Cornell or Berkeley?

[squelchy451]

<p>Hi.</p>

<p>Planned major: econ and applied math/stats
I got more financial aid from cornell so in the end cost is the same</p>

<p>I prefer cornell</p>

<p>for econ cornell > berkeley?</p>

[Orvent]

<p>I am trying to answer the same question but for Biology. I just went to Cornell days and next weekend i am going to Cal Day.</p>

[campuscsi]

<p>how much more is your finaid from cornell? when going from CA to cornell you have to factor in the costs of transportation (flight + taxi/shuttle + baggage fees (they now charge for carry ons)) as well as the cost of winter clothes (boots, jackets, sweaters)</p>

<p>if you go home for all breaks i’d add like 1-3k for transportation (unless you buy ahead)</p>

<p>and like 200-500$ for winter gear.</p>

[oldfort]

<p>One thing to consider is CA’s state budget. It is having an impact on its state schools. Another thing to consider is where would you want to work when you graduate. Cornell is a target school for many finance firms with very strong alumni network.</p>

[weirdon]

<p>I see that you are CA resident. I don’t know why you choose Cornell.</p>

[CayugaRed2005]

<p>If the cost is the same, go to Cornell. More resources, more focus on undergraduate education, and a more cohesive campus experience.</p>

[roneald]

<p>

I see that you are CA resident. I don’t know why you choose Cornell.

</p>

<p>Maybe he wants to work on the East Coast. Maybe he wants to do undergraduate research. Maybe he doesn’t want GE’s. Maybe he wants to have electives outside of his major. Maybe he wants to go into investment banking and wants to attend an undisputed target school. Hell, maybe he just wants to get away from the same 25 mile radius he’s lived his entire life. </p>

<p>Please don’t make blatant statements like that because they can give OP’s horribly incorrect information. </p>

<p>By the way, I’m a CA resident who got into Cal and attends Cornell.</p>

[UCBChemEGrad]

<p>

One thing to consider is CA’s state budget. It is having an impact on its state schools.

Just like Cornell’s debt:
[Cornell</a> Gets Moody?s Bond Rating Outlook Reduced (Update2) - BusinessWeek](<a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>Bloomberg - Are you a robot?)</p>

[oldfort]

<p>

“The university is borrowing $285 million to invest in biomedical research by constructing a new facility at our medical college in New York City,” said Joanne DeStefano, Cornell’s vice president for finance, in an e-mail.</p>

<p>“Given the current low interest rates, the university also feels it is prudent to restructure its overall debt portfolio by reducing variable rate debt and swap exposure risks by 50 percent and 30 percent, respectively,” DeStefano said. “The cost of the swap terminations will be financed
“While Moody’s has changed our outlook from stable to negative watch, the university is pleased that we have maintained our Aa1 rating,” DeStefano said in the e-mail. “We are confident the future will show the Aa1 rating is deserved.”

</p>

<p>Cornell didn’t get down graded again. Cornell is investing in a new facility, not cutting back. With 11% up in endowment in the first half of 2010, improvement in the economy, it is likely Aa1 rating will be unchanged. In the mean time it may cost Cornell more to borrow.</p>

<p>The main question is really will classes and services be cut, that’s what is important for students to consider. Many CA students are complaining about not able to get into required courses, which could mean possibility of losing full time student status and taking longer to graduate (5 years vs 4).</p>

[UCBChemEGrad]

<p>^ Moreso the case at CSUs than the flagship UC campus.</p>

<p>The article also wrote this about Cornell:

The lower outlook reflects a “tightening of operating performance” and a possible cut in state aid, Moody’s analysts Kimberly Tuby and Dennis Gephardt wrote in the report. It also came amid a “decline in pledges and new gifts to the university, and financial resources providing a thinner cushion for a significant amount of debt and large expense base, as a result of investment losses and rapid pace of borrowing in recent years,” they wrote.

