Hello,
My daughter was admitted at Vandy arts & science (public policy) and Cornell Human Ecology (PAM). She is having such a hard time deciding. We are from South Florida so southern thing not really a plus but not a negative either. She seems to click with Cornell students from the accepted sites on Facebook and visiting, but I am concerned that weather, lifestyle, academics and being away from home for the first time is all a little overwhelming for a young freshman. (will have just turned 18 when starting in fall) Also so hard to get to from here as compared to Vandy. But inconveniences would all be ok if she I felt that she would not find overwhelming. Cornell is so large in so many ways. Help!!! Need to decide soon.
Wow tough choice. If you choose Cornell, make sure you and your daughter are prepared for the cold winters and the time and expense it will take to travel from Florida to Ithaca. I know people will say that it’s no big deal but don’t be swayed by that. I don’t know which FL city you live in or by, but there’s a pretty good chance you can get a direct flight to Nashville. Then it’s about 10 pretty easy miles by shuttle to campus. Also driving is doable from just about anywhere in Florida.
The true test will be that first winter semester (or quarter?) at Cornell when it’s mid-January and -5 degrees and your daughter has gotten a disappointing grade and maybe friendships are not quite gelling yet and she’s on the phone with you and you’re doing your best to pick her up but inside you’re worried sick. It will be very hard. Now maybe this won’t happen, I hope not for your sake. I bring this up because although Nashville is away, it is within a reasonable distance that it won’t feel that far. Also, the weather gets cold in Nashville, but really rarely much below freezing. You’ll get a couple of cold snaps and that’s it. But still you get the seasons.
Academically I think the two are pretty close, although Cornell still has the Ivy League. I think the quality of her peers will be very close also. I think it will be somewhat easier for your daughter to connect with employment in the NE at Cornell if that’s her interest, but Vanderbilt will have regional and certain programmatic advantages, as you probably know.
Also as you know, both places are social, but in slightly different ways.
At the end of the day you know your daughter best and how resiliant she will be when she hits bumps in the road. Will she grow from the tough times or will it maybe derail her? Chances are she will get through it but you’ve got to be prepared to allow your daughter work through it. My point is that Vanderbilt will feel closer, and that may be enough to allow your daughter to get through not just easier but better. By junior year, she will no doubt love both places and the other school will have receeded far into the distance. It’s just that first year that’s going to be tough in my opinion.
The one specific piece of advice I could give is to really think about your daughter and her psycho-social makeup right now. Is she phased by peer criticism? Has she demonstrated an ability to deal with not being the best? Not to be too personal, but how will she handle the pressures of the dating scene? Or the sorority scene?
So isn’t interesting that your daughter has worked so hard and you’ve no doubt been there to help all the way and she has these two great choices and your reward now is that there’s still more agony to be had? If your daughter is leaning towards Cornell in her gut, that could work but really play devil’s advocate with her on it. You’ve got to be the one without the rose colored glasses.
My response is a little rambling but I hope you know that I wish you the best of luck with your choice.
Please note that I did not read this response till after I posted on the Cornell site.
@sofla1 - Has your daughter visited Vanderbilt? Is it worth one last trip to the campus before decision date? It just might solidify her choice. I also don’t know how much I would put into Facebook interaction since it’s a small part of the Freshman class that will engage that way. It’s not very representative of the incoming class.
Two very good choices! You touched on how difficult (and expensive, I’m sure) getting from south Florida to the middle of NY state is–have you and your daughter thought this through–no direct flights, an 18 year old traveling alone, changing planes in a large airport during the holiday seasons or perhaps not getting a visit home at Thanksgiving due to the transportation issue (let alone a long weekend here or there). And you and family members visiting her for a parents weekend or a fall football game would be a major, major expense and not really feasible. For the next 4 years. Not that these are insurmountable problems but they should be factored into the final decision. (There are students who come to Vanderbilt from even further distances, but at least Nashville has a fairly large airport and is serviced by Southwest Air. It’s also a fun place to go to college and for parents to visit, even in the winter!)
I don’t know anything about Cornell, so I can’t speak to that. But, if your daughter is fairly set on public policy and interested in politics, Vandy is a great place to be. The public policy program (interdisciplinary major) is great - and the fact we have an undergrad program is in itself unusual - and the political science department is absolutely incredible (particularly for American government and politics). In terms of extracurriculars and other opportunities, there are many different politically-focused campus orgs, the VIEW program for summer internships, and a large alumni network in DC - I’m told it’s the biggest destination for Vandy grads after Nashville. Being in Nashville, a currently-thriving state capital, Vandy gets a lot of interesting political speakers, both for student clubs (Karl Dean, Marsha Blackburn, etc.) and university lecture series (Jeb Bush, Rudy Giuliani, and Harry Belafonte have all visited just this year.) Please don’t hesitate to PM me if you have any questions! Hope this helps you and your daughter make your choice. 
Roughly 6% of Vandy students are from Florida.
Cornell brings just 8% of students from the entire south, versus Vanderbilt’s 34%.
More than a quarter of Cornell’s students are from NY.
This of course isn’t meaningful to everyone, but it could be important for finding a cultural fit.
Personally, I was accepted to both Cornell and Vanderbilt and dismissed Cornell almost immediately. Fantastic school academically, but Vanderbilt beat it on every other metric – social life, student happiness, student body size, sports, location, weather. Being from TX, I knew I would suffer in that weather for four years! I also never cared for how Cornell divided up into several independently functioning schools. Seemed to really stratify the student body.
