<p>Hi all! I've just started my senior year in high school and have decided to ED Cornell. I've visited the campus and pulled up some stats, and the place definitely stands out as the college for me. However, the website doesn't detail as much as I'd like the difference between the College of Human Ecology and the College of Arts and Sciences. I know the majors offered are different, but otherwise are there significant advantages to applying to one over the other? I plan to major somewhere in the sciences, most likely along the lines of biology/chemistry and maybe engineering, but am not sure which one is best suited for me. In a nutshell, can someone explain to me the biggest difference between the two and their respective advantages?</p>
<p>If relevant, I've taken 9 AP Classes in high school including AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Physics, and AP Environmental Science. My SAT Composite is 2330, and I have 800s in SAT2 math and chem, with a 790 in bio. My GPA is pretty good (only one B in high school freshman year), and have strong extracurriculars in the sciences such as SciFY and my school's Science Alliance. </p>
<p>I’m not sure of the exact differences between them, but I know the topics of study are generally different. If you’re looking to do biology or chemistry you would most likely do that either at arts and sciences or CALS. Engineering is its own separate school. </p>
<p>If you are a NY state resident, there is a huge price difference. Human ecology is a land-grant school so it’s much cheaper for in-state students.</p>
<p>I don’t know if I would describe the difference as “huge” 47K for endowed 31K for land grant. For us we got zero FA for land grant & would have gotten aid for an endowed to bring the price to what we now pay anyways. </p>
<p>What did you mean by Bio and Chem majors do better in Arts and Sciences? Is it true that Human Ecology is basically Arts and Sciences but with a larger focus on humanities/liberal arts? I also heard that Human Ecology has a higher admit rate, can anybody confirm?</p>
<p>I did do a general information session at Cornell, but they didn’t really talk about the different schools-they just listed them off. I come from California, so I don’t think there’ll be a huge difference in cost. </p>
<p>Go to the website for each college and read the distribution requirements. There are differences between the two schools and their requirements. </p>
<p>You are correct that the Hum Ec admit rate is higher than the A&S admit rate.</p>
<p>I didn’t say bio and chem majors do better in arts and sciences. I just said people in those majors are typically either in arts or in CALS (CALS only offers bio though, not chem). Human ecology doesn’t offer a straight biology major; the closest they have is human biology, health, and society. And human ecology doesn’t offer a chem major at all, I believe. I also wouldn’t say human ec has a larger focus on humanities than CAS either. CAS is pretty focused on humanities and liberal arts as per our distribution requirements. The distribution requirements of the two colleges are quite different. And yes, human ecology does have a higher admit rate.</p>
<p>Ranza123 … you are correct, I minimized the difference, just wanted to clarify that the land grant schools do not pay SUNY tuition ($6,000 a year for in-state) as some assume. </p>