<p>I have been trying to decide between Cornell and Wellesley forever, and posted this a couple of times before, but I still can't get a concrete answer... what do you guys think is a better school?</p>
<p>I loved both when I visited, and have no idea still! RAHH.. Wellesley gave me 10k more in finaid, by the way, but an all girls school? I'm not sure.</p>
<p>What do you think?</p>
<p>Wellesley.</p>
<p>Conerll is too big. Plus, you got more aid from Wellesley. And you could take course at MIT, so you wouldn't only see girls for all 4 years! lol</p>
<p>thanks.. any other takers?</p>
<p>Cornell.</p>
<p>Unless you desire no male contact for 4 years. MIT guys are not exactly going to go out of their way to engage and interact with Wellesley students.</p>
<p>Cornell.</p>
<p>P.S. thats not the only reason.
Larger resources, more decorated professors, better endowment, better campus, better alumni network, better etc.</p>
<p>yeah, all those things sound great... although I'm pretty sure the professors at wellesley are more nice/caring towards students, and wellesley girls have a REALLY TIGHT almni network as well. </p>
<p>I have a serious boyfriend, by the way, and am not going to college to get drunk and hook up with random guys, which someone told me is pretty common at cornell.</p>
<p>also, what's wrong with MIT girls? I thought they'd be happy to get ANY DATE. =P =P</p>
<p>"although I'm pretty sure the professors at wellesley are more nice/caring towards students"</p>
<p>i'd have to say this is just a generalization of teachers at LACs vs. professors at a big university. Personally, i've found the profs at Cornell to be not only brilliant scholars but really cool people. They're interested in what their students have to say about the readings/materials/etc. I was rather surprised since i had looked at many LACs and thought that "giving up" that "teacher bonding" experience would just be a sacrifice to attending Cornell. Needless to say i thought wrong and have been pleasantly surprised. </p>
<p>go to Cornell.</p>
<p>What do you want to study?</p>
<p>Hmm, I know that you said that Wellesley was close to where you live. How much is getting away from home a tipping factor in your decision?</p>
<p>hey- my sister goes to wellesley and i have a friend at cornell though he's doing his mba. my sister really likes wellesley and its no4 in the country as a LAC! ive been to visit and its a really friendly, supportive kind of place. very driven students and alot of teacher input from what i saw. she actually chose wellesely over cornell, dartmouth and brynmawr. cornell i hear is pretty big and can be freezing. its also in the middle of nowhere which sucks.. wellesley has a bus that can take you straight into boston. academics wise, though cornell is an ivy i would say wellesley cos of its personal attention. and you do meet boys... but not as much as someone single might like</p>
<p>I've never been to Cornell, but from reading the comments about it here, it sounds like a very uncomfortable blend of crappy weather, geographic isolation, academic overload, and 20,000 people who are ticked off that they didn't get into another Ivy. But I've never been there, so I'm probably wrong. Wellesley, on the other hand, sounds like a wonderful place, especially if it's cheaper.</p>
<p>"But I've never been there, so I'm probably wrong"</p>
<p>you are. </p>
<p>crappy weather - Boston gets more yearly snow than Ithaca. It's also just as cold. You wont be doing any favor weather wise. </p>
<p>geographic isolation - (see below)</p>
<p>academic overload - true this place isn't easy. But I guess if you can't stand the heat, don't even bother trying to enter the kitchen. The academics aren't cut-throat "you're on your own for 4 years of work" nor are they "let me hold your hand through this test." </p>
<p>and 20,000 people who are ticked off that they didn't get into another Ivy - seriously, get real. Where did this stigma of "if you cant get into any other ivy, you'll get into Cornell" come from? Supposedly some people are ticket that they didnt get into Harvard, but i'll let you know when I meet some of them. This hasn't happened yet. I'm sure there are plenty of Wellesley students who are ticked off that they didn't get into Amherst, Swarthmore, or Williams. </p>
<p>"its also in the middle of nowhere which sucks"</p>
<p>yes, but Ithaca itself is not nowhere. It's a very vibrant town with more restaurants per capita than any other city in the US. Most major department stores have a location somewheres in Ithaca whether it be at the mall or at one of the shopping plazas. </p>
<p>"wellesley has a bus that can take you straight into boston"</p>
<p>Cornell has the same thing, but to NYC.</p>
<p>My daughter almost went to Wellesley.</p>
<p>Wellesley seemed to me to have pretty much exactly the same level of kids as Cornell does. And they might well have been rejected, or accepted, at pretty much the same level of schools, seems to me.</p>
<p>Also Wellesley seemed every bit as tough a school as Cornell is. No freebie on this point.</p>
<p>Haven't checked, but I'm not sure why the weather would be much different, offhand. Boston is not frequently mistaken for Miami.</p>
<p>Being near Boston is a huge positive, but actually it's a small campus in a boring suburb. Cornell is a large campus which is effectively its own city of 20,00 kids. Advantage Wellesley on weekends; Cornell the rest of the week.</p>
<p>Both campuses are really nice.</p>
<p>Personally I much prefer the idea of small classes and the attention of an LAC for the first two years. Huge advantage Wellesley. However I much prefer the greater course selection of a larger university during the last two years, when you get into your major and the class sizes get smaller anyway. Big advantage Cornell.</p>
