Cornell vs. Stanford

<p>Hello, These two schools are my top choices. I can see myself at either one. I visited both of them and find them both pretty nice. Although, I havent seen cornell since the summer after sophomore year I still remember the campus and stuf. Stanford's campus is so beautiful and the kids are very laid-back. The facilities are top-notch and so is the faculty. Cornell is nestled in beautiful upstate New York and the campus is nice and so is the technology there. I am interested in pursuing a career in electrical and computer engineering. Which one do you think is better for that field? Which one do u think is easier to get into for the early round? My stats make me competitive for both schools. By the way, I am in Beijing right now( I live in the U.S.) because my father is here on business. When I return I plan on visiting Cornell again.</p>

<p>For EE? Stanford, easily. Hope you're applying to more than just those two schools, though. Most applicants who apply to top schools are "competitive"...</p>

<p>Stanford, easily? I'm not so sure. They're both great schools and are very srong in engineering. Statistically speaking, Cornell would be easier to get into.</p>

<p>They're both very strong in those areas. Stanford is probably better.</p>

<p>But no matter how competetive you might be, Stanford is insane to get into. The results of your applications are quite likely to solve your problem for you.</p>

<p>Both are excellent when it comes to EE and CE/CS, with the slight edge going to Stanford. But I agree with Calicartel, you should apply to more schools.</p>

<p>whoa man. stanford is definitely the better school for electrical engineering. however, cornell is the best IVY for engineering.</p>

<p>the quality of education at these two schools will be about the same (don't kid yourself). both are also heavily recruited, have incredible student bodies, and are not 'tech only' schools meaning you could easily branch out and take business, history, or english classes in top-ranked departments. </p>

<p>Cornell will be a little easier to get into with the engineering old SAT 25-75 range of around 1380-1550. </p>

<p>Pick based on your gut feeling. Neither school will provide you with anything that the other will not.</p>

<p>asian_man don't start deciding before you get your results. I and most others would be delighted to get into either of them. Academically they are roughly equal (can't get much better) but I would say if you're planning to major in EE and CE/CS Stanford would have the edge especially because it is located in the heart of silicon valley. My advice however is apply to both and only start picking after your results come in.</p>

<p>Stanford will be noticeably harder to get into. That's fact.</p>

<p>I don't know the details of your app so I can't advise you on which one to apply early to but you can't go wrong with either.</p>

<p>superwizard makes a good point, Stanford's location will give you the oppurtunity for some great internships and hands on experience. That being said, I don't think if you applied to a job and you had Cornell on instead of Stanford, you wouldn't get the job.</p>

<p>^While that is usually true I would just like to point out that I got into Stanford but got waitlisted to Cornell (withdrew application so I don't know if I would have gotten in)</p>

<p>A Stanford Electrical Engineering PhD once told me that Stanford was not necessarily a great place to go for UNDERGRADUATE engineering.</p>

<p>I think Cornell is a much better school for UNDERGRADUATE engineering. In fact, I would say Cornell is the best school overall in the country for undergraduate engineering based on the following:
focus on undergraduates
faculty are excellent educators
top quality students
Ivy culture and reputation
research opportunities for undergraduates
very broad curriculum, wide choice of courses and eng disciplines
beautiful campus
faculty is well connected
good balance between theory and application </p>

<p>There are many great engineering schools where it would be a privilege to attend, including Stanford, the Techs, the flagship publics, CMU, and so on. I thought the large publics would have a broader mix of student abilities on campus and would have a less personal "feel". I thought the Techs (e.g. MIT, Caltech, Georgia Tech, etc) were too narrow in focus, and I was wary of the lower graduation rates. </p>

<p>Regarding Stanford engineering specifically, I think it would be a fine school for a PhD but not undergraduate engineering. Stanford engineering enrolls only 676 undergraduates (versus 3145 graduate students). Stanford engineering is 18% undergraduates whereas Cornell engineering is 70% undergraduates (2911/4145).</p>

