<p>Other than tuition, of course!!!</p>
<p>I just wondered if there are major differences between the endowed and contract colleges. Are there separate dorms/buildings....are they "less?"</p>
<p>Is a degree from a contract college considered not as valuable?</p>
<p>Can you take courses in other colleges? (I don't know if any one can.)</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>My D is enrolled in HumEc - She rooms with other Freshman on north campus. The college - like many other others on campus - is undergoing major renovations/additions and already is quite amazing. She shares libraries, museums, dining and athletic facilities with everybody else. I believe her diploma will be from Cornell University. I imagine it will be as valuable as she cares to make it. She is currently taking 3 courses in A &S - 2 in HumEc. Next semester, at least one course will be in Industrial and Labor Relations.</p>
<p>Each of the seven undergraduate colleges is distinct. They each have their own courses, curricula, programs of study, majors, professors, course requirements, major requirements, etc. They each have a cerain # courses that must be taken at their own particular college, the rest can be taken at other colleges, including other colleges at Cornell.</p>
<p>The colleges do have their own buildings.</p>
<p>None of the seven are the same. Graduates of each will have taken many substantially different courses, with different classmates, taught by different faculty. With much overlap, however, as there are many free electives that can be taken at other colleges, and some university-wide requirements and some intro “service courses” given in CAS to all. But still, there are substantial differences, particularly as one gets in the major. </p>
<p>Whether one is “less” or “less valuable” is up to the opinion of the evaluator, and the context. Just as if one evaluates any other two different colleges. But the colleges are not all the same.</p>
<p>Students of the various colleges share non-academic facilities and housing. And yes libraries, though actually various colleges have their own.</p>
<p>And there are some exceptions to the above (eg biology major).</p>
<p>My diplomas are from the University; however the particular college can be readily discerned by the degree and the major.</p>
<p>People inside the university are well aware of the differences between the colleges. As for people outside, I imagine their familiarity varies.</p>
<p>The main point is, although they are not the same, and all are set up to do different things, each of them is great at what it does.</p>
<p>Separate buildings only due to the fact that all the colleges need separate buildings to hold classrooms and facilities (endowed colleges like CAS, Engineering, and Hotel have separate buildings too!). The degree is from Cornell University and it doesn’t even say the individual college/school’s name on it. Nobody is going to judge based on that besides people like Ann Coulter ([AnnCoulter.com</a> - Archived Article: OLBERMANN’S PLASTIC IVY](<a href=“http://www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/article.cgi?article=300]AnnCoulter.com”>http://www.anncoulter.com/cgi-local/article.cgi?article=300) not dissing the politics, I actually agree with her on a lot of stuff AND I think Olbermann does suck, but for different reasons) and everyone in the Cornell/common sense community totally went off on her for a failure to understand what the different colleges at Cornell are all about (odd, considering she went there for 4 years). Yes, you can DEFINITELY take courses in other colleges and will have to (I’d be a little worried if the Hotel School was teaching me English or Engineering was covering history classes). In fact, you can even minor or double major in other colleges if your college allows it (the one I’m looking at, ILR, allows you to minor in certain areas across other colleges). The FinAid policies are the same (unless your a NYer who gets that reduced tuition, but you still get 100% need met, need blind, blah blah blah).</p>
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<p>Not trying to nit pick, but the signature of the Dean of your college appears on the bottom of the diploma :)</p>
<p>Going along with the other posts here, there are some idiots who think the contract colleges are “less” than the endowed colleges but those people are few and far between. </p>
<p>Yes, you can take courses in other colleges. Although I was a Biology and Society major in CALS, I took a lot of courses through CAS.</p>
<p>Although I’ve only been in the “adult world” for a little over a year, I’ve interacted on a professional level with many scientists and (for those who are actually familiar with Cornell’s colleges) didn’t care that I attended one of the contract colleges.</p>
<p>Okay, Dewdrop, sorry about that. Still, it’s not as if your diploma is like “SUNY Human Ecology at Ithaca” which is what some people make the whole thing out to be.</p>
<p>while reply #3 is technical correct I think it might give an impression of differences unique to Cornell … the descriptions in #3 are true of virtual any university with multiple colleges. Same info presented in a different way</p>
<ul>
<li>Cornell students from all colleges share dorms</li>
<li>Cornell students share dining facilities</li>
<li>Cornell students share libraries (specific libraries have different focuses but for the most part undergrads can use any of the undergrad pibraries)</li>
<li>Cornell students share athletic facilities and student unions</li>
<li>Cornell students can take courses across colleges … typically without any special permission</li>
<li>Cornell students in particular majors will take classes in that major which will be for the most part in buildings within that college </li>
<li>The various buildings within a college tend to grouped (there is the Arts quad and the Agriculture quad, for example) … however these are all integrated into the same overall campus … it’s not like each college has it’s own seperate campus.</li>
</ul>
<p>As a Cornell grad the only way I think the contract schools effect Cornell differently than other multi-college universities is given the cheaper in-state tuition at the contract schools the result is a higher % of NY students in the contract schools than the non-contract schools … which makes for a tad less geographic diversity in the majors in the contract schools (which are still pretty geographic diverse).</p>
<p>I agree that it’s not any different than at the other multi-college universities I’m familiar with, didn’t mean to give that impression. </p>