<p>When d looked at it we came away with the impression that the social situation at Wellesley was not good. Huge advantage Cornell, for most people. However, if OP is secure that current beau is "the one and only", and doesn't mind being around only girls all the time (my d likes guys better) then maybe for her this disadvantage isn't such a big deal.</p>
<p>One can get to pretty much the same place from either school. It's a Pick 'em.</p>
<p>Likely courses of study might make some difference, which is why I asked. At an LAC there are probably some fields where course selection can become a huge issue.</p>
<p>I want to major in psychology and minor in women's studies or economics, and I'm aspiring to be a therapist.</p>
<p>If I don't become an actual therapist, I might use psych as pre-law. I'm leaning towards wellesley a LOT right now, but I'm scared it might be too much like high school. </p>
<p>I'd be only TEN MILES from home.. and my parents are extremely over-protective, so they might try to visit me all the time. EEEk. Also, it's the same size as my hs.</p>
<p>Do colleges offer the same opportunities to get into grad schools, etc as universities? That matters to me as well.</p>
<p>There's got to be a lot of psych majors at Cornell. I'll bet even in the upper levels they have some big classes. You should check this out.</p>
<p>There's been some great psych professors there, though. Maas, Bronfenbrenner. And tons of courses probably. Not only in Arts, but in Hum Ec as well.</p>
<p>Oh, I know. Actually, right now I'm in human ec. I applied to the human development program because it seemed like an excellent program, but what if I do change my mind? How hard would it be to switch to CAS once I'm there...?? that worries me. there are no other majors I like in human ec.</p>
<p>"if you cant get into any other ivy, you'll get into Cornell"</p>
<hr>
<p>well personally in my school, 6 kids that got into Cornell and another Ivy chose the other Ivy and the 2 I can think of that got into only Cornell are going to Cornell. obviously not the rule, but still very prevalent.</p>
<p>id go to Cornell though, Couldnt go to a same sex school.</p>
<p>Oh you're in hum ec, this is a little different then..</p>
<p>Hum Ec is not a conventional liberal arts college. It probably has a number of prescribed courses, its own "distibution requirement" of sorts, limitations on the number of electives you can take outside of hum ec, (and Arts may have limtiations too, in the other direction).</p>
<p>It is by no means automatic that you would be able to switch from Hum Ec to Arts. You would have to apply, have a convincing reason, and have high enough grades. (don't know how high).</p>
<p>You should be aware that, at least when I was there, Hum Ec was not necessarily thought to be the most demanding program on campus. And their student body possibly was not regarded as having the highest entrance credentials, on average, of the various undergrad colleges on campus. </p>
<p>However, like the other special-mission colleges there, they are absolutely tops at what they do, and absolutely the best place if you want to do what they do.</p>
<p>But they are not a liberal arts college.</p>
<p>The HDFS program was regarded as amazingly good when I was there. People from all over the university flocked to get into the intro course, which was taught by Uri Bronfenbrenner. It was always packed.</p>
<p>If you want this particular program, Cornell Hum Ec is great. If you really want a conventional liberal arts education, Wellesley is a safer bet for that. I think.</p>
<p>I like HDFS... but I'm worried about locking myself into this thing. Maybe I'd be better off going to Wellesley, and just dealing with the all girls/too close to home stuff, but at least I'll have lots of opportunities to toy around with classes before picking a major, right?</p>
<p>I'm on the Tufts waitlist right now (probably because I applied for finaid, and the school is far from need-blind), but the Tufts counselor told me I'm in the upper part of it. If tufts ends up accepting me, which is definitely a possibility, how do you guys think it compares to wellesley, aside from being coed?</p>
<p>to transfer from HumEc to arts, all you need to do is take like 3 arts courses, do reasonably well, then just fill out an application. The vast majority of people who apply are allowed to switch. Also, you can take loads and loads of courses in arts and sciences anyways, it's not like you're bound to only HumEc. You have the full university to your advantage. </p>
<p>A close friend of mine as a human deveopment major. She had like a 3.3 gpa, nothing spectacular, and got into Brown, Columbia, GW, Vanderbilt and Boston College for grad schools. She's at Brown now. The major is highly respected and will afford you tremendous opportunities for grad schools. </p>
<p>Also, if you live 10 miles away from campus, you'll feel just like being home again. I grew up in Syracuse all my life and went to Syracuse for my first year of college. It was lame, nothing new, nothing changing, it was like high school all over again. I transfered out to Cornell after 2 semesters and havn't looked back. It kind of sucked when just going into the city I could run into my parents at any time. I didnt have the freedom that a college student needs. Take my advice, suck up the Cornell requirements and rigor and go away from home!!!</p>
<p>Syracuse is way closer to Cornell than Boston is, though. You're still RELATIVELY close to home, you know, only a 45 minute drive away or so. </p>
<p>I thought a 3.3 GPA was really AWESOME at Cornell and nearly impossible to get? Engineering students have like a 2.8 average, and they're mostly brilliant, so isn't a 3.3 at Cornell really really hard to get?</p>