<p>I'm trying to decide between Cornell Eng and Stanford Eng.</p>
<p>I like the atmosphere at Cornell a lot better... I don't like the richness/fakeness of Stanford and when I went for admit weekend I didn't feel like I really fit in well there.</p>
<p>But I'm sure I could adjust to Stanford and I'm willing to go there if it would give me a lot more opportunities than Cornell Eng.</p>
<p>What is your own experience and what do you think? Even if I like the atmosphere at Stanford less is it worth going because it's "better than cornell?"</p>
<p>First of all, I'd ignore the U.S. News rankings, even though Stanford is ranked #2 and Cornell #10.</p>
<p>Cornell has just as good an Engineering program as Stanford does, so you should get equal opportunities at both.</p>
<p>Go where your heart desires. If it's Cornell, then so be it. Don't try to force yourself to go where you really don't want to go, only because of reputation/ranking. (And besides, there really isn't a difference between Cornell and Stanford in reputation or academic quality. To me, they both are equal.)</p>
<p>stanford students are happier. you might grow to like stanford better once you go there. cornell likes to force the competition through harsh grading curves enforced by university policy, creating an unpleasant atmoshphere.</p>
<p>One thing that does bother me about Cornell engineering though, even though I've heard good things about it, is that it has a very high acceptance rate and low yield.</p>
<p>Has that bothered other people? Stanford has like a 10% acceptance rate and 70% yield while Cornell Eng has a 35% acceptance rate and 40% yield.</p>
<p>With such low numbers, how can the students at cornell be as good as Stanford's? And if the kids aren't as good, since it's much easier to get into, how can it be as respected?</p>
<p>i have a number of friends at cornell who tell me about the curving system at cornell. they "weed out" weaker prospective engineers. theres a reason for cornell's high suicide rate.</p>
<p>Stanford engineering is top-notch, and so it's probably more prestigious than Cornell. Even so, Cornell is the best for engineering among the Ivies. Stanford has grade inflation (although not as much for engineering) whereas Cornell's harsh grading system is killer (sometimes literally). That probably accounts for Stanford engineering's higher yield, along with its convenient location near Silicon Valley and slightly more prestige.</p>
<p>First of all, Stanford has a top-notch reputation in Engineering along with MIT, Berkeley, and Caltech, definitely higher than Cornell. It has a strong connection with companies in Silicon Valley, most of which have some connection to Stanford alumni (founder, CEO, etc). This makes it easy to find internships and jobs.</p>
<p>Just don't worry about which college will get you the higher paying job or whatever. You'll do fine either way. Just go to the college where you're going to have the most fulfilling experience.</p>
<p>im_blue, you're failing to recognize that Silicon valley companies are primarily companies in the computing industry, which is only a fraction of what overall engineering is. Just because Stanford has an advantage in one particular field of engineering in one particular job location does not automatically make it better in all of engineering.</p>
<p>.....so I think getting into Cornell/Stanford are both equally tough.</p>
<p>Also, bear in mind that Stanford courses are more practice-oriented (i.e. projects) whereas Cornell's are more theory based (i.e. paper research/exams), so that's something to consider.</p>
<p>Stanford has a slight edge in name recognition, but Cornell is an Ivy league school!</p>
<p>Acceptance rates can be meaningless. Harvey Mudd's acceptance rate is 36%, double the acceptance rate of schools of the same caliber. To me, in the case of top engineering schools, a lower acceptance rate just means more randomness in admissions, not better students.</p>
<p>Those USNews stats are for grad school. I'm pretty sure that this thread is about their undergrad programs. Zooky mentioned Admit Weekend, which is for prospective freshmen. In terms of undergrad, Stanford doesn't admit by individual schools, so you can argue that its acceptance rate across the board is about 11-12%. I'm not sure about Cornell's undergrad engineering acceptance rate, though.</p>
<p>Well from what I understand, Cornell Engineers have a really tough time keeping up with the classes which are purposely made “hard” to weed out those who don’t have the aptitude to become engineers. So if you’re looking for an easy 4 years cornell’s not the place for you, but if you’re looking for a thorough education surrounded by a lot of bright minds I think it’ll suite you well.</p>