Long-time lurker here. I think this "shortlist" may be pretty long ...... It could be very likely that they had removed only those with very low GPAs or TOEFL scores (given GRE is not required this time) by early January, which means there were still many applicants in the shortlist. If they had had a pretty short shortlist, Cornell would have released their first round of admission offers by late January or early February instead of keeping the applicants waiting till now.