<p>I got into the Ben Franklin Scholars program at Penn… does this mean I should pick it over Cornell? :/</p>
<p>NJBkitty :if you are planning on studying a science then Cornell would definitely be the better choice in terms of faculty, research, and science/engineering prestige. At this point, Cornell is hands down the best engineering in the ivy and is geared more to compete with schools like Caltech and MIT in those fields.</p>
<p>Actually, I have no interest in science. Currently I am completely undecided as to my major, but I don’t think science/engineering is in my future. I’ve always been more partial to English, but as I said I have no idea what I want to study.</p>
<p>NJBkitty: I’m going to Cornell this fall and I’m probably going to major in English. UPenn and Cornell’s English rating on the graduate level (which reflects the undergrad level) are similar; UPenn’s is just a little higher than Cornell’s. </p>
<p>[Rankings</a> - English - Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-english-schools/rankings]Rankings”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-english-schools/rankings)</p>
<p>my friend went to penn for undergraduate english; she’s finishing her first year of the doctoral english program at cornell</p>
<p>both are great</p>
<p>Cornell is the better choice</p>
<p>kurt vonnegut, toni morrison, junot diaz, thomas pynchon, e.b. white</p>
<p>some really great points have been made and yes i agree that cornell is much stronger in the sciences than upenn</p>
<p>can anyone tell me some famous professors at these schools? really interested</p>
<p>@ juliet capulet’s post:</p>
<p>I’m not trying to single you out, but I just want to comment on your post. I think it’s pretty clear msot on this board take a skeptical approach with regards to rankings. Many feel rankings, espsically the US News, are subjective and do not accurarelty rate schools. They feel the methodology is inappropriate, too confined to prep school metrics, etc…</p>
<p>So whenever a Penn ■■■■■ comes here bragging of his school’s top 5 ranking and Cornell’s dismal double digit ranking, the person is dismissed as rankings are inefficient measures of school quality.</p>
<p>Yet, in many other instances, I see Cornell students using rankings as a means to buttress the contention that Cornell is a top-flight school. Not surprinsgly, the context of ranking disapproval or approval is contingent upon Cornell being cast in a negative or positive light, respectively. I’ve heard current Cornell students bring up AEP’s number one ranking, Architecture’s number one ranking, English’s top ranking (as in above), college of engineering being in the top 5 or 10, etc. Even the US News ranking is acceptable when excluding Corenll from being the worst Ivy (as Brown is the lowest ranked according to US News).</p>
<p>I find this inconsistency annoying. Either the rankings are good and they can apply in almost every situation or they’re splitting hairs between highly similar schools.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Richard Feynman taught at Cornell in the 1940’s. We win!</p>
<p>Most profs aren’t famous b/c they could be making more money writing books or something (i.e. Cornel West, who barely qualifies as an active prof).</p>
<p>Besides Feynman there were people like Hans Bethe, Carl Sagan.
In English, Vladimir Nabokov, Archie Ammons.</p>
<p>More comprehensively:
[List</a> of Cornell University people - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cornell_University_people]List”>List of Cornell University alumni - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>@dontno: The only reasons I brought up that ranking is to add to the argument that sciences is NOT THE ONLY area Cornell excels at. I don’t mean to use rankings as a way to prove anything; nor do I use them conclusively. I completely agree and sympathize with you; I just wanted to assure NJBKitty that she will receive a good English education should she choose to attend Cornell.</p>
<p>the only famous professors that exist in academia are those from HARVARD and CHICAGO at least in the areas of social sciences…</p>
<p>i’d say our only professor who is famous is the psychology power nap guy…oh and bill nye…</p>
<p>I don’t know if “famous” in the pop culture sense applies, but I know professor Helena Maria Viramontes is highly regarded in literary circles as one of our most prominent authors of Chicana literature.</p>
<p>Carl Sagan was probably our last celebrity professor. Cornell is about due for another - its own Noam Chomsky. </p>
<p>There are many professors renown in their fields at Cornell, but I think you really have to be gifted not only in your field of expertise, but also in easily conveying concepts to average people to make it to the level of “famous”. That’s a rare club with Albert Einstein as the grand poobah.</p>
<p>Cornell vs. Penn must be one of the great rivalries of all time on CC. Honestly, at the undergrad level the differences across majors are slight. A special program like Vagelos or Ben Franklin is definitely worth attending since it’s basically an honors track within an ivy which fosters additional networking potential and access to campus research labs as an undergrad (which you can still get at Cornell or Penn, but it’s an uphill climb).</p>
<p>To echo earlier comments and conventional wisdom, Cornell for the hard sciences and engineering (except bioengineering) and Penn for just about everything else. However, if one is in Vagelos or Ben Franklin it is probably smart to take that. (Penn’s clever gimmicks like Huntsman and M&T to get Harvard and MIT quality students)</p>