<p>The SAT 25th-75th percentiles for Cornell Engineering overall are 1360-1520.</p>
<p>Eurasianboy, I would recommend that you take advantage of all the activities and cultural events that Cornell has to offer. Explore the beautiful area around Ithaca; the Finger Lakes region is vary scenic. Try to get to know students outside your major. It is easy to let the ECE curriculum consume all your time.</p>
<p>My own personal opinion here would be Cornell. </p>
<p>True, Cal EECS > Cornell EECS, but when you factor in research opportunities, networking, the change of environment, the college feel of Cornell, the fact that very few Cal students use the city (most of my friends who went there ventured off campus at most once a month, comparable to how often people at Cornell will take a free trip with a class/club/dorm to NYC), and especially the impeding issue with the CA government (would you have waned to enroll in a CUNY school in 1974?), it is (to me at least) a very clear cut decision. </p>
<p>That being said, I was a very motivated student in college, and really looked to take advantage of the resources provided by my university. When I visited Cal, I felt I simply wouldn’t have access to the same opportunities (or that they would be much harder to come by).</p>
<p>1) Your first statement is absolutely false. First of all the only SUNY affiliated colleges at Cornell are ILR, Hotel, and HumEc. The Engineering college has no affiliation to SUNY whatsoever. </p>
<p>2) Further, the SUNY affiliation does little other than offer extra financial aid to students of those colleges. As seen by educational legislation within the last few years, Cornell has never opted to follow legal statures put forth by the Supreme Court which have applied to public universities, but have instead chosen to abide by their own laws of campus governance. </p>
<p>3) Dartmouth, Harvard, and UPenn by far top the list of vocationally focused students in the Ivy League. True: Cornell does have vocational based programs such as Engineering, Hotel, and Architecture (all of which are top ranked programs in their respective fields, mind you). However, there are engineering students at many Ivy League schools, and the number of students with vocational focuses aiming for Law School, Med School, and Investment Banking and Penn, Dartmouth, and Harvard far outweigh the proportion of those at Cornell. </p>
<p>4) Many private institutions are located in rural locations, including other Ivies such as Brown and Princeton, along with many of the top LACs in the NE. </p>
<p>5) Yale, Dartmouth, Columbia, Penn, and Cornell all have Greek-life aspects to campus. Further, Dartmouth by far has the largest percentage of students involved in Greek life (somewhere around 70% of the campus, compared to 30% at Cornell). Other notable institutions like Stanford also have prevalent Greek life on campus. </p>
<p>The personal attention, small class sizes, networking, and specified job opportunities (via on-campus recruiting) available at all of the Ivies provide what is far from a “public” university experience.</p>
<p>“…at most once a month, comparable to how often people at Cornell will take a free trip with a class/club/dorm to NYC)”</p>
<p>I admire your enthusiasm, but few people would make it to NYC anywhere near once a month, it kills a weekend and they don’t have the time. We live in NYC suburbs, D2 comes in for major vacations, that’s it. That’s all I did too. And at least we had places to stay when we came in, kids from elsewhere would have to figure that part out. Besides, it’s nice in Ithaca, and all their friends are there.</p>