<p>Just when we thought we were done with the decision process, and Cornell was the clear choice because of finances, UMichigan sent an email today with a $15K/year scholarship!</p>
<p>So now they are dead even financially. </p>
<p>We are going to visit Cornell tomorrow. Not sure if we will get back to Michigan, but we can if he's still unsure after tomorrow.</p>
<p>Any thoughts on which is better? I would say they are pretty even for engineering, Michigan has the advantage for rah-rah sports, but Cornell is an Ivy and that has to mean something, right? (Please don't attack me for this last statement...)</p>
<p>I posted this on the UMichigan thread too, but wanted to get parents opinions.</p>
<p>Forget about the Ivy thing. Cornell can stand on its own merits, particularly for engineering, where it is one of the top 10 schools in the country. It doesn’t matter what football league it belongs to. Cornell is lousy at football, anyway (but not hockey or basketball).</p>
<p>You have two great universities to choose from. You can’t go wrong.</p>
<p>Does he know which kind of engineering? Here is some detail on specific engineering undergraduate areas of study rankings for the two from US News & World Reports for 2009 (this is what I could see for free online):</p>
<p>Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical - Michigan 3rd, Cornell not in the top 10
Biological/Agricultural - Cornell 5th, Michigan not in the top 10
Biomedical - Michigan tied for 9th, Cornell not in the top 10
Chemical - Neither in the top 10
Civil - Cornell 8th, Michigan 9th
Computer Engineering - Michigan 7th, Cornell 10th
Electrical/Electronic/Communications - Michigan 6th, Cornell 8th
Engineering Science/Engineering Physics - Cornell 2nd, Michigan not in top 10
Environmental/Environmental Health - Michigan 4th, Cornell 10th
Industrial/Manufacturing - Michigan 2nd, Cornell 10th
Materials - Michigan 4th, Cornell 10th
Mechanical - Michigan 3rd, Cornell 9th</p>
<p>In most areas Michigan seems to have a slight edge, although obviously both are excellent engineering schools. I’m a Wolverine, so I might be a little biased And your son might have a specific interest in one of these where Cornell is stronger.</p>
<p>Here is question about the finances: an awful lot of engineering majors take more than 4 years to graduate (5 is very common). Does either of the financial aid offers on the table extend past that 4 year point? If so, that might be a deciding factor. He may not need it, but the engineering majors I knew at Michigan worked their tails off. I’m sure this is equally true at Cornell.</p>
<p><em>intparent goes off humming, "Hail to the Victors valiant, Hail to the conquering heros…</em></p>
<p>As a mother of a son who graduated from Cornell Engineering, I would recommend Michigan better opportunity for a well rounded experience that doesn’t have a stress factor that has put Cornell in a very negative light of late.</p>
<p>Just found one more piece of info, Michigan was ranked 12th in Chemical in 2009 (there is a list on Michigan’s website, so I don’t know where Cornell fell except not the top 10). </p>
<p>MrsOwl, to be fair, the Michigan engineering students I knew were not well rounded. They were wwaaayyy to busy trying to keep up academically, and also had so many graduation requirements in their majors that it was pretty much impossible to take classes outside the School of Engineering. So OP’s son should not go to Michigan expecting to take advantage of the other academic offerings there (unless he changes majors ). But football Saturdays in Ann Arbor do rock!</p>
<p>^^^According to my engineering family (not me) you get “Saturdays off” at UofM and yes football Saturdays are big fun in Ann Arbor and at the Big House. Seriously OP, I’d say make the decision based on which one is “liked best” and perhaps “talk” to some other engineering students to get the low-down on the specifics of engineering. I personally think this one of those “can’t go wrong” type decisions. Congrats!</p>
<p>Cornell is a great school. One thing to consider, if your kid decided not to mayor in engineering, what would be the other potential options? Cornell has so many highly rated majors.</p>
<p>I know both schools are excellent schools. Congratulations on such a difficult choice.</p>
<p>BTW, be skeptical of MrsOwls comments. She has a couple of kids at different schools and never has a nice thing to say. Research her comments. Others have posted this on other sites. That is how I became aware.</p>
<p>As far as Agricultural Engineering, Michigan doesn’t have a program for it at all. However Michigan has Nuclear Engineering, Naval Architecture, and Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space sciences. </p>
<p>As far as not being able to take electives, that really depends on the major. Comp Sci (CS is in the engineering school at Michigan) allows for a lot of electives, and is very flexible. Some others however have very few and are very inflexible. </p>
<p>I’m a student in Michigan Engineering, so if you have a specific question I can try to answer it.</p>
