Is Cornell secretly the best Ivy?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
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Hey guys, I’m new here. I am deciding between Princeton, Yale, Penn, Dartmouth, and Cornell. Despite Cornell’s slightly lower ranking, it is currently my top choice. Please give honest feedback (especially appreciated from current students/recent alumni) on my point of view.

Ok, so before I get a bunch of grief from close minded high school students, I will make a case for why Cornell is the best, or most well rounded, Ivy league school.
The reason why Cornell may often be overlooked is its large size, and therefore bigger acceptance rate. The top schools within Cornell compete with any department at HPYSM.
Academically, it has programs such as Architecture, Engineering, Business, Hotel Management constantly ranked among the best in the world at the undergraduate level. Cornell offers courses in every field one could be interested in, such as an intro to wines class. This diversity and departmental focus cannot be found among the other ivies.
Next, socially, it is the largest ivy, and has a thriving social scene. Whereas Dartmouth is limited to Greek life and Columbia’s “party scene” is wasting money on bars, Cornell provides students with all the options.

Cornell arguably has the best athletic facilities and most competitive teams in the Ivy league, and hands down the most school pride.

What was that? Its cold? So is every other Ivy. I gotta get get used to it. The only school I would put above Cornell, everything considered, would be Stanford (Yale a close 2nd). And yes, the suicide rate is below the national average.

Cornell denies the most students of any school in America. It’s rankings are often lowered by its less competitive schools such as ILR and Human Ecology. As far as international prestige, Cornell is 4th, behind HYP, and definitely beats the snobbiness of those 3. It is consistently ranked above Brown, Penn, and Dartmouth. Cornell’s vast alumni network and most beautiful campus (2nd to maybe Princeton) make Cornell the most well rounded Ivy as it lacks nothing and offers its undergrad students everything and more (movie theater, ice cream, etc).

The food is the best in the ivy league. The students are the hardest working and least pretentious in the ivy league. Cornell has the most clubs in the ivy league. Cornell has the best athletes in the ivy league. Cornell offers the most traditional/state school college experience in the ivy league. Cornell offers the most diverse social scene in the ivy league. Cornell has the best business, engineering and architecture schools in the ivy league.

Its ranking may be brought down by questionable factors, but the quality of education for an arts and sciences Bachelor’s degree does not vary much between ivies. Cornell has all the other factors that make it the best Ivy league for well rounded students. Let’s hear what everyone else has to say! All feedback is appreciated!!

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Phew. That was a lot to ready. I won’t respond to all of it, but I’m heading off to Cornell in the fall and it seems your heart wants to go as well.
It seems like you’re pretty set on Cornell, and once you get into the top 15-20 schools, you pretty much are set for Grad school if you do well.
Therefore, look outside of academics (lets face it, they’re all pretty much on par) and decide from there!

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“Best” depends on the criteria of the evaluator. There are many respects in which Cornell is not the “best” among this set of schools. Most particularly class sizes. The “rankings” you cite depend on the criteria of that evaluator, US News,who has its own set of criteria and weightings that are subject to dispute.

Cornell’s main distinguishing feature is the diversity in its available areas of study, particularly towards various specialized, applied areas. Many of these have synergies with traditional liberal arts fields, and extend their offerings.accordingly. The degree to which one feels positively about Cornell rests in part on one’s feelings towards this diversity. One can variously : a) embrace all the additional types of people, opportunities and courses; or b) wish some of the people attending other colleges there besides yours weren’t there, in your dorm and in your classes.

It’s up to the evaluator. I’ve seen it go both ways.

I think Ithaca is beautiful, and I love it there. Some people don’t like it there as much as I do though. Again, a matter of personal opinion.

Due to my own personal bagage, I would give Yale and Princeton a careful look before I passed on them, if I thought I belonged and could hold my own academically. It is not crazy to pick one of the other choices, it depends on fit and objectives to a good extent. But I’ve been in some rarified circles where I’ve observed a presumption among certain HYPMS grads that they as a group are collectively “the best”. And others, by definition, are not; they are suspect till proven otherwise, It can be nice to be presumed to be among “the best”. If you are.

That’s my baggage though. Most people will never be in such work environment to see that.

