<p>What makes Colgate better than Cornell? Why would somebody chose Colgate over Cornell or vice versa?</p>
<p>Colgate has the reputation of being a lot more fun and laid back than Cornell. At 1/4 the class size of Cornell, Colgate has a more intimate environment where there may be the possibility of knowing professors better without the intrusion of TAs or grad schools that many would enjoy better. These aspects make up for the fact that Colgate isn't as nationally renowned academically as Cornell to many. </p>
<p>People would choose Cornell over Colgate because it's more well known and in the Ivy League and has a lot of particular specialties (engineering, animal science, business mgmt, ILR, hotel). Some would find the town and size of Colgate too small. </p>
<p>I would say at Colgate about a third of the people who applied to Cornell were accepted, but chose to come to Colgate over Cornell. Both schools had 27% acceptance rate last year, but Cornell probably had a more accomplished applicant pool and since its yield rate is 49% vs 34% for Colgate; so is a first choice for more students. Either that or Cornell applicants aren't able to get into their top choices and more Colgate applicants are. There may be something to this theory as Cornell students may have aspired much more to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, while Colgate applicants are going for slighly less selective (Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, Williams, Middlebury, Tufts) schools.</p>
<p>why would someone choose colgate over cornell? mostly finanacial and personal issues. colgate is definitely not on the same par as cornell no matter how much colgate students are trying to tell you. i think colgate is more comparable to schools like tufts, W&M, brandeis and boston c in prestige and selectivity.</p>
<p>I've always under the impression that Tufts and W&M are just as selective as Cornell. Maybe I'm wrong though.</p>
<p>Larence Summers, the outgoing President of Harvard, was interviewed yesterday by the AP. Although he was speaking about Harvard, part of his remarks might be instructive in showing why students might choose Colgate over Cornell:</p>
<p>AP: You've said Harvard is the world's greatest research university, but is not yet recognized for providing the world's best undergraduate education. Why not?</p>
<p>Summers: I think the single most important issue is faculty-student engagement, where there is too large a fraction of our teaching that takes place in sections taught by graduate students. Too much of it takes place in large lectures, where faculty members don't know students' names. And too little of it involves the kind of active learning experience, whether it's in a laboratory, a debate in a class, or whether it's a seminar dialogue, or whether it's joint work in an archives.</p>
<p>Cornell is also a large research university. Yes that has advantages, though how much trickles down to the vast majority of undergrads is debatable. Certainly the disdvantages of that sort of system make undergraduate education a different process. At Colgate classes are taught by quality professors whose primary job is to teach and for the most part in small sections with give and take between the students and professors. Research too is handled by undergrads. So while it may not be on the level of Harvard or Cornell, at least an undergraduate student actually get to do it.</p>
<p>I don't think the difference between Cornell and Colgate is that great. Both had the same acceptance rate and Cornell's avg SAT is ~ 30 points higher. PR ranks them both a 97 in selectivity for what that's worth. Overall, Cornell is certainly more well known. In fact, many times when a not so informed person hears someone talking about Colgate they think you're talking about Cornell.</p>
<p>I would certainly put Colgate above Brandeis and BC, but on a par with Tufts and William & Mary seems about right.</p>
<p>It also depends on which school at Cornell you want to compare Colgate with -- as well as which major or program. That makes a big difference in how to answer the OP's question. For example, if you want engineering, architecture or hotel administration, definitely Cornell. However, if you're talking CAS and CALS at Cornell, then you're probably better off at Colgate if only for the fact that you'll be taught by professors and not graduate assistants. Also, if you're looking at pre-law e.g., then Cornell offers ILR and Colgate offers its political science, IR and economics departments; in that match-up, it's almost even, but with the advantage probably to Colgate. As for Cornell's HumEc vs. Colgate, it's an even split; of the hard & social science courses where they overlap, Colgate would have the edge, but HumEc also offers specific courses that Colgate doesn't yet.</p>
