<p>Depends on what you want to major in. I don’t know. I never heard of Northwestern when I first applied to college… Although NU is ranked higher than Cornell on USNews, I’d personally pick Cornell over NU based on the fact that it is an Ivy league school and Andy Bernard from The Office went there :-D</p>
<p>Northwestern is near Chicago…which equals connections! They’re both great schools, so it depends on what I’d major in.</p>
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<p>Those are excellent reasons to pick a school. If you did have the choice, I’d really hope you had gone to Cornell for Northwestern’s sake. Go you!</p>
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<p>This is a good basis on making your decision too. Props to you, wise one.</p>
<p>At any rate, I had this exact choice with a few more in consideration, and I chose Northwestern. To preface my reasons, I applied to Cornell only because my dad saw to it that I applied to his alma mater, but anyway, I think the two schools are fairly equal academically. For me it came down to what kind of an environment I wanted to spend four years in, and being the live music, visual art and culture-loving person I am, I couldn’t think of having to spend four years in Ithaca, though stunningly beautiful, when I could be twenty minutes from Chicago. Actually, for that reason, Cornell was out of the picture much earlier on in the process as was Duke for me, and it came down to choosing between Cal and Northwestern, at which point I chose the latter because I couldn’t see myself at a school with 25,000 undergraduates. But really, I think it’s all up to the individual. I know people who’d rather be in an environment like Ithaca and Hanover rather than Chicago or New York; by all means, go to Cornell if you’re that person, you will be miserable at Northwestern with the lack of mountains and waterfalls surrounding campus. You aren’t going to be spending the entire next four years “just” studying. You’ll be doing quite a lot of “living” so I’d pick a place where you can do that best as well.</p>
<p>Edit: as for the talk over wrestling. Frankly, I don’t know anyone on campus who watch sports like wrestling. But hey if you’re being recruited by means make that factor in making your choice but I think it’s safe to say for most it is absolutely irrelevant.</p>
<p>The Cornell fan in me would like to point out a recent New York Times article about living in Ithaca:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/greathomesanddestinations/14havens.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/greathomesanddestinations/14havens.html</a></p>
<p>The town/city of Ithaca in, IMO, one of the neatest, most charming, most picturesque locations one can imagine. Right next to Cornell is Cornell’s collegetown, which is bustling with activity and college students 24/7. Lots of bars and restaurants right there. The city of Ithaca has Ithaca Commons, the State Street Diner, and other sort of classic places.</p>
<p>Ithaca is also a very friendly, hippie-ish place, with places like Moosewood Restaurant, a vegetarian haven. Do they still have their own currency as a payment option?</p>
<p>Evanston, in my mind, is less friendly and more commercial. The one time I was up around NU’s campus I felt very overwhelmed by a super-huge Gap around the block from a super-huge North Face around the corner from the Evanston branches of famous Chicago restaurants like Clarke’s and Lou Malnati’s. Nice place, and certainly convenient to Chicago, but I didn’t get the impression that there was an Evanston flavor.</p>
<p>Anyway, if it came down to Evanston v. Ithaca, I’d vote for Ithaca.</p>
<p>This is easy: where do you prefer to live? Next door to a major city (Chicago) or in a small town in upstate New York (Cornell)?</p>
<p>I’m glad it’s a choice I didn’t have to make. I didn’t apply to either school. But as a city-slicker, I’d rather be at Northwestern.</p>
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<p>There really is no contest between Chicago and Ithaca in this regard, but as the NYTimes article suggests, you could get a hell of a lot worse than Ithaca, NY.</p>
<p>Besides, you will have the rest of your life to live in cities.</p>
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<p>As opposed to Cornell, where we regularly sell out a 1500 person arena.</p>
<p>I used to think I was a city slicker - I’m currently an NYU freshman. Now I’m transferring to Cornell! I want a rural campus filled with gorges and waterfalls and lawns, not a rathole filled with dealers and hobos.</p>
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<p>Well, first you have to get in.</p>
<p>Unalove,</p>
