<p>So I've been reading a few comments on this website and I came across posts that depicted Cornell as the "lowest Ivy," if that even makes any sense. This really made me angry and I wanted to know if anyone else encountered this type of attitude about Cornell. Do students on campus feel Cornell is the "worst Ivy"? I really hope not.</p>
<p>oh yeah, it really annoys me too. In my opinion Cornell is one of the most highly respected Ivies, at least by people that matter :)</p>
<p>Oh, and if its a Cornell person doing the bashing, they deserve to be thrown from the top of the clock tower :P</p>
<p>dont worry ... some people are extremely insecure about themselves. I've been across places like the one you're describing, and from my experience I can assure you the 'real world' is not like that. You need to be concerned about grad schools and employers. They know how great Cornell is. Anybody who says otherwise has issues that go beyond what we should care about. </p>
<p>Be proud!</p>
<p>Well, even though I'm Cornell Class of 2010, I'm not bothered by Cornell bashing...</p>
<p>It doesn't really matter what other HS students (or even other undergraduate students for that matter) think of Cornell. Why? Because they're not the ones who are gonna look for employees/grad students in the Cornell student population!</p>
<p>Everyone who bashes Cornell has no idea what he/she is talking about (probably just another HS student who hasn't even started the college process hearing a lot of propaganda and being mystified into thinking that a lower acceptance rate= better school).</p>
<p>Plus, I don't think it's right for anyone to bash any school and say that there are major prestige discrepancies between equally qualified schools. After all, they probably haven't even attended either school (let alone both!).</p>
<p>Just smile, nod, and ignore the basher :D</p>
<p>yeah that's lame, every school has different strengths, and just because cornell used to have higher admissions rates than the other ivies people love to bash it. for all we know, that could have just meant that cornell had the most qualified applicants :) anyway, admissions rates have really gone down at cornell, so those bashers are just bitter</p>
<p>well, rates have gone down, but Cornell is still the only ivy whose overall admission rate is over 20%</p>
<p>that may be, but that also really shouldn't matter.</p>
<p>people worry too much about the prospect of schools ranked higher than them in USNEWS. cornell is one of the best universities around, period, and that should be enough to make any undergraduate or alumnus proud of his alma mater.</p>
<p>most people have an excellent impression of cornell, and when someone has a false impression of it, i try and correct that, but i don't lose sleep over someone thinking cornell is the "lowest ivy."</p>
<p>I honestly don't understand it at all. I've often felt that once you're actually THERE, it doesn't really matter if it's one Ivy or another...you're AT a top school and that's what matters.</p>
<p>A school with triple the number of students cannot possibly have an admissions rate equal to its smaller peers. Admissions rate means nothing.</p>
<p>c'mon if most of these people were admitted at cornell, they'd happily go. They're just going off of admissions numbers and rankings b/c that's all they know and they've never been to Cornell...given the chance to attend, I'm sure Cornell would jump way up on the list in their eyes.</p>
<p>Part of the reason that Cornell has the rep. of being the "lowest Ivy" is in part because it's the somewhat different brother compared to its other (older-much older) siblings in the Ivy League. It was established later and in many respects, it does not carry the elitist-snobbery connotations that the other Ivies do. (I'm not arguing whether or not this reputation is deserved or not)</p>
<p>Cornell is also different in other respects: parts of it are affiliated with the NY state school system and unlike the other Ivies; the undergraduate system is divided into several schools that each have very different levels of rigor and acceptance rates. </p>
<p>All said, at the end of the day, Cornell is no better or worse (and certainly not "Lower") than other Ivy schools. Those who say so are simply ignorant or misinformed. Cornell is simply a "different" kind of school compared to say Yale or Princeton just as Brown is not the same as Columbia and Columbia is not the same as Dartmouth. They are function slightly differently and have different structures. </p>
<p>One COULD argue which system is better or worse (many seperate undergrad schools versus a College say at Yale or Harvard versus a liberal arts-like institution such as Dartmouth; or Core Curriculum vs. no curriculum) ; however, when it comes to the quality of academics, I'd say they're all just as good.</p>
<p>I'd like to offer up the single, greatest thing that Cornell has that no other Ivy League has...the alumni network. With a school 3 times the size of some of the other Ivies, comes an alumni network 3 times the size of some of the other Ivies. I haven't even taken one CLASS at Cornell (2010 student), and the Cornell name has already helped me. In looking for an internship this summer, I found that the CEO of the company that I wanted to intern for was a Cornell grad. I used some connections I had to get an interview with him and I am POSITIVE that the Cornell name (as well as my interviewing skills and favorable accomplishments in high school) helped tremendously in getting the internship. Now that I intern there for this summer, I've found that 3 other people in there are also from Cornell, and every time they ask me where I'm going and I respond I'm going to Cornell, they suddenly become more friendly, more helpful, and more "impressed". Take that into consideration.</p>
<p>The major thing that Cornell has that the other Ivies do not is a broad, diversified academic excellence, that is, there is not a single field or major that is not very strong or extraordinary. Whether it's animal science or horticulture or textiles or architecture or hospitality or nutrition or any number of other "niche" fields, Cornell offers opportunities that the others cannot. Hence, the founder's motto!</p>
<p>What has to be remembered in this discussion is that the Ivy League is an athletic league, not an academic one. If the Ivies were an academic league, half of them wouldn't make the Top 8 and it'd be something like in alphabetical order: CalTech, Columbia, Duke, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale.</p>
<p>And in an Ivy athletic league, no one rarely beats Cornell in hockey!</p>
<p>Yes I do get a lot of respect because of Cornell. I love the school and noone should ever bash it (noone does in person to me because they are all impressed and not snobby @$$'s lol - small town hah).</p>
<p>OOOO a FUNNY thing about the alumni thing. At the freshman college I'm going to (I'm a GT), they were like <em>impressive voice</em> "We even have had TWENTY-THOUSAND people graduate from here! That's a lot of alumni!" and everyone was like "woooow". I was like...that's how many people attend Cornell each year...! lol</p>