<p>Hey everyone, I just got into Dartmouth off the waitlist, after already having submitted my deposit at Cornell. I had already kind of started to get pumped for going to Cornell (bought the gear,etc) , and now I'm a little confused about what to do. any current Cornell students have any thoughts?</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>what do you want to study?</p>
<p>Tell us more about what you’re looking for in a school… they are definitely different places and will provide you with different experiences both outside and inside the classroom, though you’d undoubtedly get a great education no matter where you go.</p>
<p>But if you were already excited to go to Cornell… then why not just go?</p>
<p>thinking about studying government and music. i almost applied early to dartmouth–cornell wasn’t really on my radar before i got in, but when I went and visited i liked it and got excited about going.</p>
<p>If you are serious about music, I would probably tell you that Cornell has a better/more supportive music department, mostly because it has the resources of a larger university at its disposal. Many of the student groups – included the Glee Club, Chorus, Wind Ensemble, and Chamber Orchestra – are incredibly strong.</p>
<p>Cornell also has a great little choir called the ‘World Music Choir’ which is an absolute blast.</p>
<p>Government between the two schools is probably a wash, but at Dartmouth you would have smaller introductory courses and the D plan for off-cycle internships.</p>
<p>The best way to compare Cornell and Dartmouth is that a big chunk of Cornell’s campus can feel a lot like Dartmouth, but that other aspects of Cornell can feel like MIT or RISD or Michigan. The opposite cannot be said about Dartmouth, obviously. Decide if you only want a LAC-feel or if you want something bigger. I have a lot of friends from Dartmouth and I feel that in many ways I had a pretty similar experience to them – lots of time outdoors, lots of late-night discussions, lots of beer. But I can tell you that many people at Cornell do not have a Dartmouth-esque experience. </p>
<p>You can’t go wrong either way!</p>
<p>This situation seems to be similar to the one I had, between Cornell and Williams. I ended up choosing Williams because of the fit piece as well as the fact that I could be a Spanish major and pre-med at the same time. I felt that the “LAC feel” was something I wanted rather than the “big U” feel. So I’m thinking that Cornell v. Dartmouth is just a fit question. Whichever campus/curriculum floats your boat more is where you should go. </p>
<p>I love how I’m on CC instead of studying for my AP Physics exam…</p>
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<p>Don’t distort reality, Chandler. You know perfectly well you could have been a Spanish major and pre-med at Cornell as well.</p>
<p>Chandler is apparently having some lingering trouble fully moving on to his choice of excellent LAC, rather than the breadth/depth/vast-high-caliber-options of Cornell University.</p>
<p>Lol, no difficulties moving on, trust me. Just wasting some time on CC ;)</p>
<p>Okay, so you say, but how many other students from your college do you see engaging in the Cornell forum these days? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate for you to procrastinate from AP Physics study over in the Williams forum, or perhaps in one of the more generalist forums on CC?</p>
<p>oh come on…
studying for physics leads to all kinds of unproductive behavior, like posting on the board for a school youre not going to.
i would know! lol, also chandler’s not offending anybody</p>
<p>No one accused CB of offending anybody. Please notice where Chandler re-engaged the Cornell CC community: in a new thread of a poster looking to decide between Cornell, and Dartmouth. Chandler then re-appears, on the Cornell forum, as someone who chose a third party school. Why? It is a slight bit inappropriate, in my opinion, but CB hasn’t offended me. He is free to continue posting over here as much as he’d like, as others are free to ask him a question or two about his motives, and about what he means.</p>
<p>The music department is incredibly strong at Cornell for not being a conservatory. Cornell is really a leader in composition and musicology, and offers many opportunities to take part in ensembles and private lessons.</p>
<p>I would recommend Cornell. Do you really want to know you were Dartmouth’s second choice (accepted off the wait list)? Besides, there is more to do in Cornell/Ithaca than in Dartmouth/Hanover.</p>
<p>In this case it gets down to fit. Not knowing you, it’s hard to give you any advice.</p>
<p>I will share with you my daughter’s experience with dance at Cornell. She wanted to go to a school with a strong ballet program. But most schools she was accepted to didn’t have very good ballet program (modern, yes). She didn’t really have high hope of doing much with her ballet once she got to Cornell because of Cornell dance program’s focus. Two years later, she is teaching at a local dance company, and she joined one of Cornell’s dance clubs. A month ago she invited us to watch her perform. We went mainly to support her, but didn’t expect to see anything close to her old company’s performance at home, after all it’s a dance club. We also didn’t expect to see too many people there. We were wrong in both accounts. The auditorium was packed - professors and townies with their families, Cornell students, parents. Most dancers were at semi-professional level. I asked my daughter if they were all dance majors. She said no, but most of them had 10+ years of training and some of them dance at Ithaca Ballet.</p>
<p>The point here is at an university like Cornell, there are so many talented people, even if the school doesn’t offer exactly what you are looking for, you could pursue it at a club level. I think that’s true for sports, music, or any special interest you may have. With a LAC, it is great if it has everything you are looking for up front.</p>
<p>At Cornell, you could have LAC experience within each school, and you could also have the benefit of large university. The down side of Cornell is you can’t be a wall flower. It’s a place where you need to take the initiative to take advantage of the university. We always refer to it as a big red machine.</p>
<p>Don’t let the difference in ranking effect your decision because it’s not that big of a difference. Don’t let the fact you were waitlisted at Dartmouth stop you from going there. You said you liked Cornell when you visited. What did you like about it? Do you feel the same about Dartmouth?</p>
<p>My family has strong ties with Cornell and Dartmouth, and all had very positive experience at both schools. </p>
<p>Congratulations. It’s a high class problem.</p>
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<p>I actually freely support Chandler continuing to post over her, provided he doesn’t insinuate simply incorrect things about Cornell – like the absurd notion that you can’t be both a Romance Studies major and be pre-med at Cornell but that you can be one at Williams.</p>
<p>This is only my own opinion, and many would disagree with it, but I have always had a lingering bit of disrespect for Dartmouth for its rampant party scene. </p>
<p>I know that’s true at all colleges, and Cornell is thankfully no exception, but I’ve just never seen an offsetting culture at Dartmouth like there is at Cornell (meaning, if you don’t want to party, there’s plenty else to do that’s well supported culturally). I started at a small LAC and realized very quickly that if you didn’t like the frat party scene, you were definitely an outsider. Not true at Cornell.</p>
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<p>wasnt chandlerbing admitted to CALS? or HBHS? which means he would have had to transfer to CAS to do languages…maybe he feared not being able to make the cut for transfer to cas?</p>
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<p>Again. Not true. He could have taken as many language courses as he wanted in HumEc. And he definitely would have been able to make the transfer as a freshman, if that is what he really wanted.</p>
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<p>Right it’s not true. He could take language courses as an HBHS or CALS major BUT I think what the kid really wanted was to have a major in languages while only completing the pre-med requirements (calc, bio, chem, orgo, physics).</p>