<p>Why has Cornell been on a downward trend in rankings? Will it improve since its selectivity is improving? I want to beat out Brown.</p>
<p>Selectivity doesn’t ‘improve’ and Cornell is not the only college that is becoming more and more selective.</p>
<p>It’s because selectivity plays a significant part in the rankings, along with class size.</p>
<p>I understand your concern, but you just have to understand that it ultimately doesn’t say a whole lot about the quality of education. That said, I do wish we would go into WashU/Duke/Columbia mode and start gaming the rankings.</p>
<p>
Care to explain how these schools are gaming the rankings exactly?</p>
<p>Does it matter is Cornell is ranked 20 in one poll and 25 in another and 15 in another. They are all opinions with different formulas to rank them. It’s still a great school</p>
<p>Cornell is Ivy League. Nough said. I view Cornell in the top 8. Hint, there are 8 Ivies. Many employers feel the same way. I got into schools “ranked higher” than Cornell and still chose Cornell. There is no going wrong attending an Ivy, unless perhaps you’re in ILR or Hotel here at Cornell.</p>
<p>
What? Do you honestly view all 8 ivies ahead of other non-ivies like MIT and Stanford (even Caltech, UChicago, Northwestern, etc.)? I think all the ivies are great schools, but it doesn’t make any sense to say they are the top 8 schools in the country/world/whatever you are implying. This is simply not true.</p>
<p>I think departmental rankings are what people should look at not just the overall. And Cornell is pretty strong in engineering and Architecture for example. I really don’t see Cornell in low rankings except for Forbes which has a very ****ed up criteria. In overall rankings after MIT, Cambridge and Harvard schools, Cornell, Columbia and Caltech schools come in next. So I really don’t see Cornell in any downward trend. @collegiatedreams truth is there is no one college ahead of any other, each one has its own unique features.</p>
<p>Unibames, why do you say “unless you’re in ILR or Hotel here at Cornell”? I was under the impression that ILR was well thought of; I don’t know much about the Hotel School.</p>
<p>CollegiateDreams: Yeah, I do. And again, I took Cornell over “higher ranked schools.” One of the schools was one that you mentioned too. The Ivy League just isn’t regarded as this elite athletic conference anymore. It actually means something to say you’re Ivy League alum.</p>
<p>keepitinreal: Pick up a coin and toss it, what are the odds of getting either side? 50/50, right? That is the odds an applicant has getting into ILR. If ILR didn’t exist, and Hotel too perhaps (too lazy to check admission stats) our admission rate would drop substantially. Class of 2016 though was low enough as is. Well thought of for what? Being in human resources? Yeah we have a lot of pre-law kids, but honestly, people dress it up as that. ILR was started to make union leaders, not lawyers. It’s like hotel school where we have people learning how to cook a steak or uncork a bottle of wine going into high finance. I look at a Cornellian “ILR” the same way I look at a state school student.</p>
<p>According to the Admissions Statistics section of the Cornell website ([Admissions</a> counts](<a href=“http://irp.dpb.cornell.edu/tableau_visual/1483]Admissions”>Undergraduate admissions - Institutional Research & Planning)), there were 1208 applicants to ILR last year. Of those applicants, only 248 were accepted. </p>
<p>At a 20.5% acceptance rate, a 50/50 coin flip doesn’t do justice to the difficulty of gaining admission to ILR.</p>
<p>^He didn’t mean a literal 50% acceptance rate. I have to agree with his approach to Cornell. It’s truly an amazing school but a few factors, like ILR and hotel, bring it down because quite honestly the sentiments offered previously are correct. I mean what do you think is happening in hotel school? Advanced Concierge Service? People really need to stop dressing it up. </p>
<p>Cornell is truly an amazing school. I’ve been there many times and even in an educational setting. Top notch academics. And I do agree that the title “Ivy” is so much more then an athletic conference. Denouncing the title is what those people who couldn’t get in or enjoy “being different” express in order to quell some inward feelings of inferiority. UChicago, Stanford, and Duke are all amazing schools. But, their reputations are just taking off. The Ivy’s are much more well recognized and established. “Ivy is worthless.” Bullcrap. Anyone who truly goes out of there way to convey such a sentiment is simply suffering from Ivy-envy. People are going crazy because these newer elite schools are taking off and vogue. They are just as good if not better then some ivies when it comes to academics. Saying you have a degree from MIT, Stanford, or UChicago is nothing short of amazing. But, please dont discredit an Ivy simply to better present the elite school you attended.</p>
<p>cornell acceptance rates:</p>
<p>human eco 0.302
ILR 0.205
Hotel 0.27
Engineering 0.176
CAS 0.145
AAP 0.17
CALS 0.183</p>
<p>Overall 0.166</p>
<p>ILR is definitely not the reason why cornell has a higher acceptance rate than other ivies. the reason is that cornell has 14000 undergrad slots available and must accept a larger number than most other top schools to have the desired yield. BTW, in terms of starting salaries from cornell, it goes</p>
<p>1.Engineering
2.ILR
3.Hotel</p>
<p>“It actually means something to say you’re Ivy League alum” Yeah, it means a lot; you are studying at one of the greatest universities in the US (and the world). Nonetheless you’ll have a hard time finding a sane person on this globe who will put Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell and Penn ahead of Stanford or MIT. Of course, it’s quite hard to argue against the “I study here, so s t f u mentality.</p>
<p>
