<p>“The quality of Cornell applicants pales by comparison to those applying to Penn.”</p>
<p>That is incorrect. The quality of students that attend Cornell are maybe statistically insignificantly lower than Penn. The quality of students that apply to Penn are of the same. It sounds like you’re just frantically defending your decision to apply ED to Penn.</p>
<p>For the OP’s sake, I hope Cornell Engineering is better than Penn. One of my majors here is Systems Engineering and after taking these courses and having the teachers I’ve had, I really do hope there are better engineering schools.</p>
<p>As for why Penn admits less from each high school: Penn desires diversity. They will NOT accept too many students from each school, with the exception of two Philadelphia schools. The fact that Penn accepted six from your school, nj<em>azn</em>premed, is rather startling. It shows Penn’s desperation. Cornell, on the other hand, likes East-Coast students more than the rest. So you’ll find significantly more students getting in on the East Coast, where you’re from, than from California.</p>
<p>Bottom line about engineering: Penngineering is okay, but far, far from the best. If your major is Engineering, go to Cornell. Penngineers get paid higher than any other Penn student, but that pay doesn’t improve over time like Wharton kids’ pay does. Look at the 5 year and 10 year surveys of engineers from Penn in business jobs, and Wharton kids in related business jobs. The reason for this is engineers at Penn are recruited for finance and stay there. Wharton kids are recruited for entry-level finance but are usually promoted to management very quickly. </p>
<p>Source? Penn’s Career Services, where I had my resume submitted for summer internships. I suggest people go there before making rash comments. They’re very frank, and they have all sorts of other college employment data, including Cornell’s data that’s not published online.</p>