<p>liontree, the Big Ten conference has a lot of top-ranked schools: NU, Michigan, Wisconsin, UIUC, etc… I never said MSU is equally ranked to the Ivy League schools. My post showed that anyone can receive a quality (and even excellent) education in places such as the Midwest.</p>
<p>Oh, I just used MSU as a random example. I’m not even talking about specific schools. I just meant to say that generally, college X should be judged as college X, not because of its athletic affiliation with college Y (so for example, Yale should be judged as Yale alone, and that judgment should not take into account the fact that it’s in the same conference as Harvard). My statement is not meant to be specific to any conference.</p>
<p>“In the eastern U.S., Cornell is considered much more prestigious than Northwestern.”</p>
<p>So what? In the midwest, the edge will go to Northwestern. What makes the eastern’s definition of prestige more important than the midwest’s definition?</p>
<p>
Have you looked into MMSS?
[MMSS</a>, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences, Northwestern University](<a href=“http://www.mmss.northwestern.edu/index.html]MMSS”>Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences - Northwestern University)
You can contact the program director to see if they can still let you in (warning: it is rigorous).</p>
<p>FWIW, I do not share this purported “eastern bias” about which school is “better” or “more prestigious”. At the end of the day, I don’t think there is any meaningful difference in this regard. And I doubt at the end of the day you’ll really find anything conclusive about different chances of attending med school from either of them.</p>
<p>Choice might best be made based on nature of specific programs, courses in areas of interest, where he feels he fits better and would be happiest, socially and otherwise. And perhaps geographic preference, for both now and later.</p>
<p>When I lived in the lower midwest, kids from Ds school applied to, and attended, Northwestern every year. I was a member of the Cornell club, applicants to Cornell from there were comparatively scant. At my Ds school in NYC this was the reverse, Cornell applications were ubiquitous, relatively few kids applied to Northwestern. More than in the reverse situation, since northeasterners tend to be overrepresented in all regions and more frequently send kids everywhere. But still not a lot, comparatively.</p>
<p>If you look at the two universities’ geographic profiles you will see these large differences as to regions they most commonly pull from. Most people prefer to be in driving distance from their homes, rather than flying distance. And they’d rather have the bulk of their connections, subsequent destinations, be geared towards the region they’d rather wind up in. On one level it’s that simple.</p>
<p>That does not make either one “better”, or even “more prestigious”. Or a better choice, for a particular individual who doesn’t care, or thinks differently about, geographical considerations and has other clear issues to base a decision around. It does tend to make one school more commonly encountered, with more alumni, in a particular region, though.</p>
<p>Beyond that there really may not be that much of a huge difference that all would agree on, really, just pick personal preference among two very good choices.</p>
<p>with regards to the ‘regional bias’ you perceive with medical schools admissions…</p>
<p>most state’s medical schools are required to take a very significant percentage of their own residents for medical school. It’s not a bias, its what they have to do. Some have to take up to 80% in state residents. Each state is different. This may not apply to private schools, but it does apply to the state schools.</p>
<p>…An addendum to post #46, which was followed by post #48.</p>
<p>And its not what I perceive it’s what anyone who has eyes, and knows US geography, can perceive. The list has a geographical bias, that is not ambiguous. You’re just explaining it, hopefully not denying it. The earth is not flat.</p>
<p>On another matter, given the boatloads of students at cornell who head to med school each year, the teaching hospital thing cannot possibly be of great significance. Evidently they achieve research opportunities that are deemed satisfactory for their purposes, in any event.</p>
<p>Sam> yes I have looked at MMSS (actually a high school alum at NU told me about it)
but still…
I sent my deposit for Cornell yesterday : )
I hate to decline NU’s offer, but Cornell is a slight better option for me so…</p>
<p>Interesting. My daughter just sent in her “yes” to Northwestern and her “sorry” to Cornell. Let’s hope you each made the choice that’s right for you!</p>
<p>Both schools are excellent, so she could not have gone wrong.
By the way, which schools was she comparing within NU and Cornell?</p>
<p>personally i feel the choice is easy. Northwestern in a heartbeat. What comes into play when you think of very good schools for undergrad is where they are located and which one has a better campus life ect. Maybe one that is closer to home? or more beautiful campus? You really cant go wrong.</p>
<p>WCASParent: Her intent is to major in History, so it was a choice between the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at NU and the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell (does it have another name?). From what we could tell, the History departments were pretty much equally great at both schools. Ultimately, she liked the feeling at Northwestern better (plus it’s a short trip to CHICAGO!), and once NU came through on our financial aid appeal so that they were offering a very similar deal to Cornell’s, it was no contest.</p>
<p>By the way, we’re Easterners, and my wife’s mother, sister, and brother all went to Cornell.</p>
<p>monydad – I agree with your line of thoughts. It really seems to come down to availability of courses and majors and where he feels more comfortable or fit in. At the moment he seems to lean toward Cornell. At least Cornell is making him feel more wanted, if you know what I mean – that his research experience (has a paper), musical activities (1st violin in all state NY conference and key role in highschool musicals), good test scores (NMF and 2370 in sat) etc. seem to be valued more there (as they are giving him presidential res scholar with $4k loan forgiveness, etc.) than at NU, as well as the distance from home. But he is still worried a bit about the grading policy – the curve; we do not know NU’s prevailing grading policy-- whether it is more on absolute scale or on a strict curve like cornell in required classes. I do not see the thinking behind this grading policy, however – what if you have a highly smart and hard working class in one year? what is wrong with much more A’s than in the previous years? What we gether so far about cornell’s grading policy is that they apply the curve in large basic required courses. Thanks for your thoughful comments.</p>
<p>Cornell is easier, despite the curve, from what I know. Think about this-</p>
<p>Cornell has an A+ worth 4.3. NU does not.</p>
<p>NU also has no merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Cornell has merit money? I didn’t think ANY Ivy gave merit money, only need-based. Is loan-forgiveness a way around that?</p>
<p>toughyear: I agree with you about the grading. I personally was not a fan of those particular courses, “back in the day”. Assume that this will not be the high point of the cornell experience,if that’s still going on. Somehow though, the recent kids who post here seem to say the grading isn’t that bad now. I don’t know. My D is there, having a good experience, but she is not taking these types of courses.</p>
<p>But the one thing I came away with, when we did the college tour with D1 several years ago, was that there did not really seem to be a “free lunch”, as it were. All the kids who were at comparatively esteemed colleges were sweating it out. And she didn’t even visit Cornell. I don’t know about curves, or no curves, but I came away with the impression that in the end kids in tough majors will have to earn their worth, at any of these comparable schools. And I can’t really forecast one will be easier than the other.</p>
<p>Maybe they should all go to easy state shools where they are assured of a 4.0.</p>
<p>BTW Cornell’s average class grades are available on-line someplace, if you ask at the Cornell sub-forum, or do a search there, I bet you can find the link. There certainly seemed to be substantial inflation, from my day at least. Don’t know about vs. other schools.</p>
<p>But it is also likely that grad schools know what various GPAs really mean at the various schools; at least we all thought they knew in my day.</p>