@Lelyke: I agree that each school has its own unique features and should be evaluated from each individual’s perspective. Just because a schools is ranked higher or considered to be “better” does not mean it is the better choice for every student, but to say “there is no one college ahead of any other” is complete nonsense. HYPSM are not any better than Syracuse, Purdue, Tulane, RPI, Penn State (etc)? That is not true. The latter schools I listed are all respectable schools, but they are not even near the level of HYPSM. Sure some other schools may be a better match for a particular student, but overall some schools (such as HYPSM) are simply “better” and “ahead of others.” I don’t see how you could dispute that.</p>
<p>
@Unibames: I think it’s good that you picked Cornell over higher ranked schools because Cornell seems to be a good fit for you. I do not doubt that Cornell is an excellent school, either. I agree that the Ivy League represents much more than an athletic conference, I just pointed that out to make me point that Ivy League does not equal the top 8 schools in the country. It may mean something to be an Ivy League alum to the “man on the street,” but I don’t think it has as much clout as you think to people in academia, employers, etc. None of these people would place Cornell (or maybe even Penn, Brown, Dartmouth) ahead of Stanford, MIT, Caltech, UChicago, Duke, etc. Does it really matter much? Probably not, but it still doesn’t make it true that all 8 Ivy League schools are better than any other school. They are all great schools and simply because a school is not in the Ivy League does not make it any “less good.”</p>
<p>
@ram0276: Is Brown (for example) really more recognized than Stanford, MIT, and Duke? I beg to differ. Chicago, Stanford, and Duke’s reputations are just taking off? What? These schools have been well respected for a while. This is not a new trend by any means. Ivy’s are better established? Well, most of them (if you measure “more well established” by the year they were founded), but again it is wrong to group them all together and talk about them as an entire entity of “better” schools. Cornell was founded in 1865. MIT was founded in 1861, Duke was founded in 1838, and Northwestern in 1851, so how is Cornell more well established than MIT, Duke, and Northwestern? Stanford was founded in 1891, Caltech in 1891, and UChicago in 1890. They are not much younger than Cornell.</p>
<p>
As I pointed at above, most of the schools you are talking about are not newer or “just taking off.” Especially in comparison to the newest ivy, Cornell.</p>
<p>
I never discredited Cornell (or any ivy). I don’t attend any elite school (I’m in HS, lol). As I have said over and over: I think Cornell is a great school, along with all the other Ivy League schools. BUT, I don’t think they are automatically better simply because they are in the Ivy League. There are some non-Ivy League schools that are “better” than some Ivy League schools. Simple as that.</p>
<p>I think the word you are looking for is prestige not “better”. Better makes it seem like you are 100% sure those universities will benefit the person more than the latter. And if we are talking about prestige, are you kidding me? Duke and Northwestern more prestigious than Cornell? Take a backseat please even if you are not in college, you are obviously trying to favor the school you are most likely going to.</p>
<p>
Exactly why I used “better” (and purposefully placed it in quotes). I was highlighting the absurdity in Unibames’s statement that all Ivy League schools are better than all non-Ivy League schools.</p>
<p>
Yes. Well, Duke is definitely more prestigious than Cornell. I was talking about prestige, but I was also talking about other factors that play into the quality of a school. One of the main factors would be selectivity/quality of the student body. In this facet, Duke and Northwestern beat Cornell.</p>
<p>You can check out the Common Data Sets for yourself:
<a href=“http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000504.pdf[/url]”>http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000504.pdf</a>
[2011-12</a> First-time, first-year (freshman) admission, Common Data Set, University Enrollment - Northwestern University](<a href=“http://enrollment.northwestern.edu/common-data/2011-12/c.html]2011-12”>http://enrollment.northwestern.edu/common-data/2011-12/c.html)
<a href=“http://ir.provost.duke.edu/facts/cds/Duke%20CDS_2011-2012.pdf[/url]”>http://ir.provost.duke.edu/facts/cds/Duke%20CDS_2011-2012.pdf</a></p>
<p>As for prestige, Duke is definitely more prestigious than Cornell. Northwestern and Cornell are pretty similar in prestige. The US News rankings aren’t a direct measure of prestige, but I think they provide a decent perspective on a school’s prestige. For what it’s worth, Duke is #8, Northwestern is #12, and Cornell is #15. Looks like my assertion isn’t so preposterous after all.
[National</a> University Rankings | Top National Universities | US News Best Colleges](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities]National”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities)</p>
<p>
I’m not sure how you can make assumptions like that. Plus, your assumptions about me are just plain wrong. Actually, I’m applying to Cornell and I think it is a great school. I would be more than happy to attend Cornell, but if I did attend I would have absolutely no problem admitting that HYPSM are better/more prestigious than my school. I wouldn’t make nonsensical claims that my school is “ahead of” schools like Stanford, MIT, UChicago, and Duke just because my school is in the Ivy League. It seems like the ones who do school are just insecure about their school, and they shouldn’t be.</p>
<p>Cornell is a great school. Threads like this one that seek to make Cornell look better at the expense of its peers only detract from Cornell’s reputation and prestige and make people perceive its students as being insecure, arrogant (without being able to back it up) and immature.</p>
<p>Collegiate Dreams sorry for the assumption. I agree with you Kenyanpride. Thread’s like this also always end up in five page long arguments. All the schools listed above are great schools regardless of rankings. Its just left for the student to figure out which one best fits him/her.</p>
<p>Very helpful, BreakingGrace. Thanks.</p>