<p>Classic big school vs, small school trade-offs.</p>
<p>With respect to Amherst I think you should investigate how many upper level courses they give in your fields of interest,whether a number of them are only given in one single section (which may conflict with something else you want to take), whether a number of these courses are given only every other year (another major scheduling issue),
Don’t look at the catalog, which may show every course they’ve ever thought about, Check the registrar’s list of courses to see what courses were actually given this semester and last. Also look at how many professors they have total in the department. If one of them goes on sabbatical what happens?</p>
<p>Theoretically you have cross-enrollment with the 5 colleges, which is better than most LACs and can help to mitigate sparse course offerings; U Mass might offer some advanced courses of interest. But there is commuting time involved, and in practice Amherst College students don’t utilize this option heavily, IIRC.</p>
<p>IIRC the M/F ratio of the four private colleges there skews heavily female. FWIW.</p>
<p>“Cutthroat” would not be the right word, IMO, more like “challenging”. But whatever makes you think that Amherst courses are relatively a walk in the park? Do you think Amherst has lax standards? Isn’t Amherst filled with smart ambitious students who want to maximize their fortunes going forward? </p>
<p>When I first went on college tours with D1, it became apparent to me that students at all the selective colleges we visited felt stressed and were working very hard. I remember some of the visits very clearly; Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Swarthmore, Wellesley,…</p>
<p>Personally I doubt Amherst courses are any easier than Cornell’s, overall. My D transferred to Cornell from a different LAC and found the workload to be basically the same level. </p>
<p>As for grading, the GPA equalization formula that Boalt Hall used in the late 90s to “normalize” its applicants, till it was found out and had to abandon it, would have resulted in them adding 0.04 more to a Cornell GPA than to an Amherst GPA. So a 3.44 at Amherst would equate to a 3.40 at Cornell by their reckoning. That was a long time ago though.</p>
<p>Amherst has recently been graduating about 11 physics majors a year. While Cornell has been graduating about 40 in CAS Physics and another 40 in COE Applied and Engineering Physics. There are obvious implications for intimacy, but also for course selection etc,.particularly advanced level courses. Cornell’s engineering college also offers courses that may be relevant. I knew several physicists who wound up branching out into engineering fields.</p>
<p>As for results, my experience,dating from eons ago, was that the people who deserved it were admitted to the very top graduate programs. People basically got what they deserved. From what I’ve read, as a general matter physics students report that they like the experience at the smaller schools better, as it’s more personal, but have less access to advanced training.</p>
<p>As for your other items:
-Cornell’s course catalog is huge,<br>
-My D said her favorite college course was a Cornell creative writing course.
- There is a hospital in Ithaca, Cayuga Medical Center. And Cornell’s Gannett Clinic is on campus.</p>