<p>What aspects of Cornell(besides Cornell's engineering ranking) make it a better school than Princeton</p>
<p>the diversity of the people…</p>
<p>Princeton is probably the better school in terms of $/per capita</p>
<p>The campus life. The party scene.
The lack of pretention and snobbiness. 
The liberal campus mindset.</p>
<p>Cornell is unusual, generally, in the diversity, breadth/ depth of what one can learn, # majors and fields of study available at one university. </p>
<p>Versus Princeton, you might want to check registrar’s sites for courses actually offered at each of the two universities in areas of interest, and simply count them. What one can learn in a particular place bears some relation to what is actually being taught there.</p>
<p>If you’re an engineer, facing a highly stressful and challenging set of major courses, Cornell’s diversity probably results in more options to break things up a bit, Many people would evaluate this flexibility as highly “better”. Once in a while, an interesting Wine Tasting course in the Hotel school might go better, as accompaniment to a particularly onerous grouping of courses in Advanced Fluid Mechanics ,Complex Analysis, etc. to yet another European Poilicy course filled with Artsies gunning for Harvard Law School. At Cornell, you can choose to take the European Policy course if you prefer, of course, but there is possibly more lattitude in choice that many in that situation would prefer to have. Occasionally.</p>
<p>A thesis is not mandatory to graduate from Cornell. This is also “better”, for those people who do not necessarily want to write a thesis, or don’t yet know for certain that they will want to.</p>
<p>Since it produces a large number of bright graduates who actually want to practice engineering, Cornell is well recruited for engineering jobs by engineering companies.</p>
<p>Also, if you like the outdoors, or adventurous things, Cornell beats princeton simply out of location. I am going to study chemE, and I had a decent chance at Pton, but I never ended up even applying because the location of the school didn’t interest me. I wanted to be out of the suburbs for college, whether that meant the city, or the country. It would be easier to answer your question if you specified some of your interest, and whether your question is purely an exercise in theory, or if you are actually interested in attending these schools.</p>
<p>Thanks for the comments thus far. Tboone, I’ve been accepted to both institutions and am planning on majoring in EE or ME…</p>
<p>two of our strongest programs.</p>
<p>and two of which I’ve never heard anything about from Princeton.</p>
<p>Another thing about Ivy engineering in general is that except for Cornell, most schools are heavily theory based, and have little to no hands on labs or emphasis on real world work experience. One thing that is indicative of this is that Cornell has a well developed co-op program that allows students who are juniors to work a paid job for a company for a large period of time (Usually over the summer and fall semester, about 28 weeks). I could not find a similar program at Princeton. If you want to go to professional school (business, law, med) after graduation, you should go to Princeton. If you want to get a grad degree right out of UG, both schools will serve you well. If you want a job in finance, banking or the like, you should have graduated a few years ago lol… but seriously, both schools have strong programs for math heavy finance. If you want to be an actual 9-5 type engineer, go to Cornell, they have the best industry connections, and their co-op/internship programs will not only prepare you well for the real world, but most often they will get you a guaranteed job upon graduation.</p>
<p>I heard the social scene/life at Cornell is better than at Princeton as well.</p>
<p>@ Cool Calculator:</p>
<p>Princeton is known for attracting students, (who often live in suites), that DO NOT shower. EVER.</p>
<p>Also, waking up to “Here it goes Again” is punishable by death. BY DEATH.</p>
<p>(if this isn’t who I think it is, please ignore me)</p>
<p>Princeton has a senior thesis that will require tons of work. But at Cornell, I believe for EE, you have a senior year and a junior year research project that take tons of time as well. For ME, you’ll have a senior year research project that, depending on your motivation, can be a breeze or very time consuming.</p>
<p>But you can’t go wrong with either. Here’s how I’d make my decision. The biggest difference is probably going to be prestige and a slightly smarter student body for Princeton. If Cornell offers you a financial aid package that outweighs those benefits, then go to Cornell.</p>
<p>I doubt Cornell would offer a finaid package with greater benefits than anything Princeton could offer…</p>
<p>agree with sumzup.</p>
<p>“The campus life. The party scene.
The lack of pretention and snobbiness.
The liberal campus mindset.”</p>
<p>I assure you, Princeton has a campus life.
Princeton parties. More than you would think. A lot more.
Most Princetonians are not snobby, and the vast majority of the campus is liberal.
Try to look past the stereotypes.</p>
<p>Princeton students are some of the happiest in the nation.</p>
<p>Princeton’s proximity to NYC might be something to consider. The immediate area is very suburban, but it’s a very cute town with small shops and nice coffee places. </p>
<p>Cornell is better at engineering, but Princeton’s programs are far from bad. I’m sure you know this already, but here’s a link to another thread that talked about this: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/555743-us-news-2009-undergraduate-engineering-rankings-2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/555743-us-news-2009-undergraduate-engineering-rankings-2.html</a></p>
<p>if youre doing engineering or hotel i would definitely do cornell, otherwise go to princeton.</p>
<p>
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<p>The advantage would also go to Cornell for architecture (AAP), or if your ultimate goal is veterinary medicine … there are a few others as well.</p>
<p>^ Their Classics looks like pure Latin and Greek…</p>
<p>No2Eula…i dont think that im who you think i am…lol. . Aside from stereotypes it seems the major difference in terms of engineering is Cornell offers more research while Princeton is more theoretical?..</p>
<p>Not just research, but the basis of the Cornell curriculum is in the application of engineering principles to solve real world problems. the basis of the Princeton curriculum is the application of (straight from the website)
</p>
<p>This pretty much means it has more focus on the theory than on the practice. This was confirmed by my dad who was a pton class of '81 civil engineer. Cornell classes will have more hands on labs and real life application, princeton will be more based in the scientific/theoretical foundation of engineering.</p>
<p>You should check the engineering courses actually offered for the current semester and Fall semester, via the registrar’s sites at each school. My guess is taht cornell offers substantially more courses in engineering areas. Meaning they offer a wider deoth and breadth of coverage of the field. Simply put, that would mean you can learn more there, about more different things.</p>
<p>The sub-area of engineering practice I eventually decided to pursue is not offered at every engineering college. My guess is Princeton doesn’t offer it. If I’d gone to a college that didn’t offer it, I would not have beeen able to follow-up on my emerging interest in this particular area, and by necessity would have been steered to another area of engineering. I would of course still have been able to be an engineer, but my path would have been different. Better to choose based on one’s own preferences, not institutional constraints.</p>
<p>And preferences in this regard develop over the first two years, as one learns more, not necessarily known correctly prior to entrance. So broad coverage of the field ensures the college can keep up with emerging interests down the road that may be unidentified now.</p>