<p>someone at my school said no to Harvard and yes to ND.</p>
<p>"Yeah, but what if you end up not becoming an engineer"</p>
<p>then you'll be screwed. After all, what good is a Cornell University degree?</p>
<p>Nah, you won't be 'screwed'. But you will probably be kicking yourself for not taking Harvard.</p>
<p>Nor is this a theoretical example. I know a guy who turned down Harvard for Caltech because he thought he wanted to study engineering. He then later determined that his real passion was in politics and government. He tried to transfer into HYPS and was rejected by all of them. He freely admits that he shouldn't have turned down Harvard.</p>
<p>my point is Cornell isn't like Caltech!!!</p>
<p>at Cornell, if you dont want to do engineering, switch to one of the other 6 undergraduate schools. Cornell is a much more diverse school than Caltech and offers far more majors and courses (than even Harvard). If he/she wanted to switch from engineering to comparative literature with a minor in middle eastern studies, they could easily do it at Cornell. Cornell is very strong in most majors, I doubt they'll be really kicking themselves if they switch (unless of course they were prestige hunting). </p>
<p>PS - i hope your friend was rejected from Princeton as a transfer. It would be against Princeton's policy if he wasn't.</p>
<p>Also, a lot of IBankings firms and the like, love to hire engineering majors since they can do the math and have the thought process to handle tough complications in real world situations.
Engineers don't only do engineering. It's a pretty versatile degree.</p>
<p>Gomestar, I agree that Cornell is a more diverse school. But in general, if you end up majoring in government or political science, it's probably better to do so at Harvard than at Cornell (and certainly than at Caltech). Kicking yourself is therefore a relative concept. For example, I strongly suspect that many Cornell poli-sci students would rather be going to Harvard but didn't get in, but there are very few Harvard poli-sci/government students who would rather be going to Cornell but didn't get in.</p>
<p>probably true in some regards, but Cornell is still very strong in every other field. It's not like somebody would be at a total loss if they decided to change majors from Cornell engineering</p>
<p>Nobody is saying that it is a 'total loss'. </p>
<p>But look, if you want unbeatable broadness of major, forget about Cornell. There's a certain school in Palo Alto that would really fit your bill. </p>
<p>Besides, I wouldn't say that Harvard is that bad when it comes to engineering. While rankings are obviously not definitive, Harvard engineering is ranked somewhere in the 20's. That's actually pretty good. Compare that to Cornell's political-science ranking of #18. Hence, if your choice is between Harvard and Cornell, and you choose Harvard, and you end up majoring in engineering, then you've basically "lost" something like 20 ranking points (as Cornell is #8 or so in engineering, whereas Harvard is in the 20's). Whereas, if you choose Cornell over Harvard and end up majoring in poli-sci/government, then you have basically lost about 17 ranking points, as Harvard is ranked #1 and Cornell is #18. So it's basically the same 'loss'.</p>
<p>Note, I don't have the rankings in front of me, so I don't remember the exact ranking numbers. But I don't think I'm far off. The takehome point is that the difference between Cornell engineering and Harvard engineering is about the same as the difference between Harvard and Cornell in government/poli-sci. Hence, I don't see THAT compelling of a reason to choose Cornell over Harvard, especially if you aren't sure about engineering.</p>
<p>Furthermore, those rankings are just about the Harvard engineering department specifically. Yet the truth is, Harvard runs an extensive cross-reg program with MIT, which is probably the best engineering school in the world. Plenty of Harvard engineering students take so many MIT classes through cross-reg that they are basically de-facto MIT students. Keep in mind that Harvard and MIT are literally a 10 minute subway ride away. I know a former MIT engineering student who once said that it actually took him LESS time to get from his MIT dorm to Harvard Yard (through the subway) than it took for him to get to his classes at MIT. The point is, by going to Harvard, you have available to you the best engineering education in the world. Obviously it's not as good as just going to MIT in the first place, but it still means that the engineering education you can get as a Harvard student (via MIT cross-reg) is far more extensive and high quality than a simple glance at the departmental rankings would imply.</p>
<p>Speaking of MIT, I would say that for the example I used previously, I suspect that guy would have been better off going to MIT (another school he got admitted to) than at Caltech or at Cornell. After all, like I said, he wanted to major in poli-sci, and MIT (perhaps surprisingly) has a higher ranked political science department than Cornell does (#10 vs. #18). </p>
<p>But that's neither here nor there. The point is, lots of people end up switching majors from what they thought they would major in. You have to ask yourself just how sure you are about a specialized field like engineering before you choose schools based on that field.</p>
<p>Honestly, if I could get into Harvard, I would still much much rather go to UCB or NYU.
I don't think I'd enjoy Harvard at all. And I'm not real interested in bragging rights which I'm sure is the reason many people go there.</p>
<p>This might be weird since I'm posting a question here, but I figure it fits under the topic. </p>
<p>My situation: Amherst College, Class of '09, parents refusing to contribute money for upcoming year, will likely amass burdensome debt, also dissatisfied with College's fine arts offerings, and thinking of going to a cheap school with decent art that I still have time to apply to. (Everything has just happened since Friday, which is why I'm thinking about this so late in the summer.)</p>
<p>What do you think of transferring from Amherst College to SUNY Purchase? Does it seem more practical or more crazy?</p>
<p>I think you should stay at Amherst and or if you are gung-ho art go to a great arts school like RISD. Suny purchase seems like a terrible idea.</p>
<p>"My friend turned down Notre Dame for Grenell University (in the middle of Iowa). She said she clicked better with the students and liked the smaller classes (and got a $14000 scholarshiip)."</p>
<p>I think Grinnell is actually the better school here...by quite a bit.</p>
<p>Agreed. Notre Dame = one of the most overrated entities on the planet</p>
<p>LOL. Funny!</p>
<p>My buddy chose Kendall College of Art & Design over SAIC, Pratt, and some art school in Pittsburgh</p>
<p>I chose BC over JHU, does that count?</p>
<p>Our sal turned down Columbia for Stevens claiming money.</p>
<p>my sister turned down caltech, ucla, uchicago and duke for pomona
my brother turned down cal, uchicago, harvard(waitlisted then accepted), ucla and columbia for grinnell</p>
<p>it was cheaper for me to go to Boston U than Ohio State.. make sense? 50k school versus a 20k school?... oh well i guess i'll b kickin myself while walkin the streets of boston</p>
<p>I dunno, FA works both ways...schools that are worse/less known academically are cheaper, but typically offer worse FA than HYPSM and other top privates</p>
<p>For example, full-cost at PSU is about 19,000, and Harvard, PTon, and Duke (and i'm sure a bunch of others) offer over 20,000 on average to people who actually qualify for aid, making it about the same price</p>