<p>Our S is a Cornell engineer graduating next month, who has experienced his fair share of stress in order to keep up with the academic load. However, I truly believe that his stress level would have been the same had he attended Michigan (where he also was accepted) or any other top university. To ensure the best opportunities for its graduates, most engineering departments seek to be accredited by ABET, which in turns specifies the minimum coursework required of all its students (website here: [url=<a href=“http://www.abet.org/]ABET[/url”>http://www.abet.org/]ABET[/url</a>] ). Therefore, no matter which ABET-certified program they are in, students majoring in mechanical, electrical, civil, etc. engineering take the same or similar courses, must master the same or similar volume of material, and have limited opportunity to take non-engineering courses. The end result is that in terms of stress-inducing factors at least, there are more similarities than differences between the various programs. Of course, the quality of education at Cornell and Michigan is better (because these are top institutions with top students after all) but I can’t help but think that an engineer in an ABET program at Big State U would feel comparably stressed as an engineer at Cornell or Michigan – it’s all relative.</p>
<p>Engineering at Cornell is a very demanding program, but I would expect no less of Michigan. If the financial packages are similar (and the OP should verify that they are – one question that should be asked is whether there are any circumstances that might result in the reduction of that package over the next 4 years), then fit should be the primary concern. We never visited Michigan with our S, but had he not loved Cornell during his accepted-student visit, that would have been our next trip.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your comments. We are walking out the door for our Cornell visit. I hope he loves it so much that we don’t have to make the long trip to Michigan after all. But if he’s not sure we will head out there next week during Spring break.</p>
<p>I feel better that no matter which school he chooses he can’t go wrong.</p>
<p>He is planning on Mechanical or Aerospace engineering right now, but that could change.</p>
<p>Michigan does rank higher in both of those engineering majors. I happened to live with a bunch of aerospace guys at Michigan, and all of them got excellent jobs in the aerospace or aeronautical industry after graduation. He really should visit both if he can.</p>
<p>They have detailed reports of post graduate of employment, graduate school, starting salary. I couldn’t find similar information on UofM on their website. I think it is useful to make a comparison between those two schools. If do end up visiting UofMich, it wouldn’t hurt to go to their career center to get their report.</p>
<p>oldfort and QwertyKey - thank you for the links. Good information.</p>
<p>We had a nice visit at Cornell yesterday and he liked it alot and said he could see himself spending 4 years there, but… he isn’t ready to give up the Michigan choice yet. We will decide today whether we make a trip to Michigan next week.</p>
<p>One other thing to consider is the distance. I know there are kids who are all the way across the country and they do manage pretty well. I know with us, having D1 at Cornell which is only 3-4 hours away has it made easy to move her to school, to get her back and forth for breaks (especially for Thanksgiving and xmas), and a few times when she was very sick we were able to get to her very quickly.</p>
<p>Yes, the distance is a factor that I spoke to my son about - good point. 2 hours for Cornell, 7+ hours for Michigan. I would love to have him closer!</p>
<p>Another thing I got from the links was that if you go to Michigan you are more likely to get a job in the mid-west. So I pointed this out to him and told him to think about where he would like to end up in 4 years.</p>
<p>He just hates to give up either one. He want to go to BOTH!!</p>
<p>He said he’ll make a decision in the next day or 2. He felt like his trip to Michigan in February gave him a feel for the school (although it was a self-guided walking tour, not an official one) I’ll post what he decides (hopefuly soon).</p>
<p>Considering the starting salaries for engineering are pretty closely clustered, the lower cost of living in the midwest for a early career engineer is actually a positive and not a negative. The dollar goes further. If he wants to make his way back to the NE he can do it a couple years out in his career. Food for thought, your mileage may vary.</p>
<p>A friend’s daughter is at Northwestern and my daughter is at Cornell. Friend’s daughter got a similar internship for this summer as D1, but the daughter will be working out of their Chicago office.</p>
<p>monydad had a great post on a thread where someone is comparing Vandy, Cornell, and JHU for biomedical engineering. I especially agree with the part that many students change their majors and it’s good to be at a school where it gives one as many options as possible.
I recently was accepted into the engineering program at both Cornell University and University of Michigan. Cornell is about 62,000 while Michigan is about 54,000 because I did not receive any money. I will most likely major in either electrical or mechanical engineering. Currently I am leaning toward Michigan just because of the atmosphere but I am still having a hard time deciding between the two schools and I was wondering if anyone could give me some insight to help me make my decision.
@Bmwolff57 You should start a new thread instead of resurrecting this 4 year old thread. You can’t go wrong with either school, but I do think UMich CoE is a better choice for the cost and the quality of programs. I do know quite a few students came to UMich for graduate school after bachelor at Cornell.
And your son might have a specific interest in one of these where Cornell is stronger.</p>