Transfer to Cornell or stay at BU?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

<p>Hi everyone!</p>

<p>I'm a GT to CALS for the upcoming year, and I'm trying to decide between staying at Boston University and transferring to Cornell. Here are some things that I'm factoring into my decision at the moment:</p>

<p>(1) I'm majoring in Biology, (but I'm not sure if I want to stick with it). I'm not sure if BU or Cornell has a better Biology program? And I'm not sure where I'd head with a Biology major besides research or med school, which doesn't sound that exciting to me, but will probably lead to a more stable job and whatnot. But I digress. (Are there any other departments that Cornell is strong in? I might decide to switch majors or doubling up on majors... AEM looks appealing?)</p>

<p>(2) Cornell is giving me adequate financial aid in the form of some loans and grants, while last year BU gave me a great finaid package that was almost a full ride. I'm still waiting on BU financial aid package for the upcoming year, but I've heard rumors that BU has a nasty habit of giving people a ton of money and then taking it away the following year. I have no solid evidence of it though. We'll see.</p>

<p>(3) My aunts are offering to let me live with them and to feed me real food (no offense to Cornell's dining plan, which I heard is supposed to amazing, but my aunts' food pwns anyone else's food) while I go to Cornell and have me use the public bus to get to school everyday. This would probably take a few thousand dollars off the price of Cornell.</p>

<p>(4) Urban metropolis vs. hicksville: Cornell's Collegetown and campus is nice and accessible. BU has no campus whatsoever, but it does have the whole city to explore, and is the place to be for classical music lovers like me! I did not have a chance to explore Boston that much since I was studying my butt off to get into Cornell anyway though :-D Both Ithaca and Boston freeze over in the winter, so I don't really care about the weather.</p>

<p>(5) Boston University is a fine school, and I managed to pull a 3.78 overall this past year. At Cornell, who knows what I'll get? =-O GPA probably counts for a lot, but does where you go to school also count for a lot?</p>

<p>Anyway, I'm just writing to get people's opinions. Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Instead of asking which departments Cornell is strong in you should ask which ones it's not strong in. Cornell's good across the board, and its biology department is exceptional.</p>

3

<p>Good point, that. </p>

<p>Well, at the moment I'm leaning more towards Cornell. Cornell just seems better than BU, based off of what I read from the Princeton Review website and its forums... Perhaps paying some more to go Cornell for the sake of my education will be worth it. I'll need to do more research on this. Anyway, thanks!</p>

4

<p>of you have a 3.78 at BU...wouldnt you feel better challenging yourself a little more and rising to the challenge or a more rigorous curriculum? idk.</p>

5

<p>Hmm, I didn't think of that way. However, a big concern of mine is that prospective employers won't bother looking at someone with a mediocre GPA.</p>

6

<p>I think at the end you should make your decision based on who is paying you the most because both are great schools.</p>

7

<p>The workload at Cornell will most likely be harder. But that is a benefit, right? </p>

<p>The potential to interact with your coursework in a lasting and meaningful way is very high at Cornell. You will also be surrounded by students, professors, and research/work/volunteer opportunities that can add a lot to your education, should you choose to take advantage of them. The connections you will have to the University after you graduate will also be much stronger.</p>

<p>And in terms of classical music, I don't think you can go wrong in Ithaca. 'Big name' concerts are pretty routine at Cornell, Ithaca College, and down at the State Theater. I saw Yo Yo Ma, the Kronos Quartet, and Wynton Marsalis all in the same semester. Plus there are the myriad student groups (chamber orchestras, etc.) at both Cornell and Ithaca College for your listening pleasure.</p>

<p>If the money is there, go to Cornell.</p>

8

<p>Wow, thanks for the input everyone! I talked to friend about it, and he basically said the same things as you, CayugaRed. He told me that, "When I go to companies and mention the Cornell name, people really do go nuts," and proceeded to tell me a story about how one of his friends had a position at a company created just for him after they heard he went to Cornell. He also said, "The professors amazing. If you go up and introduce yourself, they'll be your best friend." </p>

<p>That sounds promising.</p>

<p>However, I'm still going to wait for BU's offer. I really do want to go to Cornell, though, after hearing about all of the great opportunities that are there.</p>

9

<p>I've been admitted to both schools and I chose Cornell, of course. It's an outstanding school with great reputation - I guess 3.78 in BU is worse than 3.0 in Cornell :)</p>

