<p>Where would you rather go?
considering business programs (AEM/Hotel School and Wharton) and location, prestige, dorm life, shopping convenience, campus, competition, etc.
:)</p>
<p>upenn > cornell</p>
<p>Penn. Though I really like Cornell (which probably has more prestige), Penn's location is better (urban >>>> rural, in my view), though Cornell's is really beautiful. Both are about the size of a school that I'd like. As for business... I think we know the answer to that. =p</p>
<p>If it's business, then hands down upenn. Otherwise...I have cornell on my list but not UPenn. (I want to go into the sciences)</p>
<p>Stop with the "U Penn" stuff... It's PENN!</p>
<p>penn is better imo... also, don't forget to take into account that cornell is nearly 4 hours away from anything that even vaguely resembles a shred of what one could consider a weak attempt at civilization (get where i'm going?). basically, it is in the middle of nowhere... its nice if you have an affinity for snow though, lots and lots of snow. that being said its a great school and has great dorm food :)</p>
<p>it's just to distinguish between univ. of penn. and penn state
sorry?
lol</p>
<p>whats near penn?</p>
<p>its in a huge freaking city... lol. that is unless philadeph has been instantaneously wiped off the face of the earth in the recent few hours.</p>
<p>UPenn for sure. Philly>>>>>>Ithaca. Cornell=cut-throat. UPenn=fun.</p>
<p>Those equations (and the inequation) make it very obvious to me ;)</p>
<p>U. of P. (just to make dear kk angry, but yes, it used be to called U. of P. sometimes) is in Philadelphia, but to be honest, I like Ithaca as a location and as a college town a lot more than I like University City. To each hir own.</p>
<p>I think it's unfair to categorize an entire school as cutthroat. Or, rather, to categorize one school as cutthroat, and another one as fun when really the schools have similar student bodies and many who consider Penn consider Cornell and vice versa.</p>
<p>If you want to go into Hotel Management, etc. there's no better degree than the Cornell degree. If you're unsure, then Wharton beats out. I would venture to say that the Cornell HM degree among hotels is as prestigious as the Wharton degree is to Goldman Sachs, et. al.</p>
<p>You're going to have to do more reading up on dorm life at both schools. I can tell you that at Cornell, all the fresmen live together on North campus, which is quite nice and a lot of fun-- a great way to meet people right off the bat. After first year, though, many disperse to off-campus housing and fraternities/sororities, although Cornell is making more efforts to make West Campus a fun place to be for those who choose to stay on campus (Alice Cook House as an example of a brand-new, community-like dorm for sophomores on up).</p>
<p>"cornell is nearly 4 hours away from anything that even vaguely resembles a shred of what one could consider a weak attempt at civilization"
You need a geography lesson (or maybe just a lesson in common sense). While Ithaca is not a massive city, it is a town that completely caters to college students, considering IC and Cornell combine for about 30,000 students every year. Ithaca itself is not 'nowhere', it's jam packed with restaurants (more per capita than any city in the US) and shops. </p>
<p>Here's my take on the location. Cayuga lake/Ithaca is a beautiful location that is a popular hub for many vacation homes (and the bed and breakfast type things). People travel for hours and hours to vacation there. You're going to have to work in a city for the rest of your life, face it. Why not spend college in 'vacation land' and enjoy the beautiful college setting while you can. </p>
<p>"Cornell=cut-throat"
I would say you're soooo in the dark about things it's comical, but your 'tetrisfan' screen name gives it all away. </p>
<p>"considering business programs (AEM/Hotel School and Wharton)"
For pure business, Wharton is tops. Still, AEM isn't far behind and the Hotel school is the best of the best. </p>
<p>"prestige"
Having lived in both NYC, LA, and DC, my general observation has given more prestige to Cornell. Among people like recruiters, they're more or less identical. </p>
<p>"dorm life"
Cornell - the housing system is very nice, but my vote goes for the food. I ate at Penn during a bike race there once, it was like eating sand in comparison. </p>
<p>"shopping convenience"
Penn with it's philly (or dare I say Philthy) location. </p>
<p>"campus"
Cornell, no contest. </p>
<p>"competition"
