NY Times Article (4/22) - "Cornell's Worried Image Makers Wrap Themselves in Ivy"

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
41

<p>Cornell tends to be underestimated for the following reasons:</p>

<p>1) Its sheer size. Keeping in view Ezra Cornell's dream, Cornell offers a tremendously large number of courses, rivalled in their diversity by only the Large state universities. To fill up so many courses, one needs many students, 3000/year to be precise, about 3 times Princeton's intake and yet Cornell's Acceptance rate manages to be a respectable 21%.</p>

<p>2) With so many Colleges and Courses, not all can numero uno in the country. While some have excelled like Engineering, Basic Sciences, Hotel and many others, a few havn't done so well, but are respectable nonetheless. This too brings down its rankings.</p>

<p>3) When looked upon qualitatively, Cornell students have achieved more than any Ivy. A recent survey by a magazine, the link to which is in a thread in this very forum, rated Cornell #4 in US in terms of development of society and progress. </p>

<p>4) When it comes to flexibility, Cornell is miles ahead of most universities. This is a key component in ensuring a hands-on and comprehensive approach to education.</p>

<p>5) If you still persist with your rankings argument, THES rated Cornell #23 in 2004 and in 2005, its was #11 or 12 (pardon me for the lapse of memory). And given the decrease in acceptance this year and developments, its pretty certain to enter the top 10 in the world in the 2006rankings. (pardon me, but I don't believe in US News or any rankings which has the audacity to rate UPnn at #3)</p>

<p>Set aside academics and other stuff, its got great food, campus and from the likes of the profiles in co2010 forum, hot girls.</p>

42

<p>are you seriously rating cornell's girls based on what a few incoming freshman wrote about themselves in an online forum? you never even saw a picture...</p>

43

<p>1) The picture's are up. I'm not silly to make a statement without having substantial proof.
2) Pretty deatiled Media Galleries where all people maintain albums are also up.</p>

<p>Hey, for a guy who states that hes goin to Cornell ur knowledge of your own class site seems to be at best, below average. ;)</p>

44

<p>Oh, you mean the forum on Cornell's website? I can't access it cuz I defered my admission for a year. I thought you were talking about something on this forum.</p>

45

<p>3) When looked upon qualitatively, Cornell students have achieved more than any Ivy. A recent survey by a magazine, the link to which is in a thread in this very forum, rated Cornell #4 in US in terms of development of society and progress. </p>

<p>Where is this link?</p>

<p>and where did they badmouth Cornell gomestar? I checked their cc forums and didn't immediatly see anything (if it's in those links on this page...they don't work)</p>

46

<p>What was Cornell's gear like before the image committee? I picked up the navy hat with the red C when I went there, and it's like the same thing I have from Colgate, only in different colors. Actually, the stuff they have at the Cornell store is pretty much the exact same as I've seen at the Colgate Bookstore since before I came. Their stuff must have been really bad.</p>

47

<p>Of course, there's no denying that Ivy League began as a sports conference. But you also can't deny that it has much more significance than just a sports conference now. That's like saying the Taliban is really harmless because it began as a group of dissatisfied albeit religious school teachers.</p>

48

<p>If that committee was really concerned about their image, they wouldn't have let themselves be interviewed for that embarrassing article. </p>

<p>I'm a Cornell alum and proud of it. Cornell is the only Ivy I applied to and the only one I would have been willing to attend. The others seemed too stuffy, too full of rich prep school kids, too exclusively focused on liberal arts, and/or too dangerous (in terms of the surrounding neighborhoods and cities).</p>

<p>Sure, Cornell is different from the rest of the Ivies. But I don't see why this should be considered a disadvantage. Cornell is unique. How many other Ivy League/state school hybrids are there, after all? And how many other state or part-state institutions are there in the U.S. News top 20? </p>

<p>There is a diversity of academic programs at Cornell that none of the other Ivies can match, and those programs attract a fascinatingly diverse group of students. The food is actually edible, the neighborhood is not dangerous, freshmen can get singles, and every employer who ever sees your resume is going to know that you truly earned your degree. It sounded good to me years ago and it still does (even though I don't like hockey).</p>

49

<p>Not like hockey??</p>

<p>I personally find these "What's an Ivy/what's not an Ivy/what's an upper or lower Ivy" worries way off the mark. It's as if these are cookie cutter schools, each trying to scramble to emulate each other. They're in fact a very diverse lot, each with their own history and missions. Setting one's sights based on rankings is generally a mistake. Rankings indices are by and large blunt instruments, since they compare schools based on some very general common denominators. Harvard may be the best school for one student, and Cornell better suited for another. Decide what's important to you in your education and the setting in which you want to get it, and the Ivy League will provide plenty of diversity to provide a good fit, along with any number of other excellent schools throughout the country.</p>

