<p>D is set on studying ChemE. She's leaning toward WPI but also loved Cornell. What's the difference in program, rigor, success rate, etc. In short, which is seen as a better program?</p>
<p>I don’t know much about ChemE, but Google reveals the Cornell program is ranked higher. I had a couple close friends who were ChemE, one of whom just finished his masters. The job prospects out of Cornell are very good. I don’t know WPI’s rigor, but my 2 friends who were ChemE students studied amongst the most of my friends at Cornell (and that is a VERY high standard). The Engineering Department at Cornell also does a lot of outreach to promote women in Engineering, so maybe that would interest your daughter. I only know this because my one friend is an officer in the Society of Women Engineers and that’s an organization that does a lot of networking for women studying Engineering at Cornell.</p>
<p>Honestly though, academically speaking I’m sure both schools will serve your daughter well. Unless her grades are absolutely atrocious, I’m sure she’ll have no problem getting a great head-start in the field. I would suggest you/she focus on what else the university offers beyond academics/networking opportunities that have a direct impact on quality of life. Cornell offers a great variety of activities (over 900 student groups), robust Greek life (if that’s your thing), opportunities to do almost anything. Of course, Cornell’s downside is the usually terrible weather (except this winter).</p>
<p>Both schools have very strong engineering programs in general. I have known people at Cornell who loved the chemical engineering program (one of the smaller engineering majors), and I’ve known a couple people from my high school who went to WPI and are doing quite well for themselves now. </p>
<p>You can’t go wrong with either, but I think Cornell has the edge in at least a couple ways. It is much more selective and students are forced to work harder to keep up (last time I checked, middle 50% SAT score range is almost identical to MIT’s). It is also more highly ranked (top 5~10 in basically every discipline, whereas WPI is more in the top 50-range).</p>
<p>WPI is known for providing good job placement, whereas Cornell seems to produce more grad students. According to WPI’s website about 90% of graduates have either a job or grad school offer after graduation, with 20% choosing grad school. At Cornell, about 90% have plans after graduation also, except with more like 40% choosing grad school (look up Cornell Post Graduate Reports).</p>
<p>I don’t know how this is at WPI or other engineering programs, but Engineering at Cornell makes it easy to get your master in 5 years, needing only one additional year after undergrad.</p>
<p>Thanks for the thoughtful replies. Attaining a Master’s Degree is important to her.
She’s still waiting to hear decisions from CMU and Cornell (though rec’d “likely letter”), but after rejection from MIT this week, says WPI is her first choice. I’m trying to reason it out.
We are familiar with Cornell and Ithaca as sister attends Ithaca College. CMU is much further and we’re not quite as familiar with their program/reputation.</p>
<p>Has your daughter visited Cornell and sat in the COE info session? If not, I highly recommend it. My son will be attending Cornell in the fall as a ChemE major. We visited over the summer and after sitting in the info session he knew immediately that Cornell was his first choice. The program is simply amazing.</p>
<p>We’ve visited a number of times, but no actual COE session. Last visit was SWE/Diversity Weekend in the fall: attended some bio-info class assigned to her and spent the evening running around Collegetown. She just got invite for spring program. I’m trying to convince her to go.</p>
<p>CMU is a very good school for engineering. Historically the kids at my school that don’t get into MIT, Cornell, Caltech, attend either CMU or Northeastern if they’re pursuing something in the engineering field.</p>
<p>I visited Cornell, CMU, and WPI (and MIT) with my daughter and can give you my insight into the differences. This may be less of a concern to your daughter but I would characterize both WPI and CMU as much more narrowly focused than Cornell. Cornell is a really diverse place - as an engineering student your daughter will have the opportunity to take some classes in any of the seven very different undergraduate colleges. This can be important even if you know exactly what you want to major in. It also gives her a broader experience in terms of the people she meets along the way. And even within the engineering schoool, your daughter will be exposed to the various different kinds of engineering (I think that’s true everywhere) before they ask her to declare her major. Many students change their minds about what they want to study so it’s important to have some options. CMU struck me as being very segmented within the various science and engineering discplines - there are a lot of restrictions on changing majors within those areas because it involves changing colleges. Outside of the technical discplines CMU was only strong in the arts (i.e. performing as opposed to humanities). WPI struck me as being primarily a science/engineering/business school. Having said that, all of the schools your daughter is looking at are really good ones and she can’t go wrong with any of those choices.</p>
<p>D applied to Engineering Schools last year – her read (which I agreed with) was that the “Institutions” seemed to have a less diverse student body than the “Universities”. Cornell, is particularly diverse, with its seven college system. So, it really comes down to what you’re looking for.</p>
<p>Besides that – Cornell is obviously considered to be one of the Elite Universities in the world. While I don’t mean to knock WPI, it’s really not considered to be close as far as reputation goes. </p>
<p>FWIW – If you visited Cornell and hated it, I wouldn’t recommend going there under any circumstances. If there is a financial aspect (i.e., you can afford WPI and not Cornell), then the choice would or may be obvious. Otherwise, IMHO, Cornell is a clear choice.</p>
<p>^We’ve visited officially twice, but casually more than that. D knows all about the programs, but it’s the intangibles she seems set to define the experience by: ie, humor/pranks/quirkiness seem important to lighten the load of serious study. She thinks that may be lacking at Cornell whereas MIT was chockfull. (Rejected) WPI is definitely quirky. She is not at all impressed with perceived eliteness, though I wholeheartedly agree with you! We’ll see in another couple of weeks and visits more.</p>
<p>One other huge difference between WPI and Cornell is that WPI is on a quarter system and Cornell is on a semester system. So at WPI your daugther would only take 3 courses at a time, allowing much more focus on only a few things. At Cornell she will likely be taking 5 courses at once but over a longer period.</p>
<p>I think her perception of eliteness at Cornell is wrong. I’m of course biased, but having known quite a few people at other Ivies, Cornell really did seem less elitist. I have no idea what your daughter’s visits to Cornell were like, nor can I imagine they afford the opportunity to truly experience the intangibles, but there really is a lot to do. There are over 900 clubs and a huge range of people. </p>
<p>In my opinion, the intangibles of a university are all about the people you will meet, versus anything embedded within the institutions. No matter where your daughter goes, I’m sure she’ll associate with people she enjoys being with and that makes all the difference. That said, given all Cornell offers and the different types of people it attracts, I think she’ll have a better chance of meeting good people than at WPI.</p>