<p>Hello, all. As might be obvious, this is my first post on these forums (though I have been enjoying this site for several weeks since I stumbled across it). I was wondering if I could be offered thoughts on my (finally!) narrowed down choices for college: Cornell and Penn State Schreyers Honors College. Both are similar in terms of tuition, with a slightly lower cost for Cornell (CAS). I have no sure academic interests as of yet. What would be the differences in the student experience between these two institutions? Any comments are greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I visited both Cornell and PSU Honors. I was accepted to PSU and deferred at Cornell, which didn't really bother me, because after seeing PSU, I knew it was definately a higher choice than Cornell. The honors dorms, special treatment (220 pages for printing as compared to 110 for everyone else...haha, corny but a nice touch that is symbolic of PSU caring for their honors kids). Also, the title of honors student holds power in negotiating with professors for securing the resources that a big university like PSU has to offer.
Overall, I liked the feeling of being the "special ones" at a big college, rather than just being another one in the crowd, like I likely would have been at Cornell. Also, for me, PSU is 30,000 dollars cheaper a year...</p>
<p>dly1987,
If the tuition is actually slightly lower for Cornell CA&S, I don't see why you should choose Penn State over it. Cornell is much more respected in the industry or in the academics than Penn State. I understand that it feels special when you get honor treatment at PSU, but you should think about the future. If you are intended to go into the financial industry, Cornell can offer you a lot more resource and a lot more connection than Penn State's honor program. Even though, it's much harder to get an A at Cornell than it is at Penn State, a 3.5 at Cornell will carry you much further than a 3.5 at Penn State. I think just based on the reputation of the two schools and what they can offer you, it's pretty obvious which one is better. However, you should definitely visit both schools and see which one you like the most. After all, it's the experience that matters.</p>
<p>ecc, I think you're being rather subjective. Schreyer Honors College is pretty prestigious, as well. You will definately receive much more personal attention in the program there than at cornell as well. They're both top 20 engineering schools also - theres not much difference between 8th and 16th, not that ranking really matter. You can earn the same degree from penn state without having to deal with the cutthroat atmosphere at cornell. After all, its your grad school that really matters to employers, assuming you want to go to one, and both of these schools will put you in the top grad schools around the country if you work at it.</p>
<p>How about challenging yourself and standing out at a top university at Cornell? I was accepted to many honors programs out of HS at places like UMich, University of Illinois, and UCSD. While those programs are a recognition of what I was able to accomplish in HS, it was nice going to Cornell and building a new rep from scratch. I don't need fancy dorms or 100 extra pages of printing. I would rather have top notch professors (no offense to any professors at Penn State) and research opportunities. What's more important? Accept having someone stroke you and tell you you are the best or taking a risk and making yourself BETTER?</p>
<p>I don't know what you're talking about with research opportunities. Penn state is a large research university as well, and having honors status grants you much easier access to such research (in fact, they give you grants for such research as part of a required thesis statement) than one would get at cornell, where there is such fierce competition for such positions. And just because Cornell is ivy league doesn't mean it has all the good professors. There are a number of award winning professors at penn state as well. Don't let your favoritism cloud your view.</p>
<p>cOnfusion, i am a little biased and I admit that. But, you just can't say something like "you will definately receive much more personal attention in the program". First of all, Cornell's student per faculty ratio is lower than Penn State's. Second, even if you are in an honor system at PSU, you are still attending classes with other PSU students. Finally, I don't see how the PSU honor is better than Cornell research. Yes, you probably will get special treatment at PSU with the honor title, but you can still get into top notch world class research lab at Cornell without the honor title. Cornell professors take in a lot of undergraduate students into their lab. Unless you don't have the required courses done or have terrible GPA, most of the professors would take in undergraduate student in there's an opening. About the cut-throat atmosphere, Cornell is no longer like that. Yes, the classes are very demanding, but the students are not cut-throat at all. About graduate school, I know people from Cornell's college of engineering with a 3.2 GPA get into Stanford for graduate school. I don't think you can get into Stanford with that kind of GPA from Penn State. Cornell is known for it's toughness, industry and graduate schools will take that into account.</p>
<p>I'm sure you are totally objective as well since you are going there next year.</p>
<p>Your main argument for Penn State is that it is less cut throat than Cornell. So? One of my biggest pet peeves are people who are afraid of actually having to earn their degrees. </p>
<p>The difference in Penn State engineering and Cornell's engineering is actually huge. #8 vs. #16. And I haven't read where the original poster said he was planning on doing engineering. What about the other fields? How big is the chasm then between Cornell and Penn State?</p>
<p>BTW: I was able to find a research opportunity after my first interview half way through the semester without any previous research experience. I'm now doing research with a professor who got her PhD at Cal Tech and did her post doctoral work at MIT. Not that hard to find research at Cornell.</p>
<p>I started working in a lab during my first semester freshman year. It's really easy to find labs at Cornell.</p>