<p>“integration in same overall campus”: well, that’s an interpretation, there are distinct quads for some of the colleges which can be pretty darned separate. To an extent I felt like it was, actually, almost like some of them had their own separate campus, to a substantial degree. I still don’t know what some of the ag quad buildings are for, barely went up there. I bet plenty of people never set foot in the engineering quad. Again, such degree of separation is similar, and actually even more pronounced, at the other multi-college universities I’m familiar with…</p>
<p>re: #5, I didn’t realize it before, but looking at the one diploma I can find now
, you’re right, a dean signed it. Wattya know. However, it doesn’t even identify what college that dean was the dean of. It just says “dean”. Sort of odd. The college is not identified at all on the diploma. Though it is obvious by the degree.</p>
<p>upon further investigation, evidently that person who signed my diploma was the dean of the graduate school. I didn’t even realize the graduate school had its own dean, distinct from the individual colleges. But it just says “dean”, without saying “graduate school”.</p>
<p>I can’t find my undergrad diploma now, I just assumed the other diplomas were just the same . But evidently not. Looking on-line, it seems that the undergrad college is identified under the dean signature on the undergrad diplomas.</p>
<p>As a current student, I can speak on behalf of most of the student body here in that NO ONE CARES whether your college is endowed or contract. Most people can’t even name all 7 undergrad colleges let alone what type they are. The most important thing is that we’re here for a Cornell education. It is 100% inconceivable to me that anyone would ridicule/belittle you if you attended a contract school. </p>
<p>Now speaking as a student employee, there are slight nuisances in terms of outreach efforts. ILR and CALs have a lot of applied research they direct back to NY State, but that’s related more to professors.</p>
<p>“Most people can’t even name all 7 undergrad colleges let alone what type they are.”</p>
<p>If that’s indeed the case currently, then things are a bit different than when I attended. But then I am of the Coulter-Olbermann era. While the extent of Coulter’s expressed view was not highly representative of that era either, back then nobody used the term “contract colleges”, the relation with SUNY was more prominently highlighted, and freshman entrance stats were all broken out separately by college in the college guide books of the day, not aggregated. And perhaps those stats were more disparate then than currently, not sure. All college-bound New Yorkers were certainly aware, for one thing there were separate NYS regents scholarships available only to those attending Cornell’s SUNY-affiliated colleges .</p>
<p>Even if things have changed this drastically on campus now, many employers are of my era, which could theoretically enter into the original “value of degree” question. But again, even back then, each of the colleges, while different, were known to be great at what they did. Which also enters in.</p>
<p>They are, and were, all considered “good schools”, by most reasonable standards, in any event, by most evaluators I imagine. Yet, to the original question, there are actual differences, hence one cannot rule out the possibility that at least some evaluators may recognize these actual differences. How this translates into any global “difference in value”, would be hard to determine, and depend on many things.</p>
<p>Quite honestly none of my friends here care which college we’re in. Unless you’re an AAP, then we crack jokes. But that’s just because, and even then it’s all in good fun.</p>
<p>I think the issue is way overblown. It doesn’t even say which college you were in on your degree. Ok, the dean’s signature is different. Who’s really going to look that close…</p>
<p>As far as the Ann Coulter thing, she’s just a tool. I now understand why a guy I knew hacked into her website a few years back when she made some anti-semitic remarks or something. What an idiot.</p>
<p>Well, monydad, I have a hard time feeling like the contract college’s can be looked down upon by anyone… At least Human Ecology. You posted admission stats from all colleges a few days ago, and Human Ecology had the highest entering SAT scores, much higher than CAS.</p>
<p>“I have a hard time feeling like the contract college’s can be looked down upon by anyone…”</p>
<p>Maybe not anyone with credence, but did you read the coulter link? She managed to do it, clearly. Do you suppose she is uniquely alone in the world? (maybe…)</p>
<p>But indeed, some other evaluators may evaluate a degree from Human ecology as a step up, actually. For example, I imagine someone looking to hire a dietican would prefer that background to a degree in engineering physics from the engineering college. All other things being equal. It all depends on many things, including the context and the evaluator. Mostly it depends on the individual. There are undoubtedly many talented individuals studying in Hum Ec. Actually I knew some myself. But different programs of study, requiring different subjects and skills, will appeal to some evaluators differently based on their needs.</p>
<p>And agreed the Hum Ec freshman stats are quite high, currently,though I do not recall seeing or posting anything showing that they are higher than CAS. The admit rate is undoubtedly more a function of their particular,specialized programs of study. Stats for some of the other colleges are lower than Hum Ec, IIRC, and stats for transfer students, which some of the colleges take more of than others, are never published, hence one may speculate. And for each, various non-academic factors, issues of fit, are important; and not all the same ones either. As I said, they are all different, all seven. Some more different than others, and all are generally considered “good schools”, IMO.</p>
<p>“GREAT schools” and i’ll quit arguing :)</p>
<p>I think they are all great schools, no problem here.</p>
<p>Is the name of the contract college on your transcript and the words New York State School of…?? Does it say Cornell?? That is the document grad schools and possible employers see, not your diploma.</p>
<p>Human ecology SAT scores are not higher than CAS, but that isn’t really relevant. I know someone in Human Ec who is definitely smarter than me.</p>
<p>I couldn’t find the SAT’s, but here’s the class rank of entering students. Human Ecology seems on par, even higher than CAS. Only Engineering beats it</p>
<p><a href=“http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000154.pdf[/url]”>http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000154.pdf</a></p>
<p>@Calp2222
Your transcript is actually issued by TC3.
[Tompkins</a> Cortland Community College](<a href=“http://www.tc3.edu/]Tompkins”>http://www.tc3.edu/)
It doesn’t say “Cornell” anywhere; it just says in big letters:
This person went to a SUNY, a state school.</p>