<p>For those curious about the Ivy League and its history, check out the following links:</p>

<p><a href="http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:BPKt318aMGsJ:www.ivysport.com/file_include.php%3Ffile%3Dhistory+Stanley+Woodward+ivy&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:BPKt318aMGsJ:www.ivysport.com/file_include.php%3Ffile%3Dhistory+Stanley+Woodward+ivy&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/critics/atlarge/articles/051010crat_atlarge%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.newyorker.com/critics/atlarge/articles/051010crat_atlarge&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The last one is a critical look at admissions practices that have been used at some Ivy institutions over the years.</p>

<p>Although some Cornell students may have an inferiority complex about their university, they should take comfort in the fact that one of the goals of the founders of the university was to depart from some of these admissions practices in a radical way right from the start: "Any person, any study." Although this let students who weren't part of the Eastern elite in the door, it resulted in a diverse, vibrant student body studying at the nation's first school of engineering, first vet college, first hotel school,... </p>

<p>Cornell was founded with the intent of shaking things up in American education, and most of American higher education spent a long time playing catch up to where Cornell was leading them. It was an edgy, renegade type of place in its early years, and has continued to show leadership in scholarship and service throughout its history. Members of the Cornell community have NOTHING about which to be apologetic as far as their standing in American higher education.</p>

50

<p>
[quote]
3) When looked upon qualitatively, Cornell students have achieved more than any Ivy. A recent survey by a magazine, the link to which is in a thread in this very forum, rated Cornell #4 in US in terms of development of society and progress. </p>

<p>Where is this link?

[/quote]
</p>

<p><a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0509.collegeguide.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0509.collegeguide.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

51

<p>Though I think its a little sad that Cornell has an image committee, I understand the desire to improve its image. Right now Cornell is situated near the bottom of the the league in USNews (which, whether we want to amdit it or not, high schoolers do pay attention to), with only Brown, which, at least at my school, is not viewed seriously at all, behind it. I think it would be nice for Cornell to be on the same ranking level as Columbia, and I think it should be higher than Penn- whose ranking is a farce. </p>

<p>That said, the only stupid thing about that article was that one of the guys interivewed complaining about Cornell's prestige was working at a big marketing firm on Madison Ave. probably making tons of money. And what else? The head of the firm was a Cornell grad, who got the other guy his job. That just shows you how successful Cornell grads can be. So don't worry!</p>

<p>Honestly, whenever I worry about going to Cornell, I just look at the list of cornell alumni and professors on wikipedia and it makes me feel so much better. you should check it out. some amazing people went there!</p>

52

<p>To be frank, i have NO idea what makes UPenn be placed so high!!!
The only thing respectable in it is Wharton. Everything else is miles behind Cornell...and just 1 field ain't enough to get you so high a rankings.</p>

<p>I personally feel THES is a much better ranking system. Its much more comprehensive and is also followed much more than US News across the world (tho in US, the situation is the other way around).</p>

53

<p>Oh wow, I just looked up the Times Higher Education Supplement, which seems to be the definitive wholistic ranking for universities, and here is where the Ivy League stands:</p>

<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Penn</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
</ol>

<p>Now, besides Dartmouth, which shouldn't be compared, I would say those are pretty interesting and telling rankings. Cornell proves much closer to Princeton and Yale than to other ivies. </p>

<p>In the end, who cares if we are the farmer ivy? At least we are the best farmers in the world! (maybe next to Deep Springs College) and the 14th best university in the world.</p>

54

<p>And its pretty sure to enter top 10, given the sudden decrease in admittance rate and huge research developments.</p>

<p>But i have a feeling Princeton and Yale shd swap rankings in that. Yale's not better.</p>

55

<p>An interesting thing to note would be that Cornell's rank's increased by almost 10 from 2004 to 2005, despite similar acceptance rate in both years. OOhhh! I can't wait for this year's.</p>

56

<p>um.. are you like dumb? the rankings has nothing to do with acceptance rates. it's accounting for graduate school, research, etc.</p>

57

<p>Here's one more ranking I came across tho the co2010 site:
<a href="http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2004/top500(1-100).pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2004/top500(1-100).pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Cornell's placed at #12...and lose out on ONLY Alumni ans Size...not fair!!! btw Yale's at #11. U can expect Cornell to go ahead of Yale this year then.</p>

<p>hanscoring, ur dumb, ain't u? Acceptance Rate IS a criterion for US News, THES or any other ranking.
Its put in BOLD letters.</p>

58

<p>handscoring, acceptance rates do count; refer to this:
<a href="http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/about/06rank_brief.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/about/06rank_brief.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

59

<p>I Am Talking About The Times Ranking... Not Us News... Of Course Us News Counts Acceptance</p>

60

<p>acceptance rate is 25% of the criterion for US news ranking. It says so right here in my copy</p>