<p>So, based on my criteria, I concluded that Cornell is a much better place for undergraduate engineering students than Stanford. Based on personal experience, I would describe Cornell as a sumptuous feast for undergraduate engineering and science students, socially, culturally, academically. But, Cornell engineering is quite intense.</p>

<p>Nevertheless, there are probably 30 or so terrific engineering schools that would qualify as "dream schools" for different types of undergraduate students with different preferences.</p>

<p>just to comment on collegehelp's criteria:</p>

<p>focus on undergraduates
faculty are excellent educators--Stanford faculty are significantly worse than those at Cornell?
top quality students--Stanford has this too
Ivy culture and reputation--some consider this a bad thing, and also Stanford has a GREAT reputation
research opportunities for undergraduates--the area around Stanford will definitely give undergrads comparable opportunities
very broad curriculum, wide choice of courses and eng disciplines
beautiful campus--Stanford has this too
faculty is well connected--and Stanford faculty are isolated?
good balance between theory and application--and Stanford undergrads engineers are floating around in the land of the abstract?</p>

<p>I just felt like pointing those things out. Both are excellent schools and you wouldn't go wrong choosing one over the other. I agree with what someone said earlier: they're both such good schools that you should wait until you get acceptances to make a decision</p>

<p>I'd choose Stanford over Cornell for sure. By the way, I got into Cornell and denied at Stanford. I don't think Cornell is "the best in the country" for engineering. In my opinion places like MIT, caltech, berkeley, stanford, HMC, cooper union, and olin are. Cornell to me seems like it DOESN'T have a strong focus on undergraduate engineering. That's part of the reason why I chose HMC, which has no graduate school.</p>

<p>Atomicfusion, Cal, MIT, Stanford and Caltech may be slightly better than Cornell in Engineering (not by a large margin mind you), but they do not have more of an undergraduate focus than Cornell. I have known at least 6 students who completed their undergraduate studies at each of those schools, and I know exactly what they offer their undergrads. None of those schools can claim to give a toss about their undergrads and they will not appologize for it. Furthermore, in terms of quality, Cornell belongs to the group directly below MIT, Stanford, Cal and Caltech, so I am not sure how you can truly distinguish between them. </p>

<p>HMC probably has more of an undergraduate focus, but it is not better than Cornell. I agree that it is as good and certainly one of the very best, but not better. If you prefer close interaction with faculty, HMC is ideal. However, if you want to delve deeply into Engineering and participate in multi-million dollar, cutting edge reseach with globaly respected and recognized faculty in World Class facilities, HMC cannot compete with the likes of Cornell. Furthermore, if you want to have a broad range of Engineering offerings, once again, HMC cannot compete with Cornell. So it really depends what you want. </p>

<p>Olin doesn't even come close. Olin isn't a top 50 school for engineering. With a faculty of 30, it cannot even cover the basics required for a complete curriculum.</p>

<p>Just as a word of advice: Apply to the universities and then decide between them. If you're wondering whichone to apply early to I would suggest Stanford because it isn't binding (I'm not sure but I think cornell is). After that you'll have plenty of time to decide (if you get into both) if you get into one you won't even need to decide!</p>

<p>Stanford is close to silicon valley, but Cornell is close to New York City. There are hundreds of companies that come up to campus to recruit each year, and they are willing to drive many hours from other major cities on the northeast such as Philadelphia, Boston, Toronto, Buffalo, Montreal, and so forth.</p>

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Olin doesn't even come close. Olin isn't a top 50 school for engineering. With a faculty of 30, it cannot even cover the basics required for a complete curriculum.

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<p>Comments like this are part of the reason the Olin student body is so great. The students at Olin have had to hear these comments again and again from GCs, teachers, family members, and friends. They've decided to come anyway because they care about more than how many people will be envious of the name on their sweatshirt, and because they believe that what's happening at Olin really is special.</p>

<p>... or they like the fact that it's free. </p>

<p>Also, Olin isn't an accredited university.</p>

<p>Olin is not the cheapest option most of us had. </p>

<p>Colleges aren't allowed to become accredited until a class has graduated. We graduated our first class in May, and our paperwork for accreditation is sent in.</p>