Is Cornell Secretly the Best Ivy?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
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<p>I'm trying to clarify my understanding of the Cornell vision with these schools, so correct me if any of this is wrong.</p>

<p>Erza Cornell figured out that knowledge was more than just what one could read in books. Skills, talents, culture, engineering, design, architecture, these were subjects worthy of study and documentation. They are so crucial to enriching our lives and our societies, they should be formally taught (at the undergraduate level). </p>

<p>There is more to life than Arts and Sciences, but the rest of the Ivy League doesn't get this because they were founded in Europe and don't understand American pragmatism. Did you know Cornell was made a land-grant institution by Abraham Lincoln? Or that Cornell invented the degree in American History and American Literature? Yeah, because Cornell is the American Ivy and remember that. The others have "more" history, but Cornell has the better less slavery-driven half.</p>

<p>Agriculture and Life Sciences has been irresponsibly hated on enough by Anne Coulter and the Chicken-Fetish Harvard hockey fans. If you don't respect Agriculture as a course of study, respect this: if all the experts (and their knowledge/papers) in that field were to suddenly disappear tomorrow, human society couldn't survive. That probably can't be said about whatever field it is that you're studying.</p>

<p>Hotel Administration often gets a bad wrap for being the "simplest" school to do well in, but the skills that are studied in this school are incredibly valuable. It's a school devoted to the study of providing shelter efficiently. The knowledge that this school generates has a great potential for social good, and its graduates can specialize in such a wide breadth of skills you can't even imagine it unless you're there.</p>

<p>Labor Productivity is the most important mechanism to an economy. Cornell made an entire school devoted to studying its optimization. </p>

<p>Architecture hands down #1 undergrad Architecture school in the nation. Consistently.</p>

<p>Engineering Cornell Engineering is Top #10 across the board in pretty much every field of Engineering I bothered to look up in USNWR rankings, and it's the only Ivy that's even running with these bulls (MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Cal, Illinois etc.)</p>

<p>Business AEM is a consistent Top 5 traditional Business undergrad program, while ILR offers specialization in the human-side of business and Hotel's finance programs offer specialization in the capital-side of business. Even ORIE, the study of financial engineering was essentially invented at Cornell. You can't beat this breadth.</p>

<p>Career Recruiting Google to Goldman, the best of the best fly in to Ithaca and it's not for the glaciers.</p>

<p>If Cornell loses prestige points for thinking it's important to study things like growing crops, providing shelter, organizing labor, and instituting policy, then that's okay. What Cornell loses in prestige in gains in genuine understanding of society. There is a depth of knowledge, a type of knowledge, a bizarre but brilliantly conceived combination of classes and peers available to you that no matter what your college or major, you will leave Ithaca with a unique and profound understanding of the world.</p>

<p>Bottom Line: Nobody is on Cornell's level.</p>

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<p>I love it, I love it :)</p>

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<p>well done!</p>

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<p>Bravo. No other university offers the breadth and diversity of study, all at the very highest level. Not only outstanding liberal arts and engineering colleges, but specialized schools which are the best in the country, if not the world. Plus a gorgeous campus in a wonderful collegetown. Only Cornell.</p>

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<p>Don’t forget the top-notch medical school and biomedical research.</p>

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<p>Cornell is an excellent, top top tier school. It is an ivy, just like all the others. There is not a best ivy, and there is no worst ivy. No school is better at being an ivy (football conference) than another.</p>

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<p>Willhemakeit - I do not post comments very often on CC, but I do get a lot of valuable information from the site. When I read your analysis of the depth and breadth of study available at Cornell, I had to say “Thank you” for posting this. I agree wholeheartedly with everything you stated. Pretty much anything that a student wants to study is available at Cornell and then some. I have a current student studying Food Science and another son just accepted into the ILR program, and both chose Cornell because these particular programs are really the best in the nation. As you stated, this is the case with other fields of study as well at Cornell. This is one university that truly lives its mission.</p>

