like, why am I not around people who look like me? Well, I'm really glad to hear your experience is positive in that aspect of it. So what about outside of academics? What else do you do at Cornell for fun?

Ellie Perlitz 

Yeah, so outside of academics, I'm in a social sorority, which has been amazing. I've met so many great people through that. And there's a lot of events and stuff like that I've been able to take advantage of. Other than that, I'm on a dance team called Bass Productions, which is really fun. It's a pretty casual dance team. It's nothing too serious, but.

Teri 

Cool.

Ellie Perlitz 

We have a show every year at State Theater in the Commons. And it's just a really fun way to kind of like take a break from school. And also I've met some great people there. So yeah, that's really fun. And I like to explore Ithaca, go to the gym, that kind of thing. I love Gimme Coffee. That's my favorite coffee spot in Ithaca.

Teri 

Yeah.

Teri 

Mmmm

Ellie Perlitz (26:18.083)

So yeah, I would say that school does take up a significant amount of time here and there is a lot of homework, but I have not had an issue with finding time to also have fun and spend time with friends too.

Teri 

Awesome.

Teri 

Yeah.

Teri 

Right. Yeah, you still are able to be social and enjoy the dance team. That's so cool. Okay, so what is your plan for when you graduate? Where is ORIE going to take you? You're a senior, What is your plan after you're done?

Ellie Perlitz 

Mm-hmm

Ellie Perlitz 

Yeah, so actually this summer I interned in Cincinnati at Procter & Gamble and I'm planning to go back there next year. 

Teri 

So they hired you.

Ellie Perlitz

So yes, yes, I'm all set and so

Teri 

Amazing, you are an engineer. Ha ha ha.

Ellie Perlitz 

I'm very excited about that. And this role was very data science machine learning heavy, I would say, but it also used the business aspect of it too. So I'm excited to be able to apply the technical skills I've learned, but also in a setting where I can kind of help a company grow. So I'm excited about that for sure. Thank you. Yes, definitely.

Teri 

Congratulations. That's amazing. That must feel so good to like, you still have to work hard.

Ellie Perlitz

Yes.

Teri

You gotta get through your last senior year, but a little bit of pressure is off because you've got an end goal there. Awesome. All right. So what do you find inspirational or hopeful about being an engineer in our world today? It's definitely something we need. It's a continuously growing field. We're always going to need engineers. We're going to need even more in the future. So what do you find in that as being inspiring to be an engineer.

Ellie Perlitz 

Yeah, so I think what's inspiring about being an engineer is, like you said, it's growing so much and there's so many different areas you could go into. And I think even with the inclusion of AI now, like everything is kind of changing. And I just feel like the opportunities are almost endless with like what I could do with it. And so yeah, I'm excited to see kind of where my career takes me, and see how like some of the skills I've learned can be applied in different and possibly unexpected areas.

Teri 

Cool. All right, here's our final question for you. What is your view of engineering? And how have you used your voice in this field? Are you happy that you invested your time and your money into studying this?

Ellie Perlitz 

Yeah, so I think that I'm very happy that I made this decision to go into engineering. I think ORIE was something that I had no idea, or I didn't know anything about it. I'm really happy that I continued with that kind of math and applied math progression to become an engineer. I wouldn't say I've been able to use my voice too much in the field yet because I'm still a student. This is a good way to do it here on this podcast. 

Teri

That's right we are so happy you did!

Ellie Perlitz

But yes, I'm very happy that I chose to go into engineering. I think there's a lot of opportunities in terms of finding a job. So overall, I am very grateful and happy that I decided to take the engineering path. And I think there are a lot of opportunities in my future.

Teri 

Awesome. I am so glad that you were introduced to engineering. I think that the ORIE field is better for having you in it. I'm so glad that you're a part of it. And thank you so much for being brave enough to come on this podcast as our very first guest and lending your voice and your experience to helping other girls and women find out more about engineering, but also specifically operations research engineering. And best of luck with the rest of your senior year.

Ellie Perlitz 

Thank you and thank you for having me.

Teri 

Of course.

Teri 

Okay, let's turn a bit here and introduce our final segment of this podcast. This portion of the show, we are going to discuss our engineering program more specifically by answering a common question we get in the office. And then we will give some advice on the admissions process and who better to help us out than our director of admissions, Scott Campbell. Welcome, Scott. Thank you so much for being a part of this.

Scott 

Hey Teri, it's good to be here. Thanks for having me.

Teri 

Awesome. Can you tell us a little bit about your background in admissions?

Scott 

Sure, so I started in the engineering admissions office at Cornell University in 1997. So I've been off and on for, you know, a period of time between 97 and now, managing or working in the engineering admissions office here at Cornell.

Teri 

So you have read thousands of applications, you've met with thousands of students, you've visited many, many schools across the country, so you have a lot of experience in admissions.