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Bro if you go to any of HYPS then you are a legend. You already got into Yale and Princeton that is like the symbol of ultimate success lol, unless you are majoring in Architecture or Engineering then i would say go to Yale or Princeton.

edit: or for hotel management.

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@monydad‌ and @xFirefirex‌ Thanks for the responses guys. My main question is: is it worth it for me (not taking into account money) to pass up an opportunity at a more prestigious university (like Princeton or Yale) to go to Cornell AEM (undergrad business school, ranked 2 in the country). Which of the 3 will be best for job opportunities and connections? I like Cornell the best, but it is ranked slightly below Princeton and Yale. How big of a difference does this make if I am trying to get an MBA anyway? While Princeton and Yale may offer more liberal arts educations, I would go into Cornell business immediately and pursue what it is I want to do after I graduate. Please let me know your thoughts.

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Coming out of Cornell AEM will give you the same opportunities as coming out of Princeton Econ or Yale or basically anything. The only competitor would he Wharton which is the #1 in the world. I’d you maintain a good GPA the opportunities will be endless for a job or graduate school. It is clear that you want to go to Cornell but are trying to justify turning down HYP (which is a reasonable problem). I’d say go for it, you won’t regret your decision.

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Are you interested in investment banking (or private equity)? If so its a very prestige-oriented business and I think there’s a little more prestige coming out of Princeton or Yale than there is from Cornell. The difference is less pronounced in other industries.

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I have never experienced life as a student at Yale or Princeton, or tried to get jobs after graduating from those or Cornell AEM. I have, however, read and heard,great things about the AEM program at Cornell. From what I’ve heard, it could be close to comparable for employment, for a narrow range of jobs in certain finance-related industries. I don’t really know for sure if that’s the case though. it wasn’t the case when I worked on Wall Street, long ago. But AEM has become a much bigger deal since then.

As a program specialized towards business. it will likely not help as much as the others towards other areas of employment .eg if you decide you want to be a writer on Conan, intern with Spielberg, do policy analysis on Capitol Hill, etc, a liberal arts background might help you more with those. Besides, life is about more than employment.You have to decide what you want out of your education, and your college experience. The curriculum at AEM will be different than a liberal arts program.

FWIW it is not unprecedented that a student might take their first economics (or whatever) course, decide it is boring, take biology, (or psychology, or physics, or art history, or…) ,get turned on, and then decide they want to study something altogether different than what they thought they wanted when they were in high school.

But all reports I’ve had about AEM are extremely positive.

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@collegeguy21 I love how you spelled out what was on your mind. It sounds exactly like my D. She too will be attending Cornell in the fall and was accepted ED to AEM. All the things you listed are the reasons she chose Cornell over the other ivies. She did the summer SSP at Harvard, and enjoyed Cambridge very much; Harvard not so much. She found the professors pretentious and the students a little different. She received A’s in her classes because that is who she is, but never thought of applying to the school after that summer. We visited most ivies and Cornell was actually her last. She decided the day we visited (and I am sure she studied all the schools online thoroughly) that she was going to attend Cornell. And YES the only other school she was torn between was UPenn Wharton. She did like the visit there also, and had we not made the trip to Ithaca she would probably be attending UPenn. As far as what you are studying you have made the right choice.
Because of what she wanted to study her last three choices came down to Cornell Dyson, Upenn Wharton, and Georgetown Mcdonough. I believe that she will find other like minded students from our socioeconomic range, and thrive. Love the one your with brother!!!

She knew I (a city fireman) was hoping she would attend Harvard. I was being selfish in hoping that.
A) It would have been a helluva lot cheaper
B) I thought it would so cool telling my friends and family that she is going to Harvard

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Have you seen this? Today’s New York Times.

MBA Programs that Get You Where You Want to Go
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/education/edlife/mba-programs-that-get-you-where-you-want-to-go.html?_r=0

If I were a student today and were interested in investment banking or any type of business career, I would major in a liberal arts discipline as an undergrad (Art History, Anthropology, Government, Math, Biology, Russian . . .something like that). Then I would get an MBA.

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Prospective Cornellian here! Still deciding if it’s worth the 60k though…
Honestly, you have some great choices. Prestige is certainly a thing to consider, but at this level, you get a “wow” for any one of those names…sure, Yale and Princeton may have a slightly better ring to them, but I think you absolutely have to follow your heart. It seriously sounds like you want to go to Cornell, and if you’ll be happiest there then that’s where you should be.

