Rice vs Cornell

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm mostly decided but I just wanted a few more opinions before my final decision. </p>

<p>My Background: I'm from NY. I'm Chinese, and I plan on majoring somewhere in the sciences / engineering (most likely biological / biomedical engineering or environmental engineering)</p>

<p>Rice:
(+): Very community like/friendly, I think I'll be slightly happier there, Will offer me a very new experience, Urban, smaller class sizes / more attention</p>

<p>(-): Very very far away, ~15000 more expensive per year than Cornell, It's in Texas, very very demanding work</p>

<p>Cornell
(+): 15,000 cheaper a year than Rice (because I live in NY, I get a discount at the CALS school), Awesome academic opportunities, many other extracurricular opportunities, offers strong environmental / business programs, Should be fairly happy there, Beautiful / lovely campus, some friends are also going there</p>

<p>(-): Less community / friendly (I'm a little concerned about being able to make friends in college.. i'm not amazing at socializing), extremely demanding work, competitive / pressured, freezing winter, major part of campus life is frats / drunken parties (i've asked around.. and got very mixed opinions... can anyone comment on this?)</p>

<p>My parents prefer that I go to Cornell... Also, due to the significantly cheaper cost of Cornell / the fact that the problems I mentioned don't seem TOO significant, I really am leaning towards Cornell. My primary worry is my happiness at Cornell. What do you guys think? </p>

<p>Thanks so much.</p>

2

<p>Personally, I would choose Rice over Cornell any day, but that’s because I dislike cold weather, big universities, and schools in the middle of nowhere.</p>

<p>Rice is VERY STRONG in bioengineering (we’re ranked #9 in the nation for bioengineering). Civil/environmental engineering is quite strong as well.</p>

<p>Personally, I think Cornell is more stressful/cutthroat than Rice, but I have never visited Cornell, so take that with a grain of salt. </p>

<p>Texas is amazing, especially Houston. Much more to do in Houston, especially in comparison to what’s offered in Ithaca.</p>

<p>We’re ranked #1 in Best Quality of Life and #8 in Happiest Students for a reason :)</p>

<p>Anyway you can’t go wrong. I know money was a deciding factor for me. Your situation will be a win-win regardless.</p>

3

<p>Academically, both very strong schools, but I think you’d be happier at Cornell. I know it’s very competitive as well as cold, but you’ve given lots of good reasons why Cornell makes sense. It’s Ivy league and it’s cheaper for goodness sake.</p>

<p>Having said that, I also want to stress the importance of being close to home. If you feel it is too stressful, go home for a day. You can do that and it’s healthy to take an occasional break, particularly since you say you’re not terribly social.</p>

<p>Rice is nice. I love their residential community experience, but I think you’d feel it’s just too far away.</p>

4

<p>thanks for the responses</p>

<p>In addition, I’m really not concerned about academics. i’m more focused on other aspects such as finances / overall happiness / experience.</p>

5

<p>But, being close to home is very valuable too. Besides, I think the folks at Cornell are making a concerted effort to create a more lively, social experience for their undergraduates. Yes, I think Rice sounds like a great place to go to school, but there’s a tremendous value in being close to home too.</p>

<p>Wherever you go, you should move away from being not so social. Get involved in school clubs and activities, join school spirit events. Make a point to become active. It really increases your enjoyment of the college experience.</p>

6

<p>any other thoughts?</p>

7

<p>Both are great schools. Rice’s residential college system and fabulous O-Week (orientation program) provides an instant family that supports you throughout all 4 years. If you were comparing academics/price, it sounds like it tips in favor of Cornell due to a lower price. I know a bunch of kids from Texas who attend Cornell, so distance is certainly manageable (even if it’s the reverse). If you’re looking for a supportive, collaborative environment with a lot of personal attention, I believe Rice wins in that regard. It’s up to you and your family as to what tips the scale.</p>

<p>Congratulations on 2 great choices!</p>

8

<p>If money were not an issue, I’d suggest you go to Rice, the campus you visited where you felt most comfortable. I strongly disagree with limabeans telling you you’d be happier at Cornell because it’s closer to home. Rice IS far, but it’s only a flight away come break time. Your communications to family and old friends will be the same by cell and computer as it would be wherever you went. I also disagree that Cornell is trying “to create a more lively, social experience for their undergraduates” - it already is that for many, but it simply may not be that for you and your personality. </p>

<p>Academically the two are peers in your area of interest. Money is an issue. $15K a year is a lot and I wouldn’t dismiss it. Also, Cornell has over 13K undergrads. If you tend to be shy/reserved you may feel a little lost/overwhelmed at first, but should find a lot of kindred types eventually. Greek life is big on campus, but still represents a minority of the student population. There is a lot more going on that doesn’t involve drinking and partying.</p>

<p>Ultimately, I think it should come down to the $.</p>

9

<p>^ I definitely agree… still I’m not 100% sure yet. Hopefuly, I can resolve this in the next few days or so</p>

10

<p>Cornell and save the 60K I would go to Cornell even if it was equal.</p>

11

<p>This would be a debate if costs were equal. But since they’re not, take the $60K and run to Cornell.</p>

12

<p>Are you sure you’d be staying in CALS? From my understanding, a lot of students who enter from NYS may stay there for two years for general education requirements and some course work but end up switching to complete majors not offered in the Ag school and pay the higher price on the back end. For a difference of 30k, I’d seriously think about Rice. Personally, I’m far more impressed with Rice but that may have a lot to do with characteristics I look for in an institution. For a difference of 60k, if that’s going to be a large burden on you/your family, it’d probably be hard to go to Rice.</p>