Scott 

That is true. I've seen, yeah, exactly that. I've met a lot of students, had that really great fortune of visiting a lot of wonderful high schools and really building a community of engineering students here at Cornell University.

Teri 

So the question I have for you today is, how do majors work here at Cornell Engineering? Are they capped or have a limited amount of spaces for students? Do you declare your major right away coming in as, for example, a civil engineering student or does that take some time?

Scott 

Oh yeah, okay, dynamite question. It's one that we hear a lot. It's a space where Cornell Engineering's maybe a little bit unique in terms of national engineering programs. So Cornell has 14 undergraduate engineering majors available through our College of Engineering. It's one of the deepest undergraduate engineering curriculums that you'll find anywhere. For students that apply to the College of Engineering and enroll in the College of Engineering, they'll walk through the door for their first year with us 

as Cornell engineers, which functionally means that they're not actually entering a major within the College of Engineering. They're entering the College of Engineering as a just an engineering student at Cornell. It's not until the fall or sometimes even the spring semester of their second year with us where they'll declare their engineering major, we call it affiliation, but they'll essentially declare their engineering major. From that point forward, they're in a department, they're in a major in that department and they're working their way through the degree requirements to get the Bachelor of Science degree for that major. What that means from a functional standpoint is that students have the opportunity to come in and for their first year and a half really explore what these different engineering majors mean and then find one that really fits what they're passionate about and what they're interested in actually studying or doing professionally once they graduate from the College of Engineering.

Teri 

And so also, there's no caps, right? So when a student comes in, they aren't pressured to think, like, oh, everyone is going to be going for computer science. Is there going to be space for me? But here at Cornell Engineering, that's not the case, right?

Scott 

Yeah, that's correct. That's really important to note. We don't have numerical caps on any of our majors. If students meet the prerequisite course requirements and the GPA threshold requirements, which range something from like a 2.7 to a 3.1, depending on the major students are interested in, they're in the major. They basically have access to what they're interested in and what they want to study. And that's really important. We don't want to numerically cut off student interests. We want to promote student interests and we want students really being able to enroll in majors that they're really super interested in and super passionate about. So we do not have caps on any of our engineering majors.

Teri 

So yeah, that's wonderful, the fact that students can come in, explore what they do like, explore what they do not like, and then affiliate with a major and find their community here and go towards their Bachelor of Science. So thank you for that. That's a wonderful explanation, and I hope it'll help a lot of people figure out the major process here at Cornell Engineering. So now, what did you bring us today for an admissions tip?

Scott 

who I have a really kind of fun and I'll call it a juicy admissions tip. And that is, yeah, for the last couple of years, I've seen really just a handful, not many, of our engineering applicants who are using LinkedIn to sort of curate and build out information about themselves that we can't find elsewhere in the common application. I've just, I've seen those LinkedIn webpages and I've thought they're really strategic and they're really clever.

So for students that are interested in doing that, it's really, I think, pretty easy to do. There's a wonderful website called LinkedIn Profile Tips for High School Students that gives baseline instructions on how to do it. And what we see for the students who have done it is they can insert their little LinkedIn link into the common application and the supplemental materials section. And then we all read electronically. So we're looking at applications using monitors and it's super easy for us to just click on a LinkedIn webpage and then the student is essentially there and more of a 3D image for us. We can learn more about the student and they can curate information about themselves that they feel is really important to be in the application. So LinkedIn is sort of a hidden little gem that I don't think many people are utilizing but I think it has some power behind it and it can really be effective.

Teri 

Yeah, I don't think I have seen a LinkedIn link in any of the applications that I've read. I've seen websites with portfolios and papers that students have helped write, but that's really unique. I think that'll be really helpful to a lot of students because I have not come across that yet.

Scott 

You have one shot at the application. And so you want to really provide information that you think gives a really good image of who you are, what your aspirations are, what you're passionate about, what you've done, and what you're really interested in. So this offers an opportunity to do that pretty efficiently.

Teri 

Awesome. Thank you so much, Scott. That's a wonderful admissions tip. Well, thank you so much for talking to us about these admissions topics. I hope people found it helpful and we hope to answer more questions in the future. Wooo, we did it. Our first episode is in the books. I want to thank our student, Ellie Perlitz, for helping us understand operations research engineering. Thank you, Scott, for bringing us some great admissions information and thank all of you for joining us.

I hope you learned something and maybe that was that you're an engineer. See you next time on VIEW!

VIEW Voices of Incredible Engineering Women is a podcast produced and written by the Cornell Engineering Admissions Office.  Please remember to like, subscribe, and share our podcast and help us bring Engineering to the ears of young women everywhere! To find out more information about our podcast or about Cornell Engineering please visit our website https://visit.engineering.cornell.edu/