<p>While it is true that Ithaca is a small city, the social things mentioned by Sam Lee are available at Cornell as well. The City of Ithaca has 20,000 to 30,000 people, Cornell, including faculty, staff, undergrads and graduate students has about 20,000 and Ithaca College adds even more students (not sure how many). So with approx 50,000 people in Ithaca, half of them students, there are plenty of things to do there so as not to get bored: school sports, hockey, gyms, skiing, snowboarding, hiking, movies, alternative movies, live performances, concerts, lectures, art museum, restaurants, bars and tons of activities sponsored by the many many school groups on campus. If one reads the Cornell Day Sun on a regular basis (available online), you can get a feel for the sheer number and variety of activities at Cornell. So while Cornell is within a rural part of the state, it is a large exciting vibrant place to go to school.</p>
<p>CollegeToiwn has got the largest density of restaurants/unit area on the face of this earth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>would u want to miss that? ;)</p>
<p>heythatslife, you have no idea what you are talking about. First of all, I may not know everything about Cornell, but I am certain that I know so much more than you do. I spent the last three years of my undergraduate years working in a lab that deals with nanotech and sensing. I also took a graduate level course on nanotechnology from the AEP department. As a Cornell engineering senior, I can admit that there are wonderful nanotechnology programs outside of Ithaca. Now here is my question for you, have you even heard of dip-pen nanolithography? Mirkin invented it.</p>
<p>ecc,
Yes, I do know whats Dip-pen lithography. nanolithography's fabrication of nano-scale bodies used in semiconductor devices. Dip-pen lithography was invented in Dr. Chad Mirkin's lab,l which is at NW. I believe its a process in which u coat the tip of a microscopic pen with a chemical mixture that acts as ink and its placed upon paper. Its a type of STL...where atoms are the ink and STM is the pen.
I'm just a High-school senior...so don't know as much as you do abt it... but making statements underestimating other's knowledge is quite immature.</p>
<p>So r u trying to say that just cuz Mirkin invented this, NW is better? Pretty foolish because Cornell i'm sure would have come up with equally impressive, if not more, in other fields in chem.</p>
<p>Arjun Shankar Prakash,</p>
<p>ecc's last post was directed to heythatslife.</p>
<p>ecc said "NU is one of the first research institutions to look at nanotech from a bottom-up perspective" and that's true. He didn't say anything about about Cornell's. That Cornell has a nanotech lab got nothing to do with the validity of ecc's statement. heythatslife just got defensive for no reason.</p>
<p>The nobel prize winner in the science department has virtually nothing to do with the quality of education you would be receiving. The biggest mistake a student can make is to think that the illustriousness of cerntain high-ranking faculty members will have any impact on the life of the average undergraduate.</p>
<p>I totally agree. A lot of winners get their awards when they are often semi-retired. Nobel prizes usually recongize the research done long time ago. It makes sense because it takes time to see the impact. But it's a poor indicator for research activity, let alone quality of undergrad education. That's why I listed CAREER awards won by junior professors who often can be the best teachers. A lot of them are ambitious, energetic, and enthusiastic. A lot of them can relate to students better because of their young age.</p>
<p>the fact is though that the Nobel Prize winners at Cornell actually teach undergraduates...I had Roald Hoffmann (Nobel in Chemistry in '81) as a professor and he was fantastic...he also gave a lecture in an English course I took on his favorite writer, Rainer Maria Rilke. Hoffmann is a true renaissance man.</p>
<p>more info on him here:</p>
<p>Like I said, NU has a nobel winner in chemistry also. So counting that alone, they are even.
<a href="http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2006/04/hoffman.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2006/04/hoffman.html</a>
Another prof from the NU chem dept was just elected to National Academy of Sciences yesterday. That brings their total of NAS to 4. He belongs to "inorganic" group and US News (2007) ranks Northwestern #4 in "inorganic". Sounds like US News departmental/specialty rankings aren't that bad. :)</p>
<p>Thanks Sam Lee. </p>
<p>Arjun Shankar Prakash,
Maybe I was wrong at calling out heythatslife in a condescending manner. But, heythatslife started it by questioning my knowledge about Cornell nanotech labs. My first post was trying to offer the original poster another perspective and some insights on NUs chemistry department. By the way, I have never implied that NU is better than Cornell. You really don't have to be so defensive.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>While we're still at the topic of nanotech, I found this nice paper by Cornell on the same...so for anbody interested: <a href="http://www.research.cornell.edu/KIC/events/Journalists2004/Nanotech%20101.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.research.cornell.edu/KIC/events/Journalists2004/Nanotech%20101.pdf</a></p></li>
<li><p>OP, here are a list of links I think would help you decide ifyou would like the course/ research at Cornell:
[ul]
[li]<a href="http://www.research.cornell.edu/KIC/events/Journalists2004/Nanotech%20101.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.research.cornell.edu/KIC/events/Journalists2004/Nanotech%20101.pdf</a>[/li][li]<a href="http://www.chem.cornell.edu/faculty/index.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.chem.cornell.edu/faculty/index.asp</a> - Click on the person, see if your interested in the research he does and mail him if ur real interested...i did this when choosing my Engineering major.[/li][li]<a href="http://www.chem.cornell.edu/undergrad/major.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.chem.cornell.edu/undergrad/major.asp</a> - Thats the Undergraduate page for Chemistry.[/li][/ul]</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Personally, I was very impressed by some of the research going on at Chem and Chemical Biology....hopefully it would interest you too.</p>
<p>ecc, sorry for the misunderstanding</p>