<p>I got accepted to both brown (52000 a year) and cornell college of agriculture and life sciences (39000 with state tuition). Im not really sure what i want to major in, though physics, economics, business, chemistry and math are all real possibilities. A very unclear plan for the future is to study something I love that shows good analytical skills, then maybe an MBA or hopefully a job in finance, though pre med is also a slight possibility. Is brown worth the extra money? Everyone seems super happy there</p>
<p>why are you in CALS then?</p>
<p>good question.</p>
<p>$13,000 savings on tuition x 4 years is getting a 4-year degree while paying for only 3 years of college. That’s a savings I would not give up because you may have graduate school loans on top of undergrad loans. They’re both top notch schools, but I would go with Cornell, especially since you seem undecided about your major.</p>
<p>CALS has the AEM (buisness) major ranked 5th in the country. I’m just worried that cornell is too rigid in their major requirements</p>
<p>Well, most schools have a rigid program or at least some requirements other than the major requirement. As a paying parent, I would rather have my D in a rigid program than in a liberal, no core classes program at Brown where you can even take classes as pass or fail instead of getting a letter grade. I personally disagree with that as I don’t think any student will take advantage and learn all they can from ANY class they take as pass/fail. If the class is an extra class you’re taking, that’s one thing, but to count it as part of undergraduate study to earn a degree just doesn’t make sense to me. Its in human nature to be lazy, and taking classes as pass/fail in my opinion is the lazy way of getting a degree. I think Brown puts a limit as to how many classes you can do this in, but I don’t know the specifics. My brother did this as an undergraduate, and when he applied to graduate school, he was rejected by most and the reason he was told that because since he took a certain amount of classes as pass/fail, he wasn’t ranked, and they didn’t want to risk admitting him not knowing if he could pass the graduate program he was interested in taking.</p>
<p>Brown places no limit to the number of courses one takes pass/fail. I do believe there are people who would use the S/NC system beneficially. With that said, the existence of it does not mean one has to use it. A decent number of my friends and I have never taken a course S/NC; I haven’t because I honestly believe I would look at that course halfway through the semester and decide to blow it off. Such an option is also less uncommon than you’d think - Princeton permits courses to be taken pass/fail, although they limit the number you can take this way. For the reason you mentioned (graduate school) and because of how employers would see it, most students tend not to take courses in their areas of interest/concentrations S/NC.</p>
<p>I would, however, argue that the lack of core classes is not necessarily a problem. ModestMelody often cites that 97% of Brown students complete what are roughly equivalent to a common core program at similar schools, and starting this year, Brown now has a list of ideals that they wish students to pursue, a core of sorts. I know that at most of the schools I applied to that had distribution requirements, the tour guides mentioned that students can circumvent parts of the core by taking courses that satisfy those distributions in ways that were dubious, at best. This doesn’t mean I actually believe most students do so or that distribution requirements are oppressive or silly, but there’s wiggle room there too (one gaping exception: Columbia).</p>
<p>I’m not posting this so much to argue, as I believe that your view is just as legitimate as mine on this matter, since I know the Open Curriculum is far from right for many people. I just believe it’s worth it for the OP (and any others who read this thread) to see another view, since there do exist people who can make good use of the Open Curriculum without abusing it.</p>
<p>As far as the OP’s predicament, Cornell is quite a good school and my friends who go there are all happy. Unless you end up finding a reason why you’d really prefer Brown (it sounds like you’re just unsure at the moment), I’d take the money…</p>
<p>FWIW, Brown has no official Business major (although COE somewhat takes on that role, albeit being more theoretical than a standard business major). I gather many people go to Brown for COE and are successful with either further education or in the workforce, but it doesn’t really make sense to compare Cornell’s business program with something Brown doesn’t have. If you want a formal, standard business program and if you decide that COE at Brown isn’t what you want, then I’d definitely choose Cornell.</p>