Hi CC,
I reached out to the admissions people from Berkeley and Cornell and managed to delay my college decision response by a week and a half; I am deciding between offers from the two schools. I do not qualify for any financial aid and am from a middle to upper-middle income family. Berkeley in-state tuition will be about $14k per year and Cornell tuition will be $55k per year. Finances are not a big concern for my family but I want to make the best value-based decision between the two schools since the tuition difference between the schools is non-trivial.
I am interested in a career in finance, for which Cornell has an upper-hand over Berkeley, but I also have an interest in computer science and technology, for which it can be argued that Berkeley has an edge based on its location. I was initially drawn to Cornell for its strong presence in the financial services sector, but I am not yet entirely sure that I want to pursue a career in that industry so that is not a deciding factor for me. Location-wise I prefer Berkeley but that is also not an important consideration for me. The most important consideration is whether Cornell’s marginally stronger undergraduate experience is worth the premium tuition over Berkeley in-state tuition.
When I did some research on Cornell I noticed that it has 15,000 undergraduates, about 8 to 10 thousand more undergraduates enrolled than at any other “top” private school, which is about the same number of undergraduates as the undergrad population of the University of Virginia. I also learned that Cornell is not fully a private school; it is half a statutory or public school affiliated with the State University of New York. Based on this fact, and the fact that Cornell offers tuition remissions to New York State Residents at its contract colleges, I am wondering if members of CC would recommend that I as a California in-stater pick Cornell over Berkeley since Cornell looks to be a state flagship of sorts for the state of New York and is the federal land-grant institution of New York the same way that UC is of California. This question is about value return of the premium tuition; I met a Wisconsin resident who paid out-of-state tuition for UC–Berkeley for a year and returned to Wisconsin to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison since she did not believe that the out-of-state premium of UC–Berkeley was worth it given the resources that she was offered. This question is specifically for me and other students of families in the middle to upper-middle income bracket who are full-pay; financial aid packages are likely much better at Cornell than at Berkeley. I would like to know the opinions of Cornellians and CC-ers in general if the extra ~$40k of tuition per year at Cornell undergrad vs. in-state tuition at Berkeley will offer significantly better private school instruction, alumni networking opportunities (during both the College years and down-the-line in one’s career) and selectivity and rigor of the student body than what is offered at Berkeley. Thank you.