<p>Look, both Cornell and Chicago are fabulous, world-class universities, with great faculties, student bodies, alumni networks, etc. People on CC obsess about relatively small differences -- I do, too -- but if you take a step back they don't matter much. If you are lucky enough to be choosing between Chicago and Cornell, you would probably do fine flipping a coin.</p>
<p>That said, there are some differences that matter, and you have to decide what you think about them:</p>
<p>-- a $60,000 tuition difference for four years is a meaningful difference. On an "investment" basis, it would be hard to make a case for spending that much more for Chicago. You have to be willing to spend the extra money for pretty intangible benefits.
-- Cornell has an undergraduate business program. Not only does Chicago not have one, the entire design of the university is hostile to the very notion of one. One of the informal mottos is "That's fine in practice, but how does it work in theory?" If you are really interested in learning about business, everything you do at Chicago will be at a high, high level of abstraction from your main interest. That's not necessarily a bad thing: for some people, it would be a great thing, for others, sheer oppression.
-- On a related topic, Chicago makes you (and everyone else) take a bunch of Core classes -- about a third of your total classes (although that counts some stuff you might take anyway). The main Core classes relate to business only in the sense that both business and philosophy have something to do with the relationship of humanity to the universe, and ontological problems of knowing sometimes pop up in a business setting (and promptly go away, ignored and unacknowledged). Either you hunger for that kind of perspective -- and for sharing it with other students whose interests are very different from yours -- or you don't. At Cornell, however, you would be part of a significant number of students who share your interest in business and who would be taking an entire curriculum a lot like yours. Both schools will try to teach you critical thinking, but in very different ways.
-- Don't forget the differences between Ithaca and Hyde Park. They are both great places, but most people would strongly prefer one to the other. Ithaca is a great college town on a lake about 3-1/2 hours by car from anywhere else you might want to be. Hyde Park is a lovely, not-very-happening neighborhood on a lake in a huge, exciting city. The world revolves around students in Ithaca, not in Chicago. Ithaca is all hills and gorges and breathtaking views; Chicago is flat as a griddle, with a bunch of sensational skyscrapers in the middle. They are both cold during the winter -- Cornell has great winter sports, including one of the world's great sledding hills and nearby skiing; Chicago has walking to class upwind.
-- Cornell itself is a much bigger, much more diverse place (economically, culturally, racially, interests-of-studentsly). It's more than twice the size of Chicago. It's also a lot less Midwestern than Chicago. The city of Chicago is a lot more diverse than Ithaca or Cornell, in every way imaginable. If you are from New York City, Midwestern can be exotic and refreshing (or not).</p>
<p>None of the above has anything to do with "quality of education" or with your chances for success in your life plan. (Your life plan is subject to change over the next few years anyway.) People succeed in business and in philosophy coming out of both schools. There are plenty of people in the business world who value what either school provides. It really is a question of what is going to work best for you, not what their ranks are. The dumbest thing you could possibly do is to go someplace and hate it -- that's about the only sure route to failure there is.</p>