<p>This is the time of year when prospective students are trying to make their college decisions and going over in their head, “Why Cornell?” Read Willhemakeit’s post and you will understand why a decision to attend Cornell will be one of the smartest decisions you will ever make.</p>

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<p>I applied to Cornell. I think it’s a great school. I disagree that “no one is on Cornell’s level,” though - strongly (and with good reason). But I had a long day; I’m too tired to argue. </p>

<p>I liked your enthusiasm, however. Right now, as students are trying to make decisions, this is exactly what they need. Good post.</p>

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<p>This post forgot College of Human Ecology, which has some really unique majors, and looks at healthcare from a really interesting perspective. I am applying to study Developmental Behavioral Neuroscience next year purely because it is such a unique major, and not just because its an “ivy”. Cornell does go beyond the usual “ivy”/toptier school education!</p>

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<p>Ezra was really giving the middle finger to that whole elitist view when he turned his farm into a university that allowed any woman, Jew, or black who could handle the rigor to study there. I’ve always found it funny that sports have since shackled his university to the very institutions he was rejecting. </p>

<p>It took me studying at the far more cramped and option-limited Harvard to realize just how amazing an institution Cornell is due to both its breadth and depth. When I was there I drank up both the practical side and the philosophical side. But, we live in a society that assumes that the less work one does with his/her hands, the more advanced that person is. So, I doubt you will find broad support for your claim in this era.</p>

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<p>Well you are wrong. Nobody is on this level. Everything you can study at any other Ivy you can also study at Cornell, but there are a plethora of crazy-unique programs you can explore only at Cornell. Simply quantitatively: nobody is on Cornell’s level. </p>

<p>Seriously, Cornell A&S is as selective as Penn or Dartmouth. While Cornell’s other schools inflate the admission statistics, don’t get it twisted, these schools are specialized. They are the most competitive schools in fields that you don’t even have the foundation to begin to understand. </p>

<p>Basically this is the argument:</p>

<p>“Your school is too big. You offer a world-class education to too many people. And you study subjects that aren’t ‘intellectually rigorous.’ I’ve never studied Agriculture or Hospitality, but I assume they are simple because I don’t understand what you do at those schools. You must not be as smart/respectable as me.”</p>

<p>Think about it: Food and Shelter! Labor! Human Ecology!</p>

<p>It’s sad to think that people think studying these subjects implies Cornellians are less intelligent, aware, or worthy of prestige than their Ivy neighbors. This reflects something about society, not something about the schools: what we view as the knowledge that garners “prestige” is not the knowledge that make our world turn.</p>

<p>Other schools can’t match this. Add this to the crazy contributions to renewable energy and artificial intelligence that the engineering program has developed. (look up Cornell robotics, ethanol-producing algae, etc.) </p>

<p>And this is the first international school, Cornell actively opened a campus in Qatar and programs on the Israel-Jordan border. This is the only school actively working toward peace in the Middle East with genuine effort. </p>

<p>Cornell may not have the endowment size of Harvard, Princeton, or Yale but it definitely spends its money better.</p>

<p>Cornell invented financial aid. Cornell was the first integrated Ivy. No history of Jewish admission quotas (except the med school - ouch.) and Cornell’s endowment was never tainted with dirty slave-generated capital. </p>

<p>It’s a different attitude about knowledge, people, and society. If you don’t see that, it’s cause you’re not on Cornell’s level either. It’s a ho 'notha level, fo’real.</p>

<p>It’s the American Ivy, the first International Ivy, the best Ivy. Nobody is on Cornell’s level.</p>

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<p>While I think you have a strong argument in the post above, let’s not forget that Yale has a renown forestry school and Harvard has a forestry program at research land west of campus. UPenn has a nursing school. Stanford was designed on Cornell’s template. </p>

<p>So, while other schools may not have the breadth of Cornell’s offerings, they aren’t completely lacking in practical knowledge.</p>

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<p>Sometimes it is mind-boggling to see how some people reject objectivity in light of favoritism.</p>

