<p>While obviously in general Cornell doesn’t match HYP, for many fields it is the absolute top or in the top 5. </p>
<p>I’ve studied at both Harvard and Cornell and found Cornell’s vast resources and breadth of fields to offer a far superior education for me personally. </p>
<p>Again, though, reputation-wise, obviously no one is confusing the two. Cornell’s the Ivy that gets its hands dirty so it will never win a game of “prestige” from people indoctrinated into the elite prep school culture and all the values that go along with it.</p>
<p>Applejack, this is true even for one of the programs that Cornell is generally considered number one in — architecture. It is telling that Rand Hall, the building that until recently housed most of the architectural students studio activities, is joked about for being a bit ragged at the edges. They have known how to “get their hands dirty” for over a century … hope this vibe doesn’t change too much after Milstein Hall gets built, along with its periphery renovations.</p>
<p>I always envied the Architecture students. </p>
<p>Their mission is so singular and they spent so many endless hours locked away in their studios in Rand. They created their own little subculture and would always put signs in those dirty windows of that ratty old building full of so much character. </p>
<p>It’s clearly an intense but rewarding experience that I never had given my more diffuse academic pursuits. </p>
<p>I also hope the new facilities foster such an experience for them.</p>
<p>about Cornell or Penn not being HYP, top 5:</p>
<p>if you think HYP is better than you, HYP is better than you.</p>
<p>it’s all perception, have some self respect. These two schools, Upenn and Cornell, get trashed a lot because they are the biggest in the ivy league- the more seats you have, the more seats you need to fill, hence the average SAT over 2,300 or 3,300 students respectively will be a bit lower than Princeton with a class size of 1,150. The top 20-25% at Penn and Cornell score over 2250, so that is still about 600 kids at Penn and probably 800 kids at Cornell… </p>
<p>when I was an undergrad at Oxford I didn’t spend that much time wondering what my life would be like at Cambridge. My friends who were at Imperial, Durham, LSE, etc. didn’t care about Oxbridge at all, they had better things to do.</p>
<p>who is paid more in the job market? a chemical engineer from Cornell or a history major from Yale?</p>
<p>Perception is only half the battle, the other half has to due with more factual and functional attributes of a university. Also, the vast majority of Cornellian’s have their well earned share of self respect, thank you very much.</p>
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<p>They do not get trashed a lot, but rather just a bit more than is fair (in certain quarters). All schools get some degree of negative spin by partisans in competing institutions – even HYP.</p>
<p>Do Penn and Cornell really get trashed a lot? I haven’t experienced much negativity.</p>
<p>I got into Penn, Dartmouth, Columbia, et al., and I chose Penn. I’m from NYC, though, which is very pro-penn. I dunno.</p>
<p>I think Cornell is good too, although I have heard the whole, “easiest to get into, hardest to graduate from,” thing a few times. They’re all excellent schools.</p>
<p>I looked over this thread, and I think you guys are taking some of the comments incorrectly. The argument was about undergraduate student quality and selectivity, not the academic excellence of each department - obviously, Cornell has some of the best departments in the country in many fields. However, the undergraduate colleges are often denigrated - stupidly - due to the whole “state-school” stigma.</p>
<p>Cornell has no more “state school” stigma than Penn does (Penn is often confused with Penn State by ignoramuses). This is because almost all people who matter – that is potential employers, post-grad admissions reviewers, and educated people in general – clearly know that both these Ivy League schools are private … that a few of Cornell’s colleges are partially state supported does not alter their status as private institutions.</p>