Hi! I am interested in the engineering program at Cornell and have a couple of questions. Most importantly, I want to do a liberal arts engineering program where the divides between the engineering program and the ability to attain a liberal arts education is synonymous. Does Cornell promote this, especially when admission the the engineering school is separate? What is Cornell’s commitment to the undergrad? Is the academic climate really that cut-throat?
Thanks.
Let me Google it for you:
http://courses.cornell.edu/content.php?catoid=12&navoid=2211
Admission to the engineering school at most colleges is separate, Cornell is no different.
Cornell is very committed to the UG, go to Cornell’s website and search.
Cornell attracts top tier students, hence courses are taught at a higher level. Not sure what you mean by cut throat.
Classes are graded on a curve, so with lots of very bright students, good grades are harder to get. But from what I’ve heard, people are more collaborative than cut throat.
If you are interested in an engineering education with a healthy balance of liberal arts, you should consider Penn. Penn’s approach to education is interdisciplinary in every sense of the word and engineering students can easily take courses, pursue minors, or earn certificates in the liberal arts.
“As an Ivy League institution… Penn delivers a transformative experience in the classroom and laboratory, while ensuring its engineering and applied science students receive a fully rounded liberal arts education.”
https://www.seas.upenn.edu/prospective-students/undergrad/why-penn-engineering-2/
Furthermore, because of Penn’s one university policy, it is easy to take classes across Penn’s other undergraduate schools as well as Penn’s professional and graduate schools. As an engineer, you can even add a minor in the College of Arts and Sciences without ever having to enroll as a student in the College. http://www.seas.upenn.edu/undergraduate/degrees/minors.php
Penn’s emphasis on interdisciplinary education and the value it places on undergraduate research encourages students to pursue their intellectual interests outside of class, in research projects that transcend the traditional boundaries of academia and bridge gaps between the liberal arts and engineering.
Finally, Penn, known as the “Social Ivy” is a lot more laid back than most of its peers which encourages more collaboration than competition on the whole.
Just some things to consider as you enter the application process! good luck 
Nice to see Penn has similar policy/curriculum as Cornell. I don’t think Penn is known for its engineering school.
Maybe you should look at Harvey Mudd.
Yeah the two programs have pretty similar outcomes for students as well. Comparing the career services reports for only Cornell Engineering and only Penn Engineering for the class of 2014:
http://www.engineering.cornell.edu/resources/career_services/students/statistics/upload/2014-COE-Overview.pdf
http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/files/SEAS_CPSurvey_2014.pdf
Average Starting Salary:
Cornell: $72, 263
Penn: $75, 003
Top Employers:
Cornell: Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Accenture, Workday
Penn: Accenture, Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Google, Microsoft
Top Grad School Destinations:
Cornell: Information Unavailable
Penn: (in alphabetical order) Caltech, Columbia, Cornell, MIT, Penn, Stanford
Of course Cornell Engineering is much larger than Penn engineering (Cornell graduated 728 students while Penn graduated 363 students), which is always something to keep in mind.
But in general, I think students going to either Penn Engineering or Cornell Engineering are able to find the opportunities on campus and afterwards for which they’re looking. Penn’s starting salary is a little higher but the top five companies at which students are employed are almost identical- the only difference being Workday at Cornell and Goldman at Penn. I think both would provide a pretty outstanding education!
You should look at the graduation requirements and the major requirements for the field you are interested in. While CS students can study in CAS, other engineering majors cannot.
I wouldn’t say Penn and Cornell’s engineering are the same. Cornell is ranked #10 and Penn is #26.
According to Cornell’s engineering requirements, they have Liberal Studies Distribution in their core requirements:
http://courses.cornell.edu/content.php?catoid=12&navoid=2097
No, I wouldn’t say they’re the same either. But rankings are an imperfect measure of educational quality. That same publication puts Cornell University at #15 overall while Dartmouth is #11, Penn is at #8, and Columbia is #4. However, in the real world (meaning not on CC) it might be challenging to find an educated person who genuinely thinks there is a huge difference in educational quality between places like Penn/Columbia/Dartmouth and a place like Cornell.
Actual comparisons of student outcomes are better measures of a school’s quality. Penn engineers make slightly more money on average than Cornell Engineers and they go onto largely the same jobs after college. While in college they both take rigorous engineering courses that they balance with the best humanities courses American universities have to offer. But if you DO like rankings, Penn’s one university policy allows Penn engineers to take classes and do research at “a top 7 law school,” a “top 3 business school,” “a top 5 medical school,” and “the #1 nursing school” (among other outstanding programs) all on one, contiguous campus, fostering an incomparable abundance of meaningful, interdisciplinary opportunities.
That all being said, of course there are differences in the educations you’ll receive at any university. But in terms of where students end up, Penn Engineering and Cornell Engineering do similarly good jobs for their students.
PennCAS2014 - I am not sure why you are posting about Penn engineering here. I don’t think this thread is about Penn vs Cornell engineering. OP is asking if Cornell engineering school offers liberal arts education. I am sure Penn is wonderful, but let’s try to answer OP’s question.
I definitely did not mean to steal focus from the thread- though I do think meaningful comparisons between universities can help bring to light deeper understandings of each one being discussed. OP indicated that they were interested in a great engineering education that is well balanced with an outstanding liberal arts education which is something that Penn offers. As a consequence, I recommend that the student take a look at Penn.
I saw a thread about a student interested in something Penn offers- that’s all. I also thought you were interested in the info I shared since you seemed surprised that Penn had a great engineering school- so I provided context to support my claim. It was not my intention to distract from the conversation. I apologize if it seemed as if I was
PennCas2014 No worries. Thanks for the nod towards Penn.
just bump into this thread, and would share my thoughts that finding the best engineering that fits you may not be as simple as looking at the s0-and-so ranking… engineering school by itself is a complex institute, most ranking biased towards the size but it doesnt always fit op…Looking at someother factors such as their best specialized fields, class sizes, proximity to certain geographic regions are also critical factors…It wont hurt to compare several schools. cornell definitely is a great school, however, recent search on cornell cup competitions, some penn teams definitely show impressive results. goodluck to op’s search.