<p>I'm trying to decide which school to early decision to: Cornell or Northwestern. The two areas of study I'm most interested in studying are history and education, but I realize that I'm just as likely as anyone else to change my major after a year of college, so I don't wanna choose my undergraduate school based only on which is stronger in history or education (probably Northwestern). In academics overall, how do the two compare? Does it really make a difference that Cornell is an ivy league? Also, how much harder is it to graduate from Cornell than from Northwestern? I know the differences between the locations, as I've been to both Ithaca and Chicago, but I haven't actually taken a campus tour of Northwestern. Does anyone know how campus life is there?</p>
<p>They were two of my three final schools. In terms of quality of academics, they’re pretty much tied, and I wouldn’t focus too much on the fact that Cornell is an Ivy. There is a bit of a reputation that Cornell is easy to get in, hard to get out, but even so Cornell still has >90% overall grad rate.</p>
<p>As for campus life, while NU is big 10, it definitely feels smaller than Cornell’s giant campus. Northwestern also has about half the number of students, so you can draw conclusions from that, but it would probably be good to actually visit first before you commit to ED.</p>
<p>As for location, I was a fan of Ithaca, but I think the availability of the el gives Evanston a definitive edge, since it is ridiculously easy to get to Chicago.</p>
<p>Personally, I would do Northwestern over Cornell, but you should be POSITIVE before applying ED.</p>