</p>

[Ray192]

<p>Personally I would be much more worried about possible financial aid cutbacks due to budget cuts.</p>

[oldfort]

<p>The question you want to ask - Is CA state’s financial outlook is better than Cornell’s financial outlook? CA’s rating is currently at Baa1, its recovery is also going to be much slower than a private institution like Cornell. According to the article,

Cornell estimates the endowment is up 11 percent in the first half of fiscal 2010

</p>

<p>After the economic down turn, Cornell, like many other institutions, looked for ways to cut costs. I think duplicate classes have been consolidated, some services (hours) may have been reduced, and some construction projects may have been put on hold. But oit has not impacted overall students’ opportunities on campus. I am not sure if the same could be said about CA state schools.
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/education/20berkeley.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/education/20berkeley.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

As the University of California struggles to absorb its sharpest drop in state financing since the Great Depression, every professor, administrator and clerical worker has been put on furlough amounting to an average pay cut of 8 percent. </p>

<p>Many students are frozen out of required classes as course sections are trimmed.</p>

<p>Among students and faculty alike, there is a pervasive sense that the increases and the deep budget cuts are pushing the university into decline.</p>

<p>"Last semester, I couldn’t get into a lab section for Chem 3A,” said Nawal Siddiqui, a bioengineering major who hopes to go to medical school. “So now I’m taking Chem 3B lectures, with the labs for Chem 3A. It’s kind of hard.”

</p>

[CayugaRed2005]

<p>New York state’s fiscal outlook is light years ahead of California’s. California has to do something with Prop 13. Fast.</p>

[UCBChemEGrad]

<p>^ About a snowball’s chance in hell with Prop 13 changing. California needs to focus priorities on what made the state great in the first place - quality, affordable education and infrastructure. California promised its workers too much in the late go-go 1990s with state pensions…pension reform is what needs to be addressed first.</p>

[CayugaRed2005]

<p>

California promised its workers too much in the late go-go 1990s with state pensions…pension reform is what needs to be addressed first.

</p>

<p>Pension reform is a red herring. Sure, fix the small percentage of the pension population that spikes their last couple of years of income to game the system and increase employee contributions to the system, but the state pension systems are not inherently unstable. At the end of the day, there is a contract to be upheld.</p>

<p>And if you really think the pension system is all that lucrative, you should consider becoming a school bus driver or the like.</p>

<p>California’s system of taxing somebody on the unappreciated value of their property, however, is asinine, and borderline anti-democratic. I would personally never want to live in a state that taxes a family living in a $200,000 house more than a trust than owns commercial real estate currently valued in the tens of millions.</p>

[squelchy451]

<p>uuuh back to the OP…</p>

<p>I’m going into finances (banks, consulting firms, etc)
I visited both…I’m not that liberal (more left/middle) and urban…I used to live in a small city in Korea for 10 years and I actually prefer the small town feeling.</p>

[CayugaRed2005]

<p>

I used to live in a small city in Korea for 10 years and I actually prefer the small town feeling.

</p>

<p>Sounds like you made up your mind. Congratulations! My apologies for letting my anti-California bias creep into the conversation.</p>

[UCBChemEGrad]

<p>California legislature agreed to those contracts assuming 8% annual pension returns (an assumption that probably looked conservative in 1999).</p>

<p>

And if you really think the pension system is all that lucrative, you should consider becoming a school bus driver or the like.

Many do. Work as a fireman for 30 years, retire at 50 and get 100% of your salary with medical benefits for life. That’s unsustainable.</p>

<p>

California’s system of taxing somebody on the unappreciated value of their property, however, is asinine, and borderline anti-democratic.

No, it just creates a disincentive to move. I’ll agree that if Prop 13 wasn’t in place, California probably would not have seen the appreciation in housing prices that it has.</p>

[UCBChemEGrad]

<p>

Sounds like you made up your mind. Congratulations!

Of course the OP already made up his mind…it’s indicated in his “location”.</p>

[CayugaRed2005]

<p>

No, it just creates a disincentive to move.

</p>

<p>It pits the new against the old in a way that doesn’t exactly say ‘open community’ or ‘we are in this together’.</p>

<p>

California legislature agreed to those contracts assuming 8% annual pension returns (an assumption that probably looked conservative in 1999).

</p>

<p>Hopefully those weren’t Berkeley grads that agreed to those contracts. Doh!</p>