opinions: Cornell v. JHU?

<p>First, congrats to you daughter for making a decision. It's a tough choice to make - I had to pick between Cornell, Hopkins and a bunch of other schools too. Even though she picked Cornell over Hopkins (where I go), at least she found somewhere where she feels a "fit". </p>

<p>That said, I'm kind of surprised about what the OP said about her daughter's impressions of Hopkins vs Cornell. When I visited both campuses, my impression was nearly the exact opposite. At Hopkins, I had tons of people willing to talk to me. I asked random people in the dining hall or in the class I sat in on what they thought about the school and they had no problem talking. When I visited Cornell, everyone seemed detached and in a hurry and not really interested in talking to a prospective student - that was one of the major reasons I canceled Cornell off of my list of final schools to pick from. I guess it just depends on when you visit and what's going on that day. I don't know how active the Hopkins campus was during the Open Houses since I was one of the Hopkins</a> Interactive people at the admissions table all day.</p>

<p>Also edad, is the paper you're talking about "A Revealed Preference Ranking of U.S. Colleges and Universities"? I was curious so I searched and found the 2005 copy of the paper. According to the data and the formulas the provide (very interesting paper, by the way), the probability that Cornell would be picked over Hopkins is ~69% (unless I'm reading the paper wrong). That still seems kind of high considering the number of people I know here who chose Hopkins over Cornell, but I guess I have no way of knowing how many people were crossadmitted and made the other decision (Cornell over Hopkins)</p>

<p>Anyway, congrats to the OP's daughter and to anyone else trying to finalize their decision, good luck and choose wisely!</p>

<p>I got a very friendly vibe from Cornell. Students were more than happy to help out. I had multiple people come up to me and ask if I needed anything. Everyone was so nice. On the other hand, I can't say much about JHU, since I've never visited.</p>

<p>tanman,
I have what I suppose is a draft from 2004. The 2005 paper seems to be the final publication. Both have the same rankings, but the statistical tables are completely different. I looked at both and must admit I can make no sense of the data.</p>