Cornell vs. Georgetown

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
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I’ve been lurking for a while, but this is the first time I’ve posted! I’ve noticed a lot of School vs. School posts recently, and I have another one for you!

I am so grateful to have been accepted to some really good schools, and now it’s down to Cornell and Georgetown. If I could, I would attend both but unfortunately that’s not an option :smiley: They were both very generous with financial aid, so that is not a deciding factor. Please help me decide!

Major: Cornell - Policy Analysis. Georgetown - Health Care Policy and Management.

My only problem with this is that I don’t like my Georgetown major that much anymore. Health care policy was one of my main interests, but now I’m realizing that it’s too specific because I’m now more interested in immigration/education/foreign policy. I chose health policy because it was the closest thing I could find to public policy, but I think I want to switch to political economy because it’s more broad. The thing is, Georgetown requires that its students stay in their school (Nursing & Health Studies) for at least one year, and I don’t want to waste any time. Plus it’s not guaranteed that I’ll be able to change because you have to apply to other schools. (This is the #1 con of Georgetown for me)

I am also considering minoring in business, and am not sure which school it would be more feasible to do that at.

Post-undergrad plans:

I plan to go to law school, so an undergrad that wouldn’t ruin my GPA, has lots of internship/networking opportunities, and will prepare me well for law school would be perfect! I don’t know if either Cornell or Georgetown allows sub-matriculation into their law schools (like at Penn)? Please let me know if you know! I can’t find anything online :frowning:

Other:

I’ve grown up in LA my entire life, so I am not used to the cold at all. I prefer big cities to be honest, so DC would be cool, but I’m open to trying new things (Cornell is probably the only opportunity I’ll get to live in a college town, but that’s not a big factor). I plan on ultimately settling down in LA or NYC too.

Both alumni networks are super good, but Cornell’s alumni network is ranked higher than Georgetown’s. But, Georgetown is in DC, and I’ve been told that that would be really helpful for government/IR stuff but I don’t know if that would be helpful to me since I’m planning to pursue corporate law (maybe criminal). Plus, Cornell has the prestige of being an Ivy League (not sure how much that matters though). Regardless, I will be spending a semester in DC through Cornell in Washington if I decide to attend.

Cornell Pros:

  • Ivy League reputation + alumni network
  • Better major
  • Easier to switch majors if I decide to do that
  • Better law school (slightly)

Georgetown Pros:

  • Can actively network throughout the year, not just during the summer
  • Metropolitan area
  • Less cold
  • Alumni network

Cornell Cons:

  • Extremely cold (!! big con, do the dorms have heating??)
  • College town (not a super big factor)
  • Less networking opportunities throughout the year bc of location (!! also big con)

Georgetown Cons:

  • Not happy with major & have to stick with it for a year & not guaranteed a transfer (!!! biggest con)
  • Mild isolation from others (school of NHS is kind of isolated from the other schools so I’m just afraid it’ll be kind of lonely, please correct me if I’m wrong!)
  • More pretentiousness (not sure if this is just a stereotype, but I’ve heard that it’s a little snobbier)

Thank you for reading this wall of text!! I’m having a really hard time deciding and I appreciate any response! :slight_smile: I was waitlisted at Princeton and will try my hardest to get off it (even though there’s like a 0.0001% chance of that happening), but if somehow miraculously I succeed, I will be attending that instead (though I love both Cornell and Georgetown immensely). I’m posting this in the Georgetown thread too for balance.

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cornell has grade deflation so getting a good GPA for law school might be hard, but not impossible.

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Which is the bigger con: cold/long winters & lack of city environment (Cornell), or the issues with major at Georgetown?

Regarding the weather:

  • Though not as cold on average, or for as long during the winter, there will be cold days in DC. Georgetown will not be exempt from any winter-type cold, snow or sleet.
  • Buy a good warm winter coat, a lighter coat for spring & fall, a stocking cap, a scarf or two, and some good warm gloves… and you’ll make it through the winter in Wisconsin or Maine, much less Upstate NY. It helps if both coats are waterproof.

And regarding the law programs… they’re both T14. Maybe if you want to nitpick there are differences in prestige among them, but that’s considered the Ivy League of law schools, right? I’m sure both will set you up quite nicely – more important to choose based on fit, IMO.

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Re #4: I, for one, have no idea whether Hum Ec/ Policy Studies grading is harder grading than at Georgetown’s program.

It has been my experience that science/ engineering type courses have stricter grading than humanities/social science majors. And Cornell has, I think, an unusually high proportion of science/engineering majors.

My daughter was a humanities/social sciences major at Cornell and got very good grades, FWIW. But she was in CAS no Hum Ec.

Boatloads of Cornell grads go to law school. So I guess at least those people get the grades they need to do that.

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other points:

  • IIRC, Cornell and Georgetown law schools are rated overall just about the same, IIRC. But, from what the fiancée of one of my daughter's friends told me, after he was accepted there, Cornell law school is strongest at one particular thing: getting corporate law jobs in New York City. Since that is exactly what you want to do, it seems that may be a relatively good option.

Georgetown law is better for DC jobs, but the problem is there aren’t that many DC jobs. Relatively speaking.

But out of undergrad you can apply to any law school. Including law schools in LA.

If you’ve done well in undergrad, you probably do not want sub-matriculation at either of these two law schools. Because both of them are scraping along the bottom of T-14, and that matters now.

  • You should look up the program's major, and in-college course requirements at both programs. Make sure that you understand which program will give you most lattitude to pursue your interests. As they are now, and as they may evolve.And that the courses you will be forced to take are mostly courses you actually want to take. I think that's really the most important thing here, since we're talking about two somewhat specialized programs neither of which is a general arts & sciences college curriculum.

-You should know that if you wind up wanting to transfer colleges at Cornell this is not automatic either. it sounds similar to what you described at Georgetown. Lots of people do it, but I just wanted this to be clear.

-College town vs. city school is a major difference in environment. My D2 actually did not like attending a city school, transferred to Cornell and loved it. She found the city school less socially cohesive, people just drifted off into the city. She felt just like she was working in the city like all the other workers; it was not a “special” college experience. And everything was more expensive. But that school was not Georgetown. And reasonable people may differ on which environment they prefer to spend their precious college years in.

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Georgetown has grade deflation, too, and the students are very cliquey. If you didn’t go to a prep school, you might tnot be happy there.

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^I agree that Georgetown is super preppy, cliquey and full of (ivy-rejected) rich kids (no offense to anyone). Didn’t catch a good vibe when I visited. That said it is great for everything government- and policy-related.
Cant imagine you will sacrifice any opportunities by going to Cornell though, probably the opposite.
The only point i would have raised is grade deflation, but since Georgetown is grade-deflated also there is no issue.