<p>I was admitted to both Cornell Hum Ec (NYS resident) and Middlebury College; would be HDFS major at Cornell, Psychology major (with Biology minor) at Middlebury. At this time, would be ultimately looking toward medical school. Also interested in Performing Arts (singing, acting, musical theatre). Both campuses are gorgeous with great food. Not necessarily interested in the Greek or sports scene. I know a number of people attending Cornell (and Binghamton), some of whom are close friends, and have a couple of acquaintances at Midd. Will be going to both campuses' Accepted Students' Days this week. I know that I have a couple of wonderful choices, but am leaning toward the smaller LAC experience, despite the extra cost. Any thoughts? (Similarly posted on Midd board but wanted to be fair to allow some Cornell folks to give their input.)</p>
<p>The LAC experience is more intimate and has the advantage of small classes. There is often a predominant campus culture which can be great socially if you fit well. </p>
<p>On the other hand an LAC can be a lot less than great socially if you don’t fit well with the predominant campus culture. An isolated, small campus can get boring after a year or two. And an LAC is more likely to have less or no coverage in a particular subfield that may wind up interesting you, as you move towards senior year. And an LAC is more likely to offer a number of advanced-level courses only every other year, or once a year, and offer them in only a single section. This promotes scheduling conflicts. Also, D1s LAC cycled through a surprising (to me) number of newly-minted PhDs and “visiting professors”.These points are general but they are not theoretical, D1 encountered all of above, but at a different large LAC. So these are some things you might want to look into.</p>
<p>A university course catalog will dwarf that of most LACs, There is simply more one can learn there,
But it will tend to have larger classes. There will also be TAs. Though except for two freshman seminars I encountered them only in recitation sections and labs. Personally I didn’t find them to be a big deficit but much is made of that. Their use is actually helpful in some cases. For example when the LAC did have a relatively large class, it either used [less qualified]undergrads as TAs, or in one case D1s professor assigned very few deliverables in the course so she wouldn’t have much to grade. In another case, she went to her prof for help in an area she was having trouble with, and he then changed a test question to focus on that very area! If she’d gone to a TA for help instead, the prof. wouldn’t have known. I’m not suggesting TAs are wonderful, just that they are not necessarily the end of the world either. Particualry since their presence facilitates greater accesss to more courses.</p>
<p>Suggest this thread may interest you:
<a href=“Cornell vs. Middlebury - #16 by OldbatesieDoc - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/903590-cornell-vs-middlebury-p2.html</a>
Also, my “What’s Happening” post yesterday can be used to check out what’s going on at Cornell. You might compare to your other choice.</p>
<p>Anyway IMO reasonable people could choose either environment. I think D2 did it best actually. She spent her first three semesters at an LAC and then transferred to a university!</p>
<p>But in this particular case there is another consideration. You are not admitted to CAS at Cornell, you are admitted to the College of Human Ecology. As such there is a different curriculum, with a different layout of how many courses you can must take within Hum Ec, vs elsewhere in the university. I suggest you make a detailed examination of what that would mean in your case. My son considered applying to Hum Ec, but decided not to after he realized he was constrained, and would have to take a fair number of courses he had no interest in. You, on the other hand , may like or even prefer that curriculum. Remember one’s major only accounts for about 1/3 of the total college courses they will take.</p>
<p>Hum Ec may well have smaller classes than other parts of the university, you might look into that. HDFS there was considered a truly outstanding program when I attended. They had a giant in the field, Bronfenbrenner, running it. But he is of course long gone.</p>
<p>As a NYS resident you are no doubt aware of financial ramifications, so no need to belabor those…</p>
<p>Another thing, some people get intimidated initially by the size of the campus.
Since you have friends there, suggest you get them to help you with what I did when D2 expressed concern about this.</p>
<p>Print out a map of the campus.
Then, since you’'re not interested in frats or sports, have your friends rip off those area from the campus map.
You’re not interested in the Hotel school or engineering, have them rip off the area from the engineering quad through the hotel school.</p>
<p>You’re no farmer,rip off everything on the ag quad above Martha van Rensselear.</p>
<p>You’re not an upperclassman, rip off West campus.</p>
<p>What’s left, basically the stretch from Martha Van through the Arts quad to Williard Straight Hall, is the fraction of the campus you actually need to care about, initially. That part isn’t really very big. Yet the rest of the campus leaves new vistas to explore in the future, </p>
<p>Yes it looks big intitially, but in practice people are successfully navigating the campus (or the part of it they need to navigate) with no problem within a week.</p>
<p>And the new vistas are preferable to getting bored at a little campus.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your responses. I attended both schools’ Admitted Students’ Days last week. My father is a Cornell alum, and I have been to Ithaca many times, so I know how very much the area has to offer. However, after much deliberation and soul-searching, I decided that the smaller LAC experience at Middlebury would be a better fit for me. </p>
<p>Congrats and best wishes. And thanks for letting us know what you decided.</p>
<p>Scopemonkey, Is this one by you also true? </p>
<p>“Back in the late 70s-early 80s, I spent four consecutive summers at Cornell–the first doing research, and the last three as a Chemistry TA. . . . .”</p>
<p>Very observant! We share the same handle and password, hopefully speaking with one voice.
I am the Father Scopemonkey! Scopemonkey, Jr. will enjoy!!!</p>
<p>^ Great to know that the son is open to share an account with the dad!</p>
<p>I am just curious about FOUR summers of research and TA. Were you doing research after freshman year and as a TA after graduation? </p>
<p>1 summer of research in Microbiology after junior year; the next 3 summers TA’ing Chem 103-104 or 207-208 (while in medical school, I had the first two summers off)…I started TAing Chem 207-208 during my junior year (as a Biology major). Summer is absolutely glorious in Ithaca—not so sure that I’d want to be a student taking an intensive six weeks of chemistry over the summer, though, since there wouldn’t have been nearly so much time to enjoy all that Ithaca and environs offers.<br>
—Father Scopemonkey 
</p>