<p>1) As you are aware, Cornell offers the full range of liberal arts offerings. The offerings of the other colleges are just icing on the cake, but they certainly contribute to what is available. </p>
<p>When you posted,</p>
<p>"But in how many places is an engineer with a diverse array of non-engineering interests going to be able to satisfy such a range of intellectual curiosity, and still meet his major requirements?"</p>
<p>That certainly pertains to quantity. My post was in response to this question you posed. Cornell, for one, is such a place. In all likelihood one can study a broader array of subjects, in greater depth, at Cornell than at Columbia.</p>
<p>So now that your prior quantity assertion has been obliterated, now all of a sudden the tune is changing to "it's not quantity after all, not's quality".</p>
<p>However:</p>
<p>2) Only cool-aid drinkers think a Great Books curriculum is necessarily "better" than conventional liberal arts offerings. Columbia's curriculum is an extreme outlier in this regard, not the norm. Lots of people actually affirmatively don't want to take these courses. My kids didn't. In any event it is a matter of opinion, not a fact. I agree that people with this opinion should choose Columbia, other things being equal. But many people don't want such a curriculum. Otherwise more than about 4 schools in this entire country would offer it.</p>
<p>3) Realistically any blanket assertions regarding superior "quality" of actual individual classes, is pretty much hot air. As Professor-dependant as this can be. Particularly without actual experience at both schools.</p>
<p>The two Nobel Prize winners I personally took classes from did not sufficiently inspire me to get my own Nobel Prize, so maybe that's a failure. Great for them, though.</p>
<p>I'll agree with #3, but your post cited some ludicrous examples of quality, which is what I was addressing.</p>
<p>You appear to be arguing that Cornell offers both greater quantity and quality of inspiring courses than Columbia. You're entitled to your opinion, but there are many of us here who would disagree with you, as well as a wide variety of employers, school rankings, and that one transfer girl (nancy?) who's transferring from ChemE at cornell to ChemE at columbia. </p>
<p>I think we've given the OP as much background as he/she could want.</p>
<p>Well I have to admit it's been interesting to read the debate on this thread.</p>
<p>I ended up choosing Columbia, and I'm pretty pumped. Could anyone give advice on housing and such first year details or point me in the direction of a thread?</p>
<p>Personally I don't put much stock in these rankings, but given the facts as they are I'm surprised you brought it up. The 2007 US News shows Cornell's Engineering School ranked #10 and Columbia SEAS ranked #25. </p>
<p>Though less directly relevant here, If they had rankings that applied to Cornell's specialty colleges they would show all of them ranked #1- #3 at worst in their respective specialty areas. Only Arts & Sciences would be lower than #10, but it is still plenty strong.</p>
<p>So we've addressed: engineering college rankings, outside electives, and Nancy. As for employers, I think that's going to go the way of the "course quality " discussion. Unless someone has data on # engineering employers recruiting for engineering jobs at each of these schools. Frankly I don't think this other leg will go the way you want it to either, if the data was available. Once again, I'm surprised you brought it up.</p>
<p>The course examples I cited are in fact not ludicrous to those in the know, since many people who have the option to choose them do so. But in any event there are many other examples, depending on each individual's own "range of intellectual curiosity". In my own case, I took an independent study in solar energy development with an Ag school prof. Among other courses. I would guess that most people at Cornell take at least a course or two outside of their own college and the Arts & Sciences college. They do so because they find additional value there beyond the more "vanilla", conventional offerings. In other words a wider range of intellectual curiosity can be addressed at Cornell.</p>
<p>Wasnt meant to be of offense to you, because you are right, it is a very good discussion. I was just bringing up when D said the same thing to me but in a friendlier tone.</p>
<p>Lol in reply to monydad post #29 “Someone with similar questions in the future , who is aware of this, may elect to use same to search for relevant past posts.” This is exactly what I did since I’m currently looking for more information since I am cornell engineering atm and I need to transfer to a school in nyc because my dad had a stroke and is sick. This thread was very helpful.</p>