<p>"Didn't realize there was a contest to be had here.</p>
<p>Chicago smashes Cornell to pieces in every criteria besides prestige and engineering."</p>
<p>Sorry, but it's either you are very biased against Cornell, or you are just plain dumb.</p>
<p>"Chicago's students have generally higher stats (1330-1530 SAT at Chicago, 1290-1500 at Cornell)."</p>
<p>FWIW, Cornell's College of Arts & Sciences has higher stats than the university aggregate, by an amount similar to the differential above. Published 25-75% for Cornell CAS are: 650-740v, 670-770M
I don't see any 25-75% for (M+V) combined though.
The admissions %, for CAS was 18.3% of applicants. To compare, I don't recall this number for Chicago, offhand.</p>
<p>Cornell offers a campus-centered college experience in a diverse multi-college university. A minority of students at Cornell are studying in the Arts & Sciences college. There are (some) sports, and a fraternity scene. Chicago is an urban college experience with all undergrads enrolled in its Arts & sciences college, without as much of some of this other college stuff. There are other differences as well. </p>
<p>They each can be excellent places to undertake your studies, for the right person.</p>
<p>Geez you guys!!</p>
<p>Im afraid SOME have misunderstood my original query to mean;
Which school is the best (!?!). No No No!</p>
<p>It was a request for impressions about the schools so I could help my son better understand the differences between them, and make a more informed choice.
(Again, should he be so lucky to have the choice to make.)</p>
<p>In any event, Ive gotten my answers about their distinctions, thank you.</p>
<p>(Now we hold our breath.)</p>
<p>TT</p>
<p>Ah, yes, I was enjoying my time spent in this discussion as a spectator rather than a participant. As CayugaRed mentioned, I have vast Cornell family and friend connections-- so I can name-drop things like Goldwin-Smith Hall and the Lynah Faithful with ease.</p>
<p>I should point out that before I say anything further, I respect Cornell as a school immensely, but it was not attractive enough to me for me to apply to it. Part of it could have been that I already knew a lot about the school-- but mostly I wanted something that I felt Chicago offered me more readily than Cornell. I would love to pull one of those "it's not you, it's me" lines on Cornell, because it is a great school with a lot going for it.</p>
<p>The only thing I'll bring up about Cayuga's post (which I thought was very good) was the "twinkle in the eye" bit. I highly doubt Chicago has the party power or the stay-up-all-night-for-hockey tickets power that Cornell does, but the Chicago experience is a powerful and rewarding one, even if it doesn't always mirror the "traditional college experience." I would point to a flood of recent extremely large donations to the undergraduate college and University and the dramatic rise in participation in the senior class gift to emphasize that this place does give people that "twinkle." If I can use myself as an example, I certainly think I'm getting more out of my experience here (socially, academically, extracurricularly, etc.) than I ever imagined.</p>
<p>OP's son applied to both schools and is asking about both schools; clearly both have their own appeal to OP's son. Ideally, pending both acceptances, OP would be able to spend some time in Ithaca and Hyde Park and figure things out for himself, but if that's not possible, it would be time for OP to have a big think about what he wants most out of his college experience and consider which institution will offer that more readily.</p>
<p>And, if that doesn't help, I think that a lot of Cornell folks could be happy at Chicago and vice versa. So maybe the decision isn't so dramatic after all.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Ideally, pending both acceptances, OP would be able to spend some time in Ithaca and Hyde Park and figure things out for himself, but if that's not possible, it would be time for OP to have a big think about what he wants most out of his college experience and consider which institution will offer that more readily.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I agree 100 percent, unalove. It's also not very difficult to figure out if one would rather be in Ithaca, surrounded by the delights of nature, or in Hyde Park, with the opportunities of one of America's storied cities a quick bus ride away on the Jackson Park express.</p>
<p>Despite Cornell's wide range of schools, I think of the students at these schools as very similar. I can see how the same student would be interested in both.
