<p>I applied to two schools Cornell & Georgetown for their PhD programs in Arabic Linguistics. Georgetown has much more prestige within the field but Cornell's a decent overall school as well. On the flip side Georgetown has a smaller endowment so it is offering me a slightly more restricted fellowship package compared to the one offered by Cornell (and considering the cost of living is much lower in Ithaca, NY compared to D.C. I should be able to live quite comfortably if I were to chose Cornell.) Georgetown has more international recognition while Cornell has more national recognition (I had never heard of Cornell until I moved to the US, while Georgetown I'd heard of quite a bit).
Does anyone have any advice on what else I should be considering - who treats their graduate students better?
(P.S. - if your answer is chose Cornell cuz it's an IVY, then don't bother replying ;) cuz I figured that much already -- IVY, non-IVY doesn't fly too far when it comes to specific fields within academia.)</p>
<p>Honestly, I would choose G Town over Cornell, as much as I love Cornell. I think G'Town is more well known for its linguistics department and not to mention its location. Being in DC studying Arabic , I'm sure will lead you to a lot of opportunities.</p>
<p>G'Town is just really well known when it comes to IR and Linguistics. </p>
<p>Well I should ask you, what is it that you want to do in the future with your degree?</p>
<p>since you are considering the PhD program I would post this in the graduate school section of this forum instead of this area ...</p>
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Georgetown has more international recognition while Cornell has more national recognition
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<p>Gtown has more international prestige? Actually, Gtown is virtually unheard of in most regions of the world, while Cornell is decently well known. It may depend on the area that you are from, but, overall, Cornell's international prestige dwarfs that of Gtown's.</p>
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<p>I think that's highly debatable. I seriously doubt that Georgetown is "unheard of" in any region of the world where American academics are known. I would think that Georgetown and Cornell would most likely be in relatively the same class in international recognition, that class being right behind HYP.</p>
<p>"I would think that Georgetown and Cornell would most likely be in relatively the same class in international recognition, that class being right behind HYP"</p>
<p>this is laughable. and i agree with patlees88: whenever my peers from high school/elsewhere (recent immigrants) and i talk about American universities, almost all of them have heard of Cornell in their home country. brown, dartmouth, occasionally penn, and yes gtown don't ring a bell.</p>
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I think that's highly debatable. I seriously doubt that Georgetown is "unheard of" in any region of the world where American academics are known. I would think that Georgetown and Cornell would most likely be in relatively the same class in international recognition, that class being right behind HYP.
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<p>The thing is, this is not debatable at all. I myself am an international student, having lived overseas most of my life (S. Korea and Japan), Cornell comfortably fits into one of the handful U.S. universities that the general public, in this region, knows of. Not to mention, I have numerous Chinese friends here and some European friends here as well, and they all said after HYSM, Cornell, Columbia, and UC Berkeley were the 'next' class. After this, most people don't really know any other U.S. universities. To be frank, most people don't even know schools like Caltech, Duke, and other good U.S. schools. Gtown's international prestige or recognition, in most parts of the world, is almost non-existant.</p>
<p>when speaking of liberal arts studies i do picture HYP being top of their class...</p>
<p>we all know Cornell pwns in the Hard and Social Sciences...</p>
<p>you really need to factor in the cost of living if you want to go to georgetown. being from that area, everything...EVERYTHING in the dc metropolitan area (even the surrounding maryland and virginia areas) is very expensive.</p>
<p>I have had quite a different experience with regards to "international name recognition." Georgetown has one of the highest percentages of foreign students studying on its campus, and in choosing between Cornell and Georgetown last year, much of my decision was based on speaking to international students on campus who had regarded Georgetown as equal to or above Cornell. The fact is, it's not a competition, though in the field of Arabic studies I can attest to the fact that Georgetown has a great Arabic, Linguistics, and IR department. But to render the issue not debatable shows that patlees is, for some reason, personally invested in proving Cornell to be better than Georgetown, rather than helping this poster with his decision. Whether or not that is the case (I personally view them as equals), I don't think there's a wrong choice, though speaking from experience I can tell you that you will get a great Arabic education at Georgetown. However, Cornell being the amazing university that it is, I am sure you will receive a top notch education there as well.</p>
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patlees is, for some reason, personally invested in proving Cornell to be better than Georgetown, rather than helping this poster with his decision.
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<p>Well, the poster said this first.</p>
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Georgetown has more international recognition while Cornell has more national recognition (I had never heard of Cornell until I moved to the US, while Georgetown I'd heard of quite a bit).
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<p>I don't know where the poster is from, but I thought that it was absurd that one of the strengths of Gtown that the poster listed compared to Cornell was international recognition. Ironically, this is the area (internaional prestige) that Cornell happens to be exceptional at, esp. compared to Georgetown. I was helping the poster in the sense that it would be ridiculous to edge Gtown over Cornell bc of his belief that Gtown is more reputable than Cornell overseas.</p>
<p>Go to Georgetown.</p>
<p>Hmm... I'm not sure if you yourself are an international student Partless but if you're a local student and just speculating on this then I really do disagree with you. Georgetown is quite well-known internationally - I'm not sure which part of the world you've moved from but I'm speaking about the Middle east and South Asia (and Turkey). I'm not saying Cornell is unknown -- but I know for a fact that when I mentioned the two schools to relatives/friends back home (In the Middle East and South Asia) they all scratched their heads (<--metaphorically) when I said Cornell but knew exactly where and what Georgetown was. (And its almost vice-versa here in the US.)</p>
<p>AND - Dennis, I'm fairly certain I want to stay in Academia after I graduate. I'm not really looking to go into IR or anything (at this point). I'd really like nothing more to end up teaching Arabic and Linguistics @ some university somewhere ;).</p>
<p>Well in that case I think Cornell is more well suited for you. I think Cornell's prestige and boundless opportunities will help you in the long run for a career in academia.</p>
<p>but anyway, why does it matter whether a school is "known" around the world. thats a pretty shallow reason to pick a school if youre just going by that</p>
<p>You're absolutely right laurstar -- and that's certainly not the only thing I'm looking at when picking a school. I'm just going on the advice of someone who has been thru the system and told me, that the job market's such that I shouldn't disregard such things either -- I should consider every angle. The only reason why I'm bringing up the school's recognition abroad is on the off chance that I decide to move back and try to get into the academic circuit back home, it would be smoother if I came from a university known in that area. On second thought, I can't imagine either university being "unknown" to someone in this field of academia abroad - so I guess it's not much of an issue.</p>