Also, I read an article about the merits of their higher acceptance rate. In keeping with Ezra Cornell’s dream of “any person, any study,” naturally they will be slightly less selective and more diverse. They offer guaranteed transfers, spring starts and summer pre-frosh programs to help students transition. They aren’t pretentious; they want to make a Cornell education accessible to as many people as possible. I think that’s pretty rad.

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@CollegeGuy21, Trust your internal compass. If it’s pointed solidly at Cornell, then it seems that Cornell is the right path for you. Like you, I was fortunate to have some nice options and will be going to Yale. :slight_smile:

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Last night I recalled a dorm-mate of mine at Cornell who had also been admitted to one of (HYPMS).
He wound up going to the very top program in his field for grad school, and is today a tenured professor at a major research university,
In that case, he didn’t suffer at all for choosing Cornell.
YMMV.

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It sounds like you have your heart set on Cornell! I’m completely biased, but I think Cornell is the best university in the world and I definitely think Ithaca is the best place in the world.

You have a great set of options. You’re going to get a great education no matter what, and you’re also clearly driven enough to push yourself to succeed regardless of where you go. I think at this point you have to assess which school is right for you. If Cornell’s atmosphere is what seems like the best fit for you, then come here. Every school is different and no school is going to be right for everyone. I know now that Cornell was definitely the right choice for me and I could never picture myself anywhere else. Is it the right choice for everyone? Of course not. But neither is Princeton, or Yale, or anywhere else. It seems like you would really enjoy it here and fit in well.

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Cornell is a great school!

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My older D went to Cornell. She had such a good experience, both academically and socially, that the young daughter used her sister’s experience at Cornell as the benchmark. The younger D had a slightly better stats and better hooks, so she had a fairly good chance of getting in HYPS or maybe LACS like Williams and Middlebury. My secret desire was for her to go to Yale (I paid for her to visit Yale 3 times from outside of US). Each time she visited it she told me it didn’t have the right vibe for her. What kept on playing in her head whenever she visited a school was, “It has X Y Z, but it doesn’t have A B at Cornell.” When time came to decide which school to ED/SCEA, she made a spreadsheet of every school’s pros and cons, and Cornell came out ahead for her.

Both of my kids like the size of Cornell and diversity of students. There are some cancer curing type of students, but there are other students who are just smart and hard working. My older one double majored in math/econ, and the younger one is an humanities student. They both have had great job/internship opportunities coming from Cornell. They competed with students from other higher ranking schools, and they were not disadvantaged. My kids are not the only successful students from Cornell. Almost all of D1’s friends graduated with a job and they are all doing very well 5 years out of school. D1’s best friend was admitted to every law school she applied to, which included Harvard and Stanford. I have 2 nephews at Cornell, one is graduating with a real estate investment management job, and another has an internship this summer at a PE firm. What’s interesting is they are Hotellies.

OP is right about Cornell’s international reputation. My kids studied abroad in Sydney and London. Whenever they said they went to Cornell, there were some oohs and aahs, but not so much when people mention Brown, Penn or Dartmouth. Not that one should measure a school by oohs and aahs, but it does show Cornell’s name recognition.

You will do well where you are happy. If you have visited those accepted schools, how did you feel when you walked around the campus? Did you feel at home? Did you feel you could be friends with students you saw? Did students look happy or stressed? You have some great options. I am sure you will make the right choice for you.

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My D2’s close friend and former apartment mate, whom she met while both were attending Cornell, just got accepted into Harvard Business School for her MBA. She also got into Columbia. She has been working in the finance field (investment banking, etc) for the the past 5 years. My D2 ( an ILR grad) also works in finance ( trading).

If you really love Cornell, do not think it will ever hold you back in any way. D2 works with Princeton, Harvard, Yale, MIT, etc. grads and they all consider themselves, including D2, equals, as far as education goes.

Congratulations on your accomplishments. It sounds as if you can not go wrong in whatever decision you make. Good luck.

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@CollegeGuy21 How did you get accepted? What were your stats and extracurriculars throughout hs?

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