<p>Lou’s started on the North Shore, the first one opened up in Lincolnwood and then Evanston was a close second, it’s been around here for a long time. But I’m really sorry if no one has taken you out to Dave’s Italian Kitchen, Merle’s Ribs, Hecky’s BBQ, Buff Joe’s, Pomegranate, Dixie’s Southern Kitchen, JK Sweets, Peep’s, and the list goes on. Evanston is home to all of these Chicagoland famous restaurants which is why Evanston is given the name “the dining capital of the North Shore.”</p>
<p>I know Ithaca is a very cute town, I’ve been there many times with my dad and I’ve been taken to diners he used to love back when he was a student there. It is very nice little town, but a little town is what it is. Some people just need one rustic, vintage style diner to make their own and would much rather enjoy the large quads and surrounding nature of Ithaca. Some people like being close to a city, having the option of taking a 25 minute train ride into Wrigleyville or New Chinatown on Argyle or take an extra 15 minutes into downtown to watch Wicked (for which I got tickets for THIS weekend by the way ;)), go ice skating in Millennium Park, spend Halloween on Navy Pier, etc. It’s really all relative. The good thing about Northwestern, though, is that it isn’t like NYU, it’s not flat out in the city, so there isn’t the overwhelming factor of realizing you can’t escape. Some weekends we will go do some fun things downtown, and then we’ll ride the El back up to campus and go grab some coffee and chocolate chip pancakes at Clarke’s and then walk back to our dorms at 3 in the morning without feeling the need to be particularly careful. It’s a good mix, for me at the very least. </p>
<p>Edit: and for the record, from what I remember the Gap at Pyramid Mall in Ithaca is bigger than the one in Evanston. If you were a student here, you’d know that the Gap here carries only half of each season’s selection which is why students don’t bother going there and travel to either Old Orchard mall in Skokie, which is a different suburb, or just take an El ride down to Chicago to do their shopping one weekend.</p>
<p>Cayuga,</p>
<p>Yep, I’m pretty sure we don’t care too much about wrestling here. You can have the mascot naming wrestler 
Quite frankly, I can’t say I’m a huge fan of student athletes, mostly because they get pre-registration for everything, and then they won’t even show up to class after Day 1.</p>
<p>Well, you spend 99.9% of your college time hanging out with friends, studying, sleeping, eating, and partying on campus anyways so unless you wish to go out to the city every single weekend, it doesn’t make a different being in Ithaca or Evanston (whereever that is).</p>
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I was being sarcastic. I hope you sense the sarcasm in my voice when I said “because Andy Bernard from The Office goes there.” 
I am perfectly fine at the school I am at right now. Go Blue Jays!</p>
<p>Cayuga - haha yes, there’s that teensy detail of getting accepted 
And it’s supposed to be harder for in-staters to get into the contract colleges this yr (I’m a NY’er applying to HumEc). Still, not sure if I’ll apply for Fall '09 or Spring '10. Waiting an extra semester might help me out because then they’ll see my whole yr of freshman grades, instead of 1 semester.</p>
<p>Penn, Cornell & Northwestern should be selected first by major than by location as they are urban, rural & suburban cousins.</p>
<p>Mmm, no, Phead. Not even every single weekend. Twice, once a month, if you’d like taking a stroll in the city with your friends to be something you can do without it being a huge deal, then Cornell isn’t the place to be. There is a difference between a 4 hour drive and a 25 minute drive.</p>
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<p>That said, I’d be pretty excited if I was a Northwestern football fan right now. A bowl game sounds pretty nice.</p>
<p>The Wildcats will be a 9-3 team if they beat Illinois. I’ll probably go if they get one of the Jan 1 bowls in Florida!!! But Illinois will be fighting hard to become bowl eligible.</p>
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<p>Yeah, cuz NU has none of that.</p>
<p>Funny how the “rationale” from Dartmouth or Brown boosters tend to be from the other extreme than the “rationale” from Cornell boosters when comparing/contrasting w/ NU.</p>
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<p>For the same reason, I’d pick Cornell over Stanford or MIT - lol!</p>
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<p>You can get the same NE rural setting at Dartmouth or any no. of the top LACs - otoh, very few top universities have easy access to a world-class city, not to mention a waterfront.</p>
<p>All in all, both are fine schools and choices will likely come to specific areas of study and “fit” (including type of setting).</p>
<p>Ithaca, NY (Cornell) is actually a pretty cool small city.</p>