<p>It’s actually not very complicated. 95% of Cornell students don’t care what college you attend. But, no one can guarantee that all 13,000 Cornell undergrads don’t care. A few may care (as this thread can attest) and you may even run into one or two of them. Should that deter you from applying to CALS or HumEc? No.</p>
<p>Again, Ann Coulter is not a reporter. We’re not even sure she’s human. Read some of her other “opinions” and you will see why no one should take this debate she has with Keith Olberman seriously.</p>
<p>I LOL very hard at the claim that CALS is not Ivy League Cornell.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure CALS students are allowed to play sports =p</p>
<p>And even if they weren’t, it doesn’t really matter in the debate since Coulter and Olberman aren’t athletes, so participation in Ivy League sports teams is irrelevant.</p>
<p>cals is definitely part of cornell and part of the ivy league schools
cals is an excellent college
the concern of the thread is how much less prestigious is cals than cas or engineering at cornell…</p>
<p>Like I said, the only criticism Ann Coulter could have possibly ragged on Keith because he was a Communications major and took an easy way through college. Clearly that’s ridiculous since look where it has gotten him, but like pretty much every other college, Communications is considered a pretty easy major. Again to clarify, that’s not to say it’s bad by any means, but it is rather easy from what I’ve seen heard. Not all majors are created equal and Communications tends to be low on the rigor hierarchy. Coulter might have taken the argument one step further and said that given Cornell’s academic reputation is largely based on its rigor, going with an easy major at the school is not living up to the school’s potential.</p>
<p>I think it’s really about agriculture, in general, being looked down upon by certain people. It takes a lot of different types to make the world go 'round - not just liberal arts. Career-based curriculums like farming, engineering may not be “top tier” in some people’s opinions, but they are certainly necessary.</p>
<p>Great point by swimmer! Agriculture is important and Cornell is probably one of the best places to learn about it in CALS. people should not be comparing cornell’s college of agriculture and life sciences to its other colleges. Each college has its own role. Yes, Arts & Sciences is more in line with the other ivys in terms of being an arts and science college with very selective admission stats. When you compare Cornell Arts & Sciences college to Universities like HYPS etc, Cornell is probably the smallest and almost as difficult to get into. Still, the Cornell’s college of Agriculture is famous around the world for its agriculture programs and its graduates do well in all fields. Comparing the Agriculture or Ecology colleges at cornell to HYPS etc makes no sense. They are not similar. HYPS etc are basically only Liberal Arts & Sciences colleges like Cornell’s CAS. If you want the Arts & Sciences Cornell CAS is great - right up there with the best in the country. If you want something more specialized like agriculture studies, don’t worry that CALS is a state contract schools or are easier to get into than CAS. It is still a part of cornell and don’t have a concern about that. Look at what you want to do and what is best for you. For a NY state resident interested in Agriculture you can’t beat the price of Cornell’s state contract colleges like CALS. This is my opinion.</p>
<p>Does anyone know the % of NY state residents in the state funded schools at cornell? Are there many from out of state or is it just basically made up of New Yorkers?</p>
<p>I know there are mostly New Yorkers (or at least a significant percentage of them) in the contract colleges. However, there are still a lot of non-New Yorkers and internationals in CALS. Also, the demographic data really varies from major to major.</p>
<p>Something else to keep in mind is that the skillset required to work in publishing, for example, is very different than that required to manage a large farming operation. To make an across-the-board comparison of test scores / GPAs misses the point that Cornell already knows: different strokes for different folks. I’m pretty sure most CAS students couldn’t get accepted into the Animal Sciences program based on their limited experiences in managing business operations and working in agriculture.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to reduce CALS to farming, since it’s far from just that with all the life sciences, business, communications, ecology studies and others, but just using that as an example.</p>
<p>wow, that document from cornell shows that more than 1 out of every 2 students in the state contracted colleges at the University is from NY. I think that is very similar to the regular SUNY schools throughout the state of NY which also have more than 50% of the student population from NY. I wonder if it is just the cheaper tuition or something else that makes the state schools at cornell have over 50% from NY. Not very diverse geographically. The endowed colleges - CAS and Engineering have only like 1 out of 5 from NY - much more diverse.</p>
<p>You would expect the contract colleges to have more New Yorkers since they get a significant tuition break. If you want a bio major and you’re from New York, why would you pay tens of thousands more to get the same degree? 50% is actually not a lot. Many true state schools have 90%+ who are in-state.</p>
<p>norcalgy, the tuition break is huge. But, I don’t think too many consider a CALS or degree from any of the other state contracted cornell schools to be as prestigious as one from CAS or Engineering - those schools have way lower admission rates and higher stats for admitted applicants and seem to be a common cross app school with HYPS. whether the CAS or Engineering degree is worth the extra money for a NY state resident who can find a similar major in CALS is a personal preference. But looking at the post and link by monydad, cornell’s state colleges have over 50% from NY state, very similar to the regular SUNY Colleges in NY. the guy I interviewed with in November was originally from NY (manhattan) and said he would not have considered any of Cornell colleges accept Arts & Sciences because he did not know what he wanted to study, was not eligible for aid, and prestige was very important to him - he went to some private H.S. in manhattan that sent a lot of kids to Cornell arts and sciences and the other ivys… . He was kind of a big shot lawyer who told me that he went to Cornell over Columbia; I asked him why and he said he wanted to get out of the city. maybe years ago, Cornell CAS was much more prestigious than graduating from a state contract college at cornell. Today, I think the rep of the endowed and contract colleges are close</p>