My two cents…nothing wrong with embracing Cornell if she is very hardy. The students at the colleges are the same re talent. I am sure Cornell excels in some cateogories re Return on Investment (isn’t their overall engineering program strong?..plus that hotel school is the bomb for that career path).
Choose Vanderbilt. I don’t really see much diff between the Cornell Greek life and Vandy’s except Vandy’s sorority system is decidely more SEC based and old south in its roots…which is kind of amazing considering that fact that the students attending are no longer regionally based in the SE. Half of Vandy women do enjoy sororities. If you were choosing between Vandy and a school that banished Greek life…then you are talking two entirely diff social scenes. But Cornell and Vandy do not invite such a contrast.
My Vandyson was indepedent of Greek life and in my opinion Nashville made this possible re alternatives for weekend things to do.
The city of Nashville just shines in comparison for a home town for a university. A very enjoyable city setting with easy peasy ways to intern, volunteer and to get off campus in many of the professions. Vanderbilt’s undergraduate college is much more cohesive than Cornell’s as stated above.
There is likely no parent reading this post that remembers the Cornell student who used to post here about his constant drinking, sort of inviting parents to argue with him about it. One parent on this board who was also a physician confronted him and argued with him here. He claimed he could ace tests drunk etc. I recall he had a slew of APs of five and a great high school record. His frat brothers at Cornell found his drinking to be problematic and had asked him to leave the frat. He was an outstanding student from a midwestern city I won’t name. Anyway, he died of an alcohol overdose in his sleep while visiting a high school classmate at UVA on St Paddy’s Day. Since I am a Virginian, I followed that story in the Charlottesville papers. A couple of UVA upperclassmen were punished for buying him hard liquor. He wore a flask around his neck! Desperately in need of an intervention. I know it is dumb to bring up this story as we have alcohol poisoning risks and incidents at Vandy and every college.
Nevertheless, I will say this —since there is really no reason to blame Cornell in any way for the above!: Vanderbilt students, whether or not they are independent or Greek…enjoy Nashville and there are always things to do on foot or a hop skip away from campus. Your life is not totally dependent on parties on campus at Vandy. Vandyson had a better merit offer elsewhere but he looked around where he could go off campus easily in Nashville and he picked Nashville, and we couldn’t argue with him over the LAC that offered him a better deal in a small town.
Lastly, I will say, Vandyson did two summers in DC in fantastic internships with their Vandy in DC program. Vanderbilt keeps a formal office on the Hill because Vanderbilt is one of the most important economic stimulants for this region of the United States. Vandy students lived in very good apartments in Arlington…-they let him live there the summer after his graduation for his Senate internship that he landed post grad as well.
good luck with your happy problem
My daughter is currently a Vandy freshman from FL. The flights are direct and easy (1-1/2 hours). I also liked that she had the whole week off for Thanksgiving which made the holiday a whole lot less stressful. Good luck with your decision!
I have been lurking, but finally signed up for College Confidential so I could respond to this. Based on the original poster’s description, I think we actually met you (dad) at the admitted student’s day recently. I guess I am finding Vandy to be very “small” like that, which I guess is a good thing . . . making connections, personal interaction. We had an administrator / professor meet with us on short notice that day we were there, no problem. In that sense, it is very different than the Big 10 School I attended. My daughter was not admitted at Cornell, and it might have been a tough decision if she had been, but she was leaning Vanderbilt anyway. She is choosing it over two other top 20 schools.
She loved the campus at Cornell (summer visit) but I know had trouble with the academics / application because it felt very stove-piped amongst the different schools. I think the land grant nature of some of the schools causes some complications. It feels “easier” at Vanderbilt to perhaps double major or minor between schools. One negative to Vanderbilt is not having an undergraduate business major, if you think there is any chance she might switch to that. But again, not sure how super easy it is to make that switch at Cornell. And I don’t have any info on the relative strengths of their public policy programs. As for being well known, I think Cornell has the edge, but Vanderbilt seems to have a lot of steam with the under 40 generation.
As for logistics, we have a local friend who is a Cornell grad and currently has kids in college. His take on the situation is there is a lot more pressure these days for parents to attend events on campus . . . parents weekend, sorority parents weekend, etc. Ithaca can be a challenge to get to and for lack of hotel rooms. But I guess I wouldn’t let that be the deciding factor. Weather . . . yes, it is going to be nicer in Nashville, no doubt. Having lived in Tennessee a number of years back, your months of October / November and March / April are probably where one would notice the biggest difference. It isn’t so much about the snow in Ithaca, but how many days are agreeable to reading on the lawn in Nashville.
The advice we were given by family was to let our daughter choose, even if we felt another choice was perhaps more logical for one reason or another. Obviously these are great kids with options at fantastic schools.
Sorry, one more thought on the logistics. I find that this varies a lot by income level in our community. Most of our middle class neighbors prefer that their kids go to schools that are drivable . . . usually within 5 hours from home. Those at a much higher disposable income level seem to really prefer schools near major airports. They want to be able to fly their kids home for religious holidays, grandma’s 90th birthday celebration, etc. and they want to be on campus for sporting events, etc. They aren’t as worried about the cost but more about the ease and logistics. Some of these parents specifically rule out schools like Cornell, Virginia, etc. for being too remote. Frankly it wasn’t something I even really thought about that strongly when looking at schools as I’d put us more in the “drive” category, but I can see where it is a consideration.