I’ve been reading all this great advice on CC over the past year and now hope you can help me!
DS is choosing between Johns Hopkins or Cornell. He will be studying engineering, not exactly sure what yet. He did not get into the BME program at JHU. He was thinking he might be interested in medicine but again, not sure.
He visited JHU for the SOHOP overnight visit, and loved it! He enjoyed the atmosphere, the other students, and the SOHOP programming. It seemed more personal there. He enjoyed it so much that he did not even want to go visit Cornell which we made him do. Cornell was a more low key visit. He was also invited to do an overnight stay, but because their events are spread out over 3 weeks, it was not as exciting as the SOHOP was. The April weather on the day we went was cold, gloomy. He walked over 6 miles from classes to the events to the dorm. Students did not seem as friendly either, and it seemed more impersonal (probably due to the size of the place). Overall, he did not get a great impression.
JHU is giving us a better financial aid package (no student loans) as compared to Cornell (contains student loans) but otherwise it is almost the same, and we can afford to pay both. But I worry about the safety at JHU, especially when he will gave to get off campus housing in 2 years. There’s not much crime in in Ithaca. The distance to get to each school is almost the same. I like how Cornell had so many libraries and places for the students to study. Cornell has the Ivy prestige factor and probably more resources, opportunities, and more recruiting. When I mention the dilemma of choosing between the two schools to our friends and family, everyone seems to only hear Cornell. 
I also worry about the stress and intense studying at JHU, but I know engineering at Cornell is probably similar. It seems like JHU is a more generous school and Cornell nickels and dimes people (like having to pay for the gym).
He wants to go to JHU. We were all set on having him go to JHU but now I don’t want to have made a mistake by choosing wrong, or giving up on a better opportunity? We can still totally sway him since we are paying for his school. He also got two free rides at two state school’s Honors colleges, but that’s a whole other story. Thank you for any feedback and advice.