<p>Therefore, to answer the OP's question, if you know what you want, then look at what both schools offer -- for you! Cornell is seven colleges each with its own course offerings (although interdependent with other schools), standards and requisites -- and each has its own admissions requirements. Colgate is one college with one admissions department and one standard for all students. Again, it depends on what you want.</p>
<p>Because of these variables and factors involved, the comparision of SAT averages, yields and acceptances rates is moot in discussing Colgate and Cornell.</p>
<p>And a note to Gellino: you can be assured that just as many students who applied to Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Dartmouth, Brown, Middlebury, Amherst, Swarthmore and Penn also applied to BC, W&M, Cornell, Williams, Tufts and Colgate. There is little difference in the final shake-out, e.g. for Middlebury, Cornell, Colgate and Tufts since ultimately it depends on what each school wants and what each applicant offers. In the end, what is most important is that the student has a "perfect fit" and is happy to be on that campus.</p>
<p>collegeparent, I'm not really sure I understand what you mean in your last paragraph. I agree students are looking for the best fit, which is why I say that Cornell students are, on average, more agressive in looking for a big name and looking for a Harvard, Yale, Princeton environment, while people applying to Colgate are generally more laid back and don't need the big name as much; therefore, they have more interest in Dartmouth, Williams, Middlebury environment. I think I agree in theory with what you've said, but colleges are looking for what suits them best too; and hence the results.</p>
<p>What I'm trying to stress is that the same people who are applying to Harvard, Princeton, Yale etc. are also applying to BC, W&M, etc. That if they don't get into one school, they'd be content with the other, meaning that the same caliber/kind of student is applying to all of these schools. However, the extenuating circumstances of campus culture, hippie vs. preppie, urban vs. rural, large vs. small, public vs. private, etc. will determine where they go since the quality of the undergraduate education does not waiver that much, but how they receive it (profs vs. TAs) and where (LAC vs. uni) will. I agree that these are personal decisions, both on the parts of the schools and the applicants.</p>
<p>contrary to what collegeprep says, cornell is only slightly harder to get into... acceptance rates are the same and sat are within 30 points (i got into colgate, and a guaranteed transfer to cornell, which im not taking) - colgate is also more selective than BC and brandeis</p>
<p>i know colgate's acceptance rate is low, but the size of the school has something to do with it. i was accepted into cogate but waitlisted at boston college. i think looking at the percent of students in the top ten percent of their class is a good way to see how selective a school is. colgate is about 65 or 70%. i never really held colgate on the same level as cornell.</p>
<p>actually thats incorrect. colgate has 83% in the top 10% of the class...</p>
<p>well i got my info from collegeboard. i think it was 67 or something. i think that is more accurate since a lot of colgate's students are recruitied for athletics. i'm not saying that colgate is not an amazing school. i'm just saying that cornell, in my opinion, is slightly better because of the students they attract and the resources they provide.</p>
<p>also, i just looked at your link and it says that the info was derived from only 36% of the admitted students.</p>
<p>right, but its not like collegeboard has a calculation with a higher % of admitted students- some schools give no class rank, and on most profiles, your only going to get less than 50% of schools giving out rank</p>
<p>83% is for accepted students for the class of 2010. 68% is for enrolled students in the class of 2009.</p>
<p>Stonecold, I recall seeing in a prior post that you were waitlisted at BC. Why do you view Colgate as being more selective ? Frankly, both Colgate and Boston College are both excellent schools with diversely different locations appealing to different student bodies.</p>
<p>well my admissions has been unpredictable... igotinto hopkins but waitlisted at BC and hopkins is a much more selective school, so im basing overall admissions difficulty on numbers in general</p>
<p>% in the top 10% isn't really the best way to compare Colgate and Cornell, considering that they both have close to the same number of recruited atheletes, but Cornell can hide them much more effectively with a class size of four times as large as Colgate.</p>
<p>Are there many cases where a person gets accepted to schools like JHU and Colgate, but gets waitlisted at BC? Has BC gotten very hard to get into, because last time I checked the other two schools were harder to get into.</p>