<p>I am having a really tough time deciding between Emory and Cornell. I was accepted to Emory with a nice scholarship, and I just got into Cornell off the wait list to a program that is under the land grant for NYS residents, so the tuition for the two schools is exactly the same for me. I know that the ivy league name holds a lot of weight especially for job/internship opportunities in NYC but I feel like the quality of life at Emory will be much better. I would really appreciate any opinions.</p>
<p>What are you looking for other than job/internships and high “quality of life”? These are important, but what type of educational experience do you want? Seriously, the schools differ largely in that aspect because they have completely different organization. I think this category should break your tie. Perhaps give your academic interests and I can help. If you don’t think differences in that area are important, I would, on a hunch, just say go to Cornell because of its name…</p>
<p>I am looking for an education that will be challenging but not overly stressful. I hope to take classes that actually interest me and not just ones that I am required to take. I know that Cornell has the reputation of being a high-stress environment, but I have been told that the program I was admitted to (policy analysis and management in the college of human ecology) is not as difficult or stressful as some of the other majors at Cornell. Both this program at Cornell and the undergraduate curriculum at Emory have lots of requirements, and I am hoping to end up at the school where such requirements consist of courses that are really interesting and rewarding. I am not looking to take the easy way out, but I believe that what you do outside of the classroom is just as, if not more, important as what you do inside of the classroom, so I want to make sure that I will have ample time to focus on life outside of the classroom.</p>
<p>Trust me that even with a “rigorous” education you will have more time for your ECs than you will need to handle your academics. Unless you’re in like engineering, this is generally just how it is at even most elite schools, so I wouldn’t worry about that. I think Cornell has that reputation because of the large presence of its engineering and more technical programs. The school apparently grades similarly to Emory (Cornell and Penn grade lower than the other Ivies, Duke, and Stanford, but these two grade roughly the same as places like Emory, Vandy, and Northwestern, so I imagine a non-science/engineering major would feel a similar amount of “stress” at all of these places) and we don’t even have engineering so I am not sure if the reputation is truly justified. I believe that Emory is likely more flexible. The requirements (GERs) you refer to are so easy to fulfill and you can essentially take anything you want within the umbrella of the req’s designation (the old GERs used to be very picky with what falls under every designation, but now, you can essentially take any random course and fullfill a requirement. The exception is the Writing Requirements of which there are a limited amount). Seems like Emory CAS will simply afford you more freedom to major in and take classes in your areas of interest. You should also take into account that Emory will be more “liberal artsy” in its approach to education in the social sciences and humanities (all outside of B-school) and that it will be up to you to find applications for what you’re learning, so if you came to Emory, I would consider double majoring or looking to couple your experience with internships (there are some amazing ones directly attached to Emory that involve getting academic credit for the project your doing. Many which involve community building). The program you were admitted to at Cornell sounds more “pre-professional” as if it will primarily stress direct application in the classroom. Emory now has a decent share of these types of classes that involve “hands on” and “project based” learning but the education as a whole is grounded in more of a traditional liberal arts approach. I like this as it allows one to kind of connect their education with the ECs they do on their own (and thus kind of requires more creativity if you are looking to connect your education to “real life”), but if you are seriously pre-professional, it may not be your cup of tea in comparison to the Cornell program you were admitted (the B-school would be though) to. </p>
<p>In summary, I would come to Emory CAS if you value the flexibility and don’t mind (or perhaps even desire) a more traditional liberal arts curriculum. It has its advantages as I have to say, compared to the sciences at Emory, the intellectual vitality in the social sciences and humanities is actually high. Because of this, it isn’t too uncommon for these people to win the major awards at graduation for service or to start organizations. The fact that these units have not been “pre-professionalized” that much (yes, many students are pre-law or maybe pre-med, but the depts have not actually been restructured or molded to specifically cater to pre-prof. interest. Emory has special programming and more interdiscplinary majors and concentrations for those who may want to do that, but even those are not really designed with such interests in mind) seems to matter in terms of the academic climate in such depts. Even the b-school actually has a surprising amount of intellectual vitality because they are getting students that spent 2 years in CAS, mainly exploring or completing work in humanities, social sciences, or econ(often it seems that those who do a start-up in the b-school were often inspired by something they were exposed to in CAS). If you think you would benefit more from the way your courses in the Cornell school are run, then go there. I used to think Cornell and Emory are, in theory, similar in terms of academic climate because a crap ton of the students are pre-professional, but I think there is a huge difference that comes from Emory CAS being the clear “core” of Emory’s undergrad. experience, whereas Cornell has so many undergrad professional schools. So despite the pre-prof. student bodies, the schools will naturally feel much different. Just pick your style I guess. It’s pre-prof. student body with overall liberal arts structure and vitality vs. pre-prof. student body with more of pre-prof. structure and vitality, common to what is seen at many public schools(which is not surprising since Cornell has a public component, I think). I think both will essentially do what you want, but it’s how they do it that is different.</p>