I tend to think of Chicago as the Marine Corps of higher education, and of Cornell as Chicago, Junior.<br>
Living in Hyde Park and seeing local Lab School kids with U of C parents head off to Cornell, I always felt they were choosing more of the same.</p>
<p>"Despite Cornell's wide range of schools, I think of the students at these schools as very similar."</p>
<p>I think that probably a significant subset of Cornell's larger undergraduate population will be very similar to Chicago's. But many other students at Cornell will probably be somewhat less similar, in various different respects: intellectual, personal, and extracurricular interests, capabilities and goals, even geographic origin. </p>
<p>Cornell probably has a student body with a more diverse pool of interests than most other universities comparable students might be entertaining- due in part to the different colleges, which do in fact make a difference in this regard.</p>
<p>By contrast, Chicago may well attract matriculants with, on the whole, a more homogeneous than average profile. That whole "self-selection" argument Chicago advocates frequently raise necessarily means there are particular non-universal aspects of the university that are the basis of this self-selection, and therefore have less than universal appeal.</p>
<p>Possibly as many students at Cornell would fit better with Northwestern than with Chicago. And many others would fit with neither, particularly closely.</p>
<p>S1 is a math major, applied to Chicago and Cornell, among others. bclinton's post about sums it up as to what my attracted my S to Chicago. He would have double majored at Cornell in Math and CS in order to get the emphasis he wanted, but he is very much a theory guy. Chicago gave him that twinkle.</p>
<p>Twinkle is great, but posts referencing stats not specific to Arts & Sciences college, and rankings relating entirely to graduate school (and also not just CAS), may not be highly dispositive as to what your experience need be, intending to study mostly theory as an undergrad at either institution. Certainly undergrads at Cornell can and do go on to top programs subsequently. A deeper level of investigation would probably be warrranted, to determine any actual material differences to you. Best to go there & talk to people in the departments. Possibly the presence of a mandatory core curriculum, vs. more conventional set of distribution requirements, might be a greater, real distinction, from an academic perspective.</p>
<p>This other thread has some excellent posts on this same topic, maybe they can be merged somehow:</p>
<p>Isn't Chicago the place where fun comes to die? Or am i thinking of another school?</p>
<p>I've heard the same about University of Chicago</p>
<p>That's a great thread, monydad. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.</p>
<p>The 'twinkle' factor will obviously differ form individual to individual -- but that's the point. </p>
<p>For what it is worth, one of my good friends from high school attended Chicago and is now working for the University's libraries. He really liked Chicago, but claims the campus has become a lot more 'mainstream' in recent years.</p>
<p>That's right, we are where fun comes to die. It's on our unofficial t-shirts :-)</p>
<p>"Where fun comes to die" became our sort of unofficial motto a few decades ago and it's stuck around not only on campus but clearly in the psyche of prospective students. It's a source of ironic pride.... it's not like we never socialize or have parties.</p>
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For what it is worth, one of my good friends from high school attended Chicago and is now working for the University's libraries. He really liked Chicago, but claims the campus has become a lot more 'mainstream' in recent years.
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<p>I agree with your friend (if your friend graduated in 2005). Chicago's undergraduate personality has been changing pretty rapidly year by year, to the point where I think the typical undergraduate here looks like the typical undergraduate at any other midwestern college. (Overall, I think the midwest is a lot less image-conscious than schools on either coast, so students here probably look somewhat different overall than students there). This, to me, is a good thing: it means the school has more diversity, more vitality, more students who call it home. </p>
<p>This whole "identity crisis" has been chronicled by our campus newspaper. It might be informative to read some recent opinion pieces about Chicago's "personality":</p>
<p>Uncommonplace</a> - The Chicago Maroon
Is</a> Ted O?Neill yourhomeboy? - The Chicago Maroon</p>
<p>(I don't necessarily endorse these pieces, but I think they might provide some food for thought).</p>
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I agree with your friend (if your friend graduated in 2005).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Close. 2006.</p>
<p>Well, we got the word (for anyone who cares):.
Rejected by Cornell. Wait listed by Chicago. Accepted by Geneseo.
(Cornell had 34,000 applicants!)</p>
<p>Still to come, CMU. (But I think he’ll be happy at Genny.)</p>
<p>Glad my kids aren’t going through this right now. But sometimes these things are for the best, just tell kid not to sweat it and start getting excited about the opportunities that await.</p>
<p>Cornell is by no means more prestigious. I would say otherwise. Chicago would be my choice for many of the reasons already cited.</p>