<p>um, i disagree</p>
<p>Penn and Duke def deserve higher spots, they are more selective, and they have great programs as well</p>
<p>wash u on paper is more selective than cornell...</p>
<p>I don't think Duke is a better school than Cornell. Penn has some strengths over Cornell. Deciding which is better, Penn or Cornell, is a tougher decision. I can't really say that either school is obviously better. I like Cornell more. But between Duke and Cornell, Cornell is obviously better in my opinion. Duke doesn't deserve its spot on U.S. News.</p>
<p>I just meant that Duke, Penn, Wash U are "known" for being overrated on the US news ranking. They're all very good schools, I just meant that they don't deserve the current rankings. I mean, Duke is better than MIT? Penn is better than Stanford? I personally don't think so...</p>
<p>wow, you people take those rankings WAY too seriously</p>
<p>Most of us clearly don't, because we chose Cornell. I take seriously the fact that so many people take these rankings too seriously.</p>
<p>The way I see it, the major reasons that Cornell is ranked lower are selectivity and SAT scores. Both of these are idiotic statistics.</p>
<p>Cornell has by far the largest undergrad population of the ivies (Penn is the only one close and it's still 2000 less), so in order for it to be as selective as the smaller ivies it would need to have a rediculously large applicant pool. Thats's not a realistic expectation. All this means is that, at the very worst, Cornell takes just as many good students as the other ivies and the rest of the slots are filled with people who may not be quite as good, but they certainly don't drag anyone else down. What probably happens in the end is that these students who got into Cornell but none of the other top schools leave Cornell smarter and are more successful than if they had gotten into and attended one of the "higher" ivies.</p>
<p>When I visited Cornell, the person doing the info session (I think he was a dean of CAS) specifically said that they give very little weight to SAT scores when they evaluate an application. They give much more weight to grades, demonstrated interest in Cornell, good essays, good recs, extra curriculars, etc. The idiots doing the rankings never see any of these statistics, so they see that Cornell has a lower average SAT score and naturally assume that it's much less selective than the "real" ivies. Yet again, in the end, Cornell wins because they chose the students who are actually smart and actually want to go to Cornell and actually are interesting people, rather than someone who pays a tutor $100 an hour to teach them how to ace some dumb standardized test.</p>
<p>All that said, I don't completely understand why Cornell is an ivy. It was founded ~100 years after all the other ivies, it is the only one without a religious affiliation at its roots, it is the only one that is at all a state school and it is geographically separate from all the other ivies. Obviously it is on par acedemically with the ivy league, but that isn't really what defines the ivies, as much as people like to think it does.</p>
<p>"All that said, I don't completely understand why Cornell is an ivy. ... "</p>
<p>Maybe because the other ivies saw QUALITY in Cornell?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Maybe because the other ivies saw QUALITY in Cornell?
[/quote]
So why don't they take Stanford? The ivy league is not just about quality. It's about being very old (all the other ivies were founded before the revolution), being fairly clumped in the northeast and having a HUGE ego. Cornell is not nearly as old and it's about 5 hours away from the closest other ivy.</p>
<p>Cornell was and is my top choice and I am going there, just so nobody thinks I'm bashing it in any way.</p>
<p>Don't you think Stanford would be a little too far geographically, especially back when the train was the main mode of transportation? I would guess they were not comfortable with the idea of having only seven schools in the league so they tried hard to find one more school of about the same quality. Since none could be found within less than 5 hours away, they decided to go with Cornell.</p>
<p>The Ivy league is a sports league - Stanford is too far for the fencing team.</p>
<p>They also have that absolutely gorgeous campus.</p>
<p>That article is funny - talking about hoodies and all.</p>
<p>Obviuosly there are reasons why it was added to the league, but my point stands that it is still very different than the rest of the league and that somewhat explains why the rest of the league looks down on it.</p>
<p>Maybe another reason that they chose it was because Cornell athletics (except hockey) are bad enough that they would fit right in with the rest of the league.</p>
<p>One of the rules of the agreement within the Ivy League is that they are not allowed to offer athletic scholarships. They can only offer scholarships to students with demonstrated need. Arguably, students athletes with lesser academic statistics can be recruited for the Ivy League, but without scholarship offers. Stanford offers greater than 300 athletic scholarships per year. Since the Ivy League originated as a football league, you have to agree that none of the Ivy League football teams compare to the athletic powerhouses, such as University of Michigan, etc. Cornell's hockey is terrific, in spite of the fact that they don't have the recruiting "$" power. In terms of intercommunication, top administrators of the eight Ivy League schools often meet with peer institutions such Stanford and MIT. </p>
<p>This might help you:
<a href="http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/archives/000054.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/archives/000054.htm</a>
<a href="http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/archives/000142.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/archives/000142.htm</a></p>
<p>Interesting. But it still doesn't really explain how Cornell got involved with the other 7 schools in the first place.</p>
<p>btw, in addition to my list of differentiating factors between Cornell and the other ivies that I posted earlier, wasn't Cornell the only one that was co-ed at the beginning?</p>
<p>
<p>Maybe another reason that they chose it was because Cornell athletics (except hockey) are bad enough that they would fit right in with the rest of the league.
</p>
<p>Besides hockey, Cornell was 2nd in the country in lacrosse and is 5th in the country in wrestling. Also, Cornell is in the top half of the league in almost every sport</p>
<p>top half of the ivy league really doesn't say very much.</p>
<p>the ivy league is just an athletic conference. All schools are located in the northeast, they're not very far apart. Cornell isn't that far from any of the schools, Penn and Columbia are like 3-4 hours away. I'm sure Dartmouth is probably the same way. </p>
<p>I dont think Duke is better than Cornell. Sure these schools (duke and penn and WUSL) are more selective, but this only creates a strong student body, not strong academic programs. Penn has Wharton, but I can't think of much more. Sure they're both more "selective" but we've been over this issue 100 times before. Move Cornell up in the rankings, put penn and duke right behind, and then stick WUSL at like 25.</p>
<p>this really makes my head hurt. what in the world is wrong with being ranked 13? how many schools are there in this country? Honestly, I don't think any school in the top 25 is any better than another, it just depends on how you use your opportunities and what you'd like to study.</p>
<p>i dont care how high WUSL is ranked, it's the most boring awful undergraduate that one can possibly imagine.</p>
<p>Just go to this link (i.e. WUSL = sexless trolls)
<a href="http://www.*******.com/thread.php?thread_id=359387&mc=4&forum_id=2%5B/url%5D">http://www.*******.com/thread.php?thread_id=359387&mc=4&forum_id=2</a></p>
<p>umm....okay........ (i really dont know how that is an improper word but..)
<a href="http://www.x%5B/url%5D">http://www.x</a> o x o h t h.com/thread.php?thread<em>id=359387&mc=4&forum</em>id=2</p>
<p>i got bored so browed that link of yours a little.</p>
<p>I thought some people on CC were thick, some of the people on the law board are nothing but retarded! I thought the "State school Cornell" stigma was high here, over there it's just like "Cornell sucks as it is, but the state school part just tears it to pieces, Cornell isn't even an ivy to begin with." What idiots!</p>