Cornell has the rep for this, unfortunately it's very unfounded. I have found the environment to be surprisingly cooperative. I only know of one blatant student sabotage ploy, though this happened to a friend of mine at Wharton (had tylenol PM put into his coffee before a test) - isolated example, I know. </p>
<p>In the end, the choice isn't one-sided in any way shape or form. If you visit the campuses and fall in love with either school ... that's your choice right there. Both will bring you to the top, both will educate you, both will draw attention at any recruitment office.</p>
<p>I'll need to step in and enlighten some of you about geography having attended both Penn and Cornell.</p>
<p>Firstly, yes, Cornell is in the middle of nowhere, and it takes you at least 4 hours from major metropolitan cities. But the convenient thing about it is that it is roughly equidistant from most metros of the East Coast--NY, Philly, Toronto, Ottawa, Washington, Montreal, Boston, etc. And it is yet closer to other places where there are happy students, such as Syracuse, Binghamton, and Buffalo. Usually Ithaca itself is sufficient for most students In addition, as gomestar pointed out, it is strikingly beautiful and vacation-home-like. Every corner of the school (and elsewhere around) are gorges, waterfalls, ponds and lakes.</p>
<p>Penn, on the other hand, is dangerously urban. I don't mean "very" when I say "dangerous." It is straight up dangerous in West Philly. To live in Center City
is very expensive and students usually find themselves renting appartments further West and each year, theft, burglary, homicide cases are reported. That said, Center City is nice and slick, with lots of culture and people to enjoy.</p>
<p>Finally, Wharton is perhaps the best undergraduate business program. It's very competitive, but if you get in, I think you should go there.</p>
<p>Q: What do Penn students and Cornell students have in common?</p>
<p>A: They both got accepted to Cornell</p>
<p>JohnnyK--</p>
<p>I would personally dispute that claim. If you mean only business schools, it may be true. Otherwise, Cornell's acceptance rate is not far behind Penn's, and Cornell has students coming into the contract colleges whose standards are arguably lower. Only considering CASs, two institutions are shoulder-to-shoulder.</p>
<p>Far enough to be statistically significant.</p>
<p>Besides, when you take off wharton being abnormally low, you have then paved the way to shave off SEAS which is abnormally high, more or less canceling out and putting CAS right back where it was. Wharton's "lifting Penn up" has a much smaller effect than SEAS "bringing Penn down" as Wharton is a significantly smaller school than SEAS--and both are smaller than CAS.</p>
<p>In short, I win the p!ssing contest</p>
<p>IMO the schools are roughly equivalent along many many dimensions.</p>
<p>The BIGGEST difference is the location. If you want to college in a big city then Penn wins. If you want to go to college in a terrific college town then Cornell wins. Neither is better in the abstract but I would think most people would have a strong preference for either city or college town.</p>
<p>I faced the Cornell/Penn choice 30 years ago and my campus visits quickly pointed me to my preferred choice.</p>
<p>If you knew how many of my friends here turned down cornell you would see Johnny's statement as true.</p>
<p>HOnestly, both are really fun places if you make them fun. If you want engineering cornell has better programs but Penn's might be a tad funner and with better in school internship opportunities with Philly and NYC an hour away by train. If you want humanities either place should be fine and it really depends which college's other schools (Wharton/Nursing vs AEM/CALS/IRL/Hotel) will add more to you're education. I personally felt that Penn was the best choice for me in terms of academics, fun, and everything else. If all you want to do is go to frat parties and stuff either place will be fine. If you want the advantages of a city (restaurants, shows, etc.) then Penn is the better choice. I'll give Cornell this much, the cafeteria food is better.</p>
<p>"Far enough to be statistically significant"
my stats profs would disagree and wonder where you were educated on the topic. The difference is marginal, at best - nothing that can be considered significant. </p>
<p>"better in school internship opportunities with Philly and NYC an hour away by train."
how many students want to travel 2 hours via train every day to do an internship on top of a full time school load?</p>
<p>Thanks for everyone's input! Very useful.</p>
<p>Though I'm even more confused now..
Should I apply ED to Cornell or "Penn"?
:P
And I guess deciding where I want to go depends on where I get accepted -_-.</p>