Caltech vs. Cornell

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>Impartial opinion needed from unrelated folks:</p>

<p>Caltech vs. Cornell (in random order!)</p>

<p>Major = Chemistry</p>

<p>Career goal = Researcher / academician</p>

2

<p>I vote Caltech.</p>

<p>If you want to be a researcher, you have to get a PhD. If you want to get a PhD, you have to get into grad school. If you want to go to grad school, you have to have recommendations from professors who know you well, plus killer research experience. It doesn't hurt to have recs from star professors, either.</p>

<p>Cornell's a great school, no doubt, but Caltech wins on all of the accounts listed above.</p>

3

<p>caltech.</p>

<p>cornell wears girl's underwear.</p>

4

<p>Methinks someone picked schools on the bases of letter preferences and syllabification rather than academic merit ;)</p>

<p>(but really--how many schools /are/ there that start with a C, have an e and an l, and split syllables 3/4?)</p>

<p>(oh, and caltech. but i am most definitely biased.)</p>

5

<p><em>bounce bounce</em></p>

<p>i, like flierdeke, am biased. caltech.</p>

6

<p>It'll be hard to find an unbiased opinion....</p>

<p>Caltech, just because it's so damned easy to get involved into research which will help you with your goals.</p>

7

<p>Thanks for the prompt responses.
Should I ignore those from Pasadena or Ithaca? :)</p>

<p>Can college experience compensate for education quality? I do understand it is difficult, if not impossible, to quantify them.</p>

8

<p>btw, would you actually be willing to move from California to Ithaca? ;-)</p>

9

<p>You might get more responses if you posted this outside of the MIT 2010 subgroup.</p>

10

<p>
[quote]

Can college experience compensate for education quality?

[/quote]

Could you clarify what you mean by that?</p>

11

<p>lol. cornell is not academically lacking. fit is ALWAYS >> "educational quality" among the top xxyy colleges.</p>

12

<p>I still have trouble in interpreting the term ‘fit’, leave alone applying it, despite I have heard it on numerous occasions. </p>

<p>From the ‘DNA’ by James D. Watson I recently read, on page 212, he wrote about Claire Fraser: “…….After studying at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she first became interested in microbes, she applied to medical school. Rather than accepting a place at prestigious Yale, she opted for SUNY Buffalo because her boyfriend was moving to Toronto………..” </p>

<p>Like to have your view on this incident.</p>

13

<p>molliebatmit </p>

<p>How about:</p>

<p>Student body size/diversity, class options, studying abroad, campus amenities/activities
versus
academic strength, student to faculty ratio, class size, research opportunity</p>

14

<p>zking786</p>

<p>Where would you suggest?</p>

15

<p>main MIT forum would be good if you want a mostly MIT (fairly unbiased third party) view and broader exposure.</p>

<p>I don't think Cornell quality of life beats Caltech. Cornell has more stress, worse weather, is more isolated, and less personal -- academically and socially.</p>

<p>To show I'm not biased to the point of blindness, Caltech has a more uneven male/female ratio, less diversity of student interests, fewer extracurricular clubs, and fewer class options in some cases.</p>

<p>Since essentially none of the latter flaws bothers me, here I am at Caltech. But I could certainly imagine (unlikely and outlandish) situations in which someone would prefer Cornell ;-)</p>

16

<p>In terms of research quality, Caltech beats out Cornell in chemistry, coming in just below Yale and just above Harvard:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.sciencewatch.com/nov-dec2002/sw_nov-dec2002_page2.htm#Chemistry%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.sciencewatch.com/nov-dec2002/sw_nov-dec2002_page2.htm#Chemistry&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

17

<p>My feeling is that reports of the death of social life at tech schools have been greatly exaggerated, and I don't think you automatically have a quote better rounded unquote life if you choose Caltech over Cornell.</p>

<p>(To be totally honest, I also think that if you really want to be a researcher, you will realize that quality of research is a more important parameter than quality of student life anyway -- research is not really a career that lends itself to choosing a life. Research is a tough career, and everybody works >40 hours a week. Might as well get used to it in college.)</p>

18

<p>mrrrrrr, mollie, did you mean "Cornell over Caltech" above?</p>

19

<p>Oh, darn it, yes, that's what I meant.</p>

20

<p>
[quote]
Research is a tough career, and everybody works >40 hours a week. Might as well get used to it in college.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I should point out that this is only true in biology and other lab sciences. In mathematics, we just have to drink coffee shoo away the lovely women who throw themselves at us. 40 hour work weeks are infrequent.</p>

<p>;-)</p>