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<p>Lazykid, it is mind-boggling to see your incessant, and often ill informed, bashing of Cornell.</p>

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<p>Cornell just has more knowledge available to its students than every other university. That’s why it gets the most applicants of any Ivy League school. That’s why it is objectively better than other universities. That is the most objective way anyone could gauge the quality of university, at least that I can think of offhand.</p>

<p>Instead of evaluating a school’s prestige based on how special you should feel for being selected by them, how about we evaluate schools based on their contributions of valuable knowledge to our society? How much important information do they impart upon our world? </p>

<p>I think some of you are beginning to see what I’m getting at.</p>

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<p>Great post! I don’t really agree with “Bottom Line: Nobody is on Cornell’s level.” but it is a great school.</p>

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<p>*behappy7, you are the misinformed one. Cornell is definitely not the best ivy. I come from a completely objective standpoint as a high school senior. The most famous/ richest/ most accomplished people that come out of Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, and Wharton. the only fair way to assess the value of a school is by looking at empirical data. harvard has had over 30 alumni that became billionaires, followed by stanford, upenn (mostly from wharton), and yale. cornell is in the very low single digits. I bet if you look at other statistics (nobel prize awards, number of presidents/ senators/ house of representatives), the number from harvard yale and princeton will top cornell. Also, take a look at the number of current fortune 500 ceos- harvard has 58, columbia 21, yale has 20. cornell- only 10.</p>

<p>[Where</a> the Fortune 500 CEOs Went to College - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2011/01/03/where-the-fortune-500-ceos-went-to-college]Where”>http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2011/01/03/where-the-fortune-500-ceos-went-to-college)</p>

<p>also if you just take a look at the famous alumni list on wikipedia- i bet that you will recognize more names from harvard yale columbia princeton stanford mit than cornell.</p>

<p>just wikipedia search: </p>

<p>[List</a> of Harvard University people - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Harvard_University_people]List”>List of Harvard University people - Wikipedia)

[List</a> of Cornell University people - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cornell_University_people]List”>List of Cornell University alumni - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>*willhemakeit - you are wrong that number of applicants is correlated with prestige of university. it is the acceptance rate that is correlated, and harvard/ princeton have the lowest acceptance rates of the ivies. by your reasoning, then a state college that has an acceptance rate of 50% is better than other schools because it has more applicants.</p>

<p>my point is this: from an objective standpoint, cornell is definitely not the best ivy league. Even if I get rejected from other schools and end up going to cornell, I will know objectively that there are other better schools.</p>

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Let’s not forget that Cornell invented the idea of a school in Forestry (it was originally its own statuatory college. Let’s also not forget that Cornell’s Department of Natural Resources is ranked well above Yale’s, at least in this ranking: [10</a> of the Best College Environmental Programs in the U.S. : TreeHugger](<a href=“http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/08/10-of-the-best-college-environmental-programs-in-the-us.php]10”>http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/08/10-of-the-best-college-environmental-programs-in-the-us.php)
See Cornell -
[Department</a> of Natural Resources](<a href=“http://www.dnr.cornell.edu/cals/dnr/index.cfm]Department”>http://www.dnr.cornell.edu/cals/dnr/index.cfm)
offers undergraduate degrees in Forestry and related studies, while at Yale it is only at the graduate level.</p>

<p>and I don’t think Harvard forestry is even listed… They jumped on this whole sustainability thing reallllly late</p>

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<p>So Ohio State must be a better school than Princeton then, right? That’s what you’re saying right?</p>

<p>Also, keep in mind Cornell just opened up it’s traditional business undergrad program (AEM) in 2002, and it’s already ranked top 5 in the country by Bloomberg. </p>

<p>Read that statement again.</p>

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<p>There are more “notable” people in the Cornell University listing…</p>

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<p>I never wrote that Cornell is the best Ivy. There is no “best”. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Cornell is the Ivy which offers the most breadth and diversity, and which probably contributes the most to society. I also believe Cornell has the best campus/setting among the Ivies.</p>