<p>As of now, I'm looking to apply early decisions to either Dartmouth and Cornell. I will be visiting both soon, so hopefully that will give me a definite answer, but until then, what are your opinions? </p>
<p>Weather-wise, which one gets colder during the winter?
How overpowering is the Greek-life at Dartmouth?
Which offers the better financial aid package? And opinions about the financial aid in general for both? </p>
<p>There are more questions I can't seem to think of at the moment, so I will be adding as I remember.</p>
<p>^I disagree with the weather part; Hanover is probably a bit colder than Ithaca in the winter. And if it matters to you, OP, skiing is a pretty big recreational activity off-campus at Dartmouth.</p>
<p>Okay, here’s my question: Besides the weather, is there anything else significantly different between these two schools? Hypothetically speaking, if you have to pick one over the other to spend four years, which one would you choose and why?</p>
<p>To hmom5, I’ve considered that as well. I have decent stats, but I know both schools will be definite reaches for me. I’ve noticed that Cornell is easier to get into, but do you know of any particular reason? Could it possibly be that more unqualified people apply, or is it legitimately harder to get into?
And I’m really not interested in Greek life at all. I figure half the students are in Greek life, and half aren’t, and I’ll just be a part of the half that isn’t.</p>
<p>To monstor344, thanks for the insight, it’s always nice to know little things like that, but I’ve never even seen snow in person.</p>
<p>To xrCalico23, from what I can tell from the websites and online research alone, both seem to fit my criteria for academics, housing, size, location, etc. Unfortunately, I still haven’t found those little details that makes one the clear choice. Hopefully a visit will clear things up, but if any of you have information about the two to share, that would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Cornell Arts and Sciences and Dartmouth are about equally difficult to get into. Cornell Engineering is harder to get into than Dartmouth. In what do you want to major?</p>
<p>I’m looking to apply to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
I’m thinking about ecology/environmental sciences.
On that note, can you change colleges/how easy is it to change colleges/majors at Cornell? Am I right in thinking that you’re required to declare a major the end of your sophomore year?</p>
<p>75th% scores is where an unhooked student wants to be. Dartmouth’s is significantly higher in CR and about the same in math. Cornell’s math is what reflects the toughness of its engineering school but Dartmouth gets the high math score from most:</p>
<p>Cornell:</p>
<p>25th Percentile 75th Percentile
C9 SAT Critical Reading 630 730
C9 SAT Math 670 770
SAT Writing
SAT Essay
C9 ACT Composite 29 33
C9 ACT Math
C9 ACT English
C9 ACT</p>
<p>Dartmouth:</p>
<p>SAT Critical Reading 660 770
SAT Math 670 780
SAT Writing 680 770
SAT Essay
ACT Composite 29 34
ACT Math
ACT English
ACT Writing</p>
<p>Hmom, you do realize that all seven undergrad colleges in Cornell conduct admissions separately and each has its own priorities?</p>
<p>Clumping together the combined SAT/ACT scores of all of Cornell’s colleges to somehow make a statement about its overall admission difficulty is inane to say the least. Because when you have thousands of students at Cornell attending colleges that don’t really give a crap about SAT scores, of course the scores will be lower. And no, those colleges with low test scores are not inherently easy to get into; the most difficult program to get admission to in Cornell probably also has low test scores (architecture).</p>
<p>Cornell is difficult to compare to somewhere like Dartmouth because it has some programs that aren’t really prominent at other schools…hotel school, for instance.</p>
<p>The OP has already told us he wants to get into the easiest part of Cornell to be admitted to. The scores for the agriculture schools are probably lower than the above whic yes, is the average of the schools. He has a MUCH better chance at Cornell.</p>
<p>Cornell and Dartmouth are not really the same in terms of size–cornell is much larger (physical size and # of students). I personally feel that having a larger campus gives you more choice of things to do, clubs to join, etc., when both campuses are essentially in the middle of nowhere. I also think at Cornell you will be able to meet students with more diverse backgrounds, also b/c of the size and in part b/c of the contract colleges.</p>
<p>I looked into the separate schools and how easy it is to transfer, and it seems to be much more difficult than at other colleges. From what I gathered, you have to apply to a different college as a transfer student if you want to switch. Although I’m interested in ecology/environmental studies, I am by no means certain of my major. From what I can tell, it would be a bad idea applying to Cornell being so unsure of my major. Thoughts?</p>
<p>hmom5, you have no idea what you are talking about. The ag school is the third most difficult school to get into at Cornell (out of seven). The hardest is arch. which is 15%, and then arts and sciences which is 18% and then Ag which is 20%. Dartmouth is a liberal arts college. Cornell is a real university, with opportunities to do research, take any class in any study. You get more personal attention within your small home base college (3100 students in Ag vs. 4100 students in Dartmouth College. People forget about Cornell that your home college is the class size you should be looking at in regard to academics, not the whole university), plus you have access to the rest of Cornell. You can pick and choose what of the rest of Cornell’s endless offerings you want to choose from. Cornell’s environmental sciences program blows Dartmouth’s out of the water. It is very easy to transfer between the schools at Cornell, about a 90% success rate. More personal attention, MUCH better program, opportunity to switch schools and majors easily if your interests change, access to one of the world’s best research universities (which Dartmouth is not), a much larger, vibrant, and diverse student body, more to do on campus, better weather, less of a Greek scene (30% vs. 50%)…frankly this should be a no brainer.</p>
<p>damnnn, hmom’s right, if you’re a cornell student, that invalidates your points so you might as well stop logically laying out your arguments and supporting them with statistics.</p>
<p>both are great schools … both in terrific college towns pretty far removed from major cities. Dartmouth is quite a bit smaller and often described as a similar to a really big LAC while Cornell is more of a classic big research U … to me that is the biggest difference between the schools. That difference shows in academics and socially … I would guess if you visit both you will prefer one quite a bit more than the other.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t call it a no-brainer in either direction, although I think Dartmouth is generally considered more difficult to get into and its acceptance rate is lower than any of the schools at Cornell. There is a difference between acceptance rate and selectivity, though as Engineering has the highest SATs of any of the colleges at Cornell but one of the higher acceptance rates as well. I think that collegehelp posted that the SAT range for CAS and Engineering at Cornell was very similar (maybe 10 points lower) to Dartmouth’s range, the two schools at Cornell that the vast majority of anyone interested in Dartmouth would be applying to at Cornell.</p>
<p>Isn’t Cornell’s Intro. Pysch course the largest in the country at 1,000 students? :)</p>
<p>And, I agree with Gellino: if you got the (math 2 & physics/chem, primarily) stats, Cornell Eng is an easier admit than Dartmouth. Cornell CAS is probably a wash. One big confounding factor, however, is the proportion of New York residents who apply to Cornell’s contract colleges. When looking at the aggregate numbers, it’s impossible to tell the admission rates for the instaters and out-of-staters. Thus, it could be much harder to get into the contract college as an in-stater, or vice versa, depending on the applicant pool, and the desire to maintain xx% of instaters.</p>