Cornell Engineering vs. UVA University of Virginia Engineering ?

College Search & Selection
1

I recently got accepted into Cornell and UVA engineering schools. I plan to major in Computer Science or Chemical Engineering. I understand both schools are great and fun. I am really interested in meeting a lot of fun people to have lasting friendships with and prefer to not have a stressful academic experience. I would also be interested in rushing a frat and am excited about the party scene. I live in NY, 50 minutes north of NYC. The location isn’t much of an issue, though. I still will visit both schools in two weeks and that will hopefully help. My parents and some friends recommend Cornell, and I must admit that the prestige of the name and Ivy status is intriguing. I guess the question is can anyone give any feedback on the overall student life, on which might be better for job opportunities, and ultimately on which one seems better for someone like me. Thanks!

2

Don’t know much about UVA, but I studied CS and CE, and my sons study CS (one both CS and ME).
One at Cornell, and the other RPI.

  1. Engineering school is a grind at most colleges, Fun and engineering just don’t go together :slight_smile:

  2. Cornell is more of a grind than most colleges, you will work very very hard in many majors there,
    especially engineering and CS.

  3. The profs my son had in Chem and CS at Cornell were just terrible. They simply don’t teach well at all. As a CS grad myself, I reviewed lectures notes at Cornell and RPI for same classes. RPI’s were clear and useful, Cornell’s lecture slides were just unintelligible. The TAs are absolutely no help at Cornell in CS nor Chem. My son had Chem labs where the TA answer for help requested was “read the lab notes”. In a CS class, questions to another TA resulted in “go google it, I don’t know how to do that myself either”.

You would be surrounded by some really great students at Cornell, but be taught by profs whose main
interest is their research, not their undergrads. There are exceptions I am sure by\ut my junior has not had many. At RPI, my other son finds profs who will help, gets well constructed assignments and lecture notes. Prestige names aren’t everything. I will say my son at Cornell likes his dorm, the campus, met some nice people, generally happy outside academics. We love the idea of Cornell, but my son did not have a great academic experience there, and not just in CS/engineering classes.

If you are best at self learning, willing to work very long hours, love a truly scenic campus, don’t mind the cold, and want a “party school” full of really smart kids, go for it with Cornell. it is as much a party school as it could be given the intense amounts of work expected.