<p>I live in CA, cost does matter but isn't the only thing I'm considering (haven't gotten FA packets yet), been to Cornell summer college, probably majoring in biology(which one has better academics?), thinking about veterinary school after. I like the idea of being more in the city, but Cornell campus is REALLY pretty...also don't like Berkeley's lack of diversity. Oh, and class size isn't that important to me. Berkeley is close to home, which is kind of a bad thing, but would be a lot cheaper to travel back during breaks and things like that...Any opinions on where I should go would be really helpful!</p>
<p>I think the pretty part would lose its appeal quickly. The city on the other hand always has something fresh to offer. Not sure how close to home Berkeley is, but as long as you don't have to live at home you should be ok.</p>
<p>If you're think about veterinary school, there is simply no choice at all. Cornell's pre-vet program (animal science) and veterinary school are the best in the world. The biology program at Cornell is the largest major in the university and is considered very prestigious and challenging.</p>
<p>I'm in a similar situation, so I'd like to see the responses to this. I think there was a similar thread a couple days ago.</p>
<p>kefner, you sound exactly like me. I grew up in the Bay Area and wanted to go somewhere further from home. I went to a HS that was 60% Asian and 39% white so Berkeley's huge Asian population was a turnoff for me. And I don't care about class sizes either! I actually love being able to chill in the back of a huge lecture. </p>
<p>As you probably know, Cornell's vet school is #1 in the country and you will be able to do amazing research while at Cornell. Both of my bio courses this semester (animal physiology courses) are at the Vet School and I've met a pretty large contingent of pre-vet seniors in my classes. They're always talking about vet school admissions and they've done pretty well, getting into places like Upenn, Tufts, Michigan St., etc. I'm not sure how pre-vet is at Berkeley but Cornell's pre-vet program is sizable.</p>
<p>Wow seems like a lot of people are in a similar situation...I forgot to mention that I got in Cal for spring semester, so if I go there I'd be taking off-campus classes for a semester (they do offer on-campus housing though so as long as I send in my decision early I won't have a problem with that)
oh and im not 100% sure of vetmed....because even though ive had a little experience of what it'd be like(summer college, work...), I don't know if I'll still be interested after I actually go you know..yeah my high school has a lot of asians (im asian too haha)....I'm kinda looking for more of different people</p>
<p>go to Bezerkeley because its a really good public school. i dont quite remember but its like top 5 in the nation. well, on the other hand, Cornell does have good vet/ biology, but you can go there for graduate school couldnt you? whats wrong with seeing asians? hangout with other ppl then, well the other 40+% of people.</p>
<p>correction: berkeley is THE best public school in the nation. but i'd go with cornell anyway.</p>
<p>maybe he wants a change of scenery... with the %age of asians in Berkeley, I can certainly understand!</p>
<p>yes but is cornell worth the vast difference in tuition?
(i'm in the same dilemma but with nw and ucla thrown in as well)</p>
<p>if finance is a problem, i'd just go with your state school. i mean, its not just any state school, its BERKELEY. consider yourself lucky.</p>
<p>they are very similar schools. it's a tossup i think. you will have to go into details to see which one is a better fit. (disclaimer: i went to cornell.)</p>
<p>as far as quality and quantity of scholarly research by faculty, it's close but berkeley gets the edge. they have more nobel laureates and academy of sciences members. however cornell has a top ranked vet school right on campus that you might be able to do undergrad research at (i'd look into that). as far as what kind of undergraduate education you will get, it will probably depend on your major. at both schools most of the in-the-trenches teaching is done by grad students. it doesn't matter though because at this level everything is self-driven and you will probably end up learning the most from your problem sets and textbooks, and most of all -- from your fellow students. i don't know much about the bio departments. you can find out about their faculty from their websites. i'd also try to find out what the admissions rate is to vet school for undergrads. just call or email the departments. they can probably point you in the right direction.</p>
<p>as far as quality of life, i'd pick cornell but i'm not really a big city guy. i thought the city of berkeley was kind of a dump compared to ithaca. (i really hate being panhandled.) but berkeley weather is nicer (not that you'll have time to actually go outside at either school :-) just kidding). cornell's food is probably close to the best in the country (side-benefit of having top hotel, food-science, and agriculture programs). another major difference is that a lot of Cornell students live in fraternities and sororities. most of the hard-core students do not, however.</p>
<p>yet another thing to consider is which school at cornell you are studying bio at. i could be wrong but i think CALS is slightly less prestigious than CAS for bio.</p>
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i could be wrong but i think CALS is slightly less prestigious than CAS for bio.
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this is interesting. how did you come up with this? i'm not interested in bio but from the accepted students forum for CALS, almost every student's profile i read had SAT scores in the 2300s. i thought that was very impressive for CALS. so im just wondering whoever came up with this idea that studying at biology at CAS is 'more prestigious?'</p>
<p>i brought this up only because the % of freshman graduating in the top 10% of their HS class is higher in CAS. (90% vs 75% for 2006).<br>
<a href="http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000154.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000154.pdf</a>
this is the only official academic stat i have ever seen allowing a direct comparison between the colleges. it's kind of sketchy because about half of HSs don't report rank. i went to the cornell biology site though and it turns out the programs are kind of merged. it looks like you'd be able to get recommendations from or do undergrad research for professors in either college regardless of your "home college".
<a href="http://www.bio.cornell.edu/academics/%5B/url%5D">http://www.bio.cornell.edu/academics/</a></p>
<p>
[quote]
this is interesting. how did you come up with this? i'm not interested in bio but from the accepted students forum for CALS, almost every student's profile i read had SAT scores in the 2300s. i thought that was very impressive for CALS. so im just wondering whoever came up with this idea that studying at biology at CAS is 'more prestigious?'
[/quote]
</p>
<p>They aren't just kinda merged. They're exactly the same. CAS bio majors take the same classes as CALS bio majors. The bio requirements are the same at both colleges. That's why Biological Sciences is given its own section in the course book. It's not listed as a major under any college. The difference b/w CAS bio and CALS bio is in the non-major courses you take.</p>
<p>ah ok. i stand corrected. it seems to be similar to the CAS physics vs ENG engineering physics situation. so the only real difference seems to be the admissions process then? does CALS admit by major? i'm not sure about CAS.</p>
<p>The degrees are also different. A CAS bio major gets a BA in bio (since they have to jump through more liberal arts hoops) while a CALS bio major gets a BS in bio. But your competition is the same since CAS/CALS bio majors take the same classes. I would consider CALS to be slightly easier to get into than CAS. If you are a NY resident, there's no reason to do bio in CAS since CALS is so much cheaper.</p>