Hello everyone. I’m deciding between UIUC and Cornell. I was accepted into UIUC for computer engineering and Cornell for CS. I would prefer to do CS and from what I’ve read, it’s extremely difficult to tranfer into CS at UIUC.
I haven’t visited UIUC, but the location and weather seem to be about the same.
UIUC ranks higher in CE and CS than Cornell and Cornell’s ranking has been slowly slipping over the years.
Both schools will cost about the same.
I’ve also read that Cornell focuses more on the theoretical while UIUC is more practical. I’m more interested in joining the workforce instead of doing research and going to grad school (Although, I may eventually decide to go grad school. I don’t know how I’ll feel in 4 years.) The research areas that do interest me are cybersecurity and cryptography.
I got into the James Scholar program at UIUC. Haven’t heard about any scholar program at Cornell.
The only reason I hesitate to choose UIUC is because 1) I’ll be stuck in CE instead of CS and 2) well, Cornell is an Ivy and my family is pressuring me to choose it for its overall prestige.
Given my goals, which would be a better option?