My D has been accepted to Rice, Cornell, and WashU (along with the in-state option of UCLA and several smaller/regional options, including one school with a full ride). Currently, she is planning on a double major in History and Political Science. Her career goals are not yet clearly defined, but she is considering law school, public service, and business (consulting?).
As befits her SoCal upbringing, she is friendly and laid-back; thus she would like to avoid an environment that was excessively cutthroat or snobby. Her social and cultural tastes run towards the conservative: She is a non-partier who much prefers classical music to rock (and who hates rap/techno), and she tends to be a traditionalist in general.
WashU offered her a half-tuition merit scholarship, but once FA is figured into the equation, the three schools end up costing about the same (though travel between SoCal and Cornell will be more expensive). She has visited WashU and liked the vibe, and she will be visiting Rice and Cornell next week.
I know that there are numerous CC threads comparing these schools, but they tend to be oriented towards pre-med, business, and engineering programs. I’m hoping that someone can offer feedback about how they stack up in terms of academics, campus life, and internship / law school / job prospects for students more interested in the humanities and social sciences. Any observations will be appreciated!
My D2 was a humanities/social sciences major at Cornell. She had a very positive experience there. From what I can tell law school is first about LSAT scores these days, but if she ever wanted to go that route she would have good enough grades and resume for that.
Some specific programs at Cornell that may interest your daughter are Cornell In Washington and Cornell Prison Education Program (“CPEP”). A friend of D2 was involved in the latter and found it a very rewarding experience.
Some additional resources she may not have given consideration to are courses and lectures that may be of interest at the College of Industrial & Labor Relations, Policy Studies in the College of Human Ecology, and Urban Planning in the College Of Architecture. As well as business-related courses at AEM. Most Cornelllians wind up taking courses at multiple colleges within the university.
D2 told me that people on FA had advantage in getting on-campus jobs. She always had jobs too, though not always on campus.Between jobs, schoolwork and maybe a special program like CPEP, that’s a lot to do already, and still have a social life,
Socially Cornell is pretty diverse. Aside from the people receiving financial aid, one-fifth of its students (IIRC) are in-state residents receiving reduced tuition at one of the contract colleges. So the point is, everybody is not rich there. Or snobby. The university runs liberal like most of them do, but it has more diverse voices than some others. Your D will not be alone there, politically or socially. Everyone does not march to the same drummer at Cornell. But the like-minded people may take a while to find each other.
Various aspects of those other threads will be germane, but you’ve seen them.
BTW there is no “Political Science” major at Cornell, exactly. There is a Government major.