<p>Socially, from what I hear from current/former students at both places, Rice is way more my style. Access to research, quality instruction, focus on undergraduates, etc all also help to put it over the top in a plain old head to head, in my opinion.</p>

13

<p>“… a lot of students …”</p>

<p>???
nobody I knew, that’s for sure…</p>

<p>The biggest switching bloc was engineering to CAS, and they’re all paying the same freight anyway.</p>

14

<p>At least coming from my high school, that’s what most kids said they were going to do, and we send 2-3 kids to Cornell a year.</p>

<p>Seemed to me that a lot of people talk about that being their path.</p>

15

<p>Well, two points-- 1) not everyone at Cornell studies biology 2) The OP mentioned engineering, and although bio and environmental are in CALS, it’s not uncommon to change engineering disciplines later on as you start to take actual course work.</p>

<p>All I’m really saying is, I’d be very cautious of banking on 60k of savings in a college with only 25 majors many of which (unsurprisingly) share a similar focus. You’ve got to be pretty sure you know what you want to study to bank on that 60k and I think the OP should take flexibility/lack thereof into account.</p>

16

<p>sorry, I put #15 out of order by deleting this:</p>

<p>If they talked about it, probably most of them didn’t do it. If they were NYC residents It would cost them a boatload more $$, for one thing, probably with little benefit in many cases. Most probably find they have enough free electives in CALS to take the CAS courses that interest them, wthout switching colleges. The biology major is literally the same in the two colleges, meaning they are the identical courses. Anyway if this direction was some huge exodus, presumably I would have known about it, and I actually don’t know a single case.</p>

<p>Interested parties might check on the Cornell sub-forum about this.</p>

<p>Actually the path I hear more often these days is in the other direction: CAS to CALS. Because the AEM business program in CALS, which was a backwater when I attended, has become a big deal in recent years, and is now the most selective undergrad program in the university.</p>

17

<p>The other thing I would say is, yes it’s not uncommon to switch specialties within engineering, but some portion of the NY residents who are pursuing engineering via bioengineering within CALS may also be interested in saving a few bucks. I suspect that many of those people would try to stay in bioengineering, to accomplish this, but steer their courses of studies towards the direction they wind up favoring. “Bioengineering” is probably inclusive enough to accomplish this to a decent extent, I imagine you can probably slant it to electrical, mechanical, environmental. Though interested parties should verify. And yes, switching to the engineering college is also an option, but my guess is most people in that situation dodge that, for financial reasons.</p>

<p>The more likely, and potentially disruptive, “change of plan” situation, seems to me, is going there with intent to study bioengineering but then concluding you don’t want engineering at all. This would require a “plan B” , and you might want to consider what that might be.</p>

18

<p>I’ve never heard of “leaning” your courses in engineering at all and that doesn’t even really seem all that plausible to me based on my understanding of the structure of engineering concentrations. Your first core courses are all courses that engineers take in common, but your specialization after that doesn’t leave a lot of room to enter the other fields. Sure, research wise you could probably lean one way or another in bioengineering, but if we’re talking about job market I don’t think that makes very much sense at all.</p>

<p>I agree that the more disruptive and likely change of plan is out of engineering which is why the real bottom line for me was there are only 25, largely interrelated, majors in CALS and banking on that 60k as a result seems somewhat unwise for a lot of people.</p>

<p>I’m surprised that you’re basically saying “People may be unhappy with what they’re studying, but they grin and bear it to save the money. Come here and do the same.” A better plan may be to think about your likelihood of switching out and discounting the 60k by that likelihood and make your decision based on that.</p>

19

<p>with respect to engineering I do not know what you are saying. To me, bioengineering is a highly interdisciplinary field in the first place which can be directed in a number of different ways. OP should verify particulars if this is important.</p>

<p>With respect to the rest, it’s just a fact that some people attend the contract colleges because money is of paramount importance to their families and the program of studies is “close enough” to their objectives, given their financial constraints. Certainly not everybody chooses them using this logic, but some do. I’m not saying that’s good, or they should do that, but it does happen. I am not going to sit in judgement of the financial constraints people face, and the resulting choices they elect to make. “I don’t make the news, I’m just reporting it”. Certainly people who don’t have such constraints should seek the program most aligned with their interests without regard to financial impact. And for some that will be CALS. For others it might be engineering. Or whatever. I’m not suggesting they shouldn’t. Just that some don’t, as it turns out, because the $$ is determining for them. Whether OP is in that situation also is up to OP to decide.</p>

<p>As far as I know there is no huge avalanche of people bolting out of the contract colleges. So to suggest this is a highly likely outcome, which one should base one’s whole decision on, does not match what I’ve observed. Though it could happen. OP should review upfront how likely various CALS progams of study are likely to meet his interests/objectives.</p>

20

<p>Rice is a respectable college, but Cornell is Cornell!! It is one of the most beautiful campuses on earth, it’s Ivy League, it’s closer to home, it’s $60,000 cheaper without the stress of air travel (which means you can get all your crap home and back with a car, your mom can make you some chicken soup if you get sick, and you can easily go home for those eight million breaks that colleges give kids nowadays). Furthermore, if you’re planning to live in the Northeast, you’ll be more in touch with the connections you make in this area. Rice sounds like a great experience, but this decision sounds pretty clear to me.</p>