<p>I'm a high school senior in upstate NY. I got into Cornell College of Engineering in March, and I sent my deposit there. However, I just got into Caltech off of the waitlist, and I'm trying to decide between the two. I plan on studying either engineering physics or mechanical engineering at either college, and I'm trying to gather more information regarding how Caltech's and Cornell's programs in these areas compare. Will either lead to better opportunities after college as far as grad school or a job goes? Does either involve significantly more work? Is it easier to get internships or co-ops at one or the other? Also, why is Cornell's enginneering physics program ranked so high?</p>
<p>I have until Monday 5/14 to decide. Any information will be helpful. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Have you visited both? I think the experience at either school would be vastly different. Comparatively, Caltech is absolutely tiny compared to Cornell, so that could be a plus I guess (there's a lot of grad students though, so maybe not). </p>
<p>Maybe I'm bias (ha) but I doubt there will be that big of a difference in opportunities (both postgraduation and for internships and such) at either school. Caltech probably has a better reputation with all of the California-based tech companies (Silicon Valley) but Cornell might have a better reputation with the banks and such (you can look down the postgraduation reports and see all of the top IBs on there; never looked at Caltech's). In general, Caltech probably has a stronger student body (in terms of cognitive ability/IQ/SAT scores), so that could be a plus for them (you will be surrounded by smarter people), but that student body may be more homogeneous (maybe that is just the stereotype and nothing more?). Still, you'll probably see a similar distribution of kids going to the top grad schools/top jobs (although, like I said before, Caltech might tend to send more kids to the top "engineering" jobs like Apple, Google, Microsoft while Cornell might have a bigger group going to the top banking jobs, but this would probably be a product of geographic proximity more so than a difference in opportunity). </p>
<p>I think Cornell's EP department is ranked #1 because it's been around the longest. It's small too, about 35-40 students/class and 14 professors (at the beginning of the year - they were looking to expand I think - my current advisor is a Prof. in EP). I guess that's a plus if you are looking to go EP - once you get into your upper-level classes the class size will be much smaller than, say, ECE classes (which could still have 40-50 people). Maybe that class size would be more comparable to what you'd find at Caltech.</p>
<p>As far as difficulty goes, I think both have reputations as "hard" engineering schools but I haven't found Cornell to be too bad if you just do your work. I do hear the honors intro physics classes are very difficult and filled with ultra-motivated kids that just love physics - AEP here has the reputation of being the "hardest" major in any college (maybe this is why its #1 too, I have no idea). I can't say anything about Caltech in that regard.</p>
<p>Anyway I'd go where ever you want to...will you get a chance to visit Caltech before the 14th? That would probably be the key. You could probably do very well coming out of either but you'll have to decide.</p>
<p>I feel like Caltech is more of a "dream school" then cornell. I have no experience with either though so that's all I have to say. Good luck and congratulations on having that choice.</p>
<p>I'd agree scorp, people that get into MIT get rejected regularly from Caltech. Brand name of Caltech is definitely a bit more "dream school-ish" but I'm not sure the "prestige" (so to say) is any different (Cornell might even be known better on an international scale). But definitely Caltech is more of a "dream school" than Cornell (at least in my opinion).</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies so far. Yes, I have visited both schools. I liked the feel of Cornell's campus a lot, but Caltech's appealed to me as well. One reservation that I had was that Caltech might have a stronger student body, as live- said. However, I think someone on the Cornell board made a good point when they said that Cornell has at least as many Caltech caliber students as Caltech, but it also happens to have a lot more other students. As for Caltech, I couldn't help but feel that the smaller student body really limited the number of options as far as extracurricular activities were concerned. However, I can't ignore that fact that it's so warm in Pasadena, which would probably be a nice change for me.</p>
<p>Also, live-, I know that a lot of physics/engineering students go into finance, but as of now, I don't have a very large interest in going into banking. I think I'd rather do something more conventional as far as engineering goes. Can you, or anyone, maybe comment on Cornell in that regard?</p>
<p>if ur sure ur gonna do engineering go to caltech
but if you hate engineering after first year, at cornell you can switch to other stuff. Not that many choices at caltech.</p>