10

<p>Haha. Maybe.</p>

11

<ol>
<li><p>AFAIK, BU has a well regarded Bio department as well.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, Cornell is more prestigious, but less so than many would like to believe. You'd be surprised how many people in my incoming class turned down Cornell for BU.</p></li>
<li><p>I highly hope you arent basing this off of some ranking/prestige BS.</p></li>
<li><p>A 3.78 GPA is quite good</p></li>
<li><p>A full ride is a full ride (or at least near)</p></li>
<li><p>Boston's music scene pwns the hell out of Ithaca's. As does Boston in general</p></li>
<li><p>My cousin is a fairly recent graduate of Cornell and is doing extremely well right now. When he found out I was going to BU, he was very happy for me and exclaimed how great a school BU is.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>No offense or anything, but do you have a legitimate reason to transfer? Sounds to me like you're doing exceptionally well at BU. Barring some social issues or something else, it seems to me that you like it at BU.</p>

<p>That aside, i'm so ridiculously excited for BU :)</p>

12

<p>Hey,</p>

<p>I went to BU:SMG (the business undegrad), but I'm a Fall '07 ILR GT for Cornell. Here's my few cents about BU and Cornell.</p>

<p>I find that BU has great academics, but what differentiates a school such as BU and Cornell is the student body. If you're down-to-earth genuinely passionate about your studies of Biology, then I would tell you to go for Cornell. My roommate is a bio major, and I feel that he's a great candidate for med school. But the issue I had with BU is that there wasn't enough of this type of student. BU is more a "study and chill" sort of school; not that there is anything wrong with that. Cornell students just seem to be more hungry to learn.</p>

<p>A majority of students at BU are ivy-rejects but ivy-calibered , (sorry guys and girls) but I feel that they unnecessarily stoop down to a level in academics and attitude just because they are at BU.</p>

<p>To be honest, I didn't have a good time at BU, I felt powerless there as a student. But maybe that's because I have high expectations. I felt that to get what you want at BU, you have to put wasted (emphasize this) effort into finding what you want academically.</p>

<p>Other than this, BU dorm policy sucks ass, and BU should really try to make the campus look better with all the 47k they rake in from hard working parents. And like SqualMonger, I almost had a free ride.</p>

<p>If you're a BU student, please don't take offense, nor should prospective BU students change his or her minds about attending. For a prospective transfer student, one should really consider the student body.</p>

<p>Loslobos71, you should be excited for BU and I hope that you don't take BU for granted. I repeat, DON'T take BU for granted... cause then you're just wasting a spot for someone who didn't have the money to goto BU, no anger intended =). </p>

<p>On the bright side, I made some really good friends at BU. I hope this helps you SqualMonger!</p>

13

<p>If you're pulling a 3.78 at BU, I'm not sure how you'll do at Cornell. A 3.5-3.6 would put you on the borderline as a med school applicant. Then again, you might get the same GPA or even better at Cornell. In terms of research positions, the Cornell name opens a lot of doors since Cornell is exceptional in the hard sciences.</p>

14

<p>Hehe thanks. Well, I'm not going there to Cornell to get ranking or prestige... but on a practical level, Cornell has ranking and prestige! I'm sure that will help me out somewhat. You're right about the music scene in Boston though.</p>

<p>As far as reasons for transferring go, I got the guaranteed transfer offer at the same time I got BU's acceptance letter, so I just decided to work for the transfer and see what happened. I can't really explain why I want to transfer in words. I guess it's just because that there was a hope for something better, and I wanted to work for it. And now my work has paid off, and I have the choice to go to either of these wonderful schools! It's a good feeling.</p>

<p>But yeah, I have a lot of things to consider. My mom says I should go to Cornell, since there are probably more opportunities for me there, and my Dad says go to Cornell because it's not a big deal to pay off the money after college. But they're not the person paying off the debt :-D I'm excited about having the opportunity to go to Cornell though.</p>

15

<p>Thanks. You pretty much reassured why I love BU--Smart kids, care about school, but are chill and not overly studious. Fits me perfectly.
Also, the dorm policy has been changed.
I respectfully disagree about the Ivy League rejects bit. Here's a list of schools people turned down for BU (incoming class of '11):</p>

<p>USC
NYU
BC
Northwestern
UChicago
Cornell
Harvard
Yale
Dartmouth
Brandeis
Duke
Brown
Wellesley
UPenn
Georgetown
Emory
Michigan
Cal
UCLA
UT
University of Washington
UCSB
UCSD
UToronto
Bowdoin
Johns Hopkins
Tufts
Wisconsin
UNC-CH
Oberlin
Tulane
Pomona
CMU
UVA
UF
UBC
WUSTL</p>

<p>So as you can see, we're far from rejects.</p>

16

<p>Wow thanks for the tip bdotma. I feel the same way you do about BU, but it's still a good school.</p>

<p>norcalguy, I'm not planning on going to med school, so that's alright. ^_^</p>

17

<p>That list could be misleading...one kid could have turned down Harvard, ect...</p>

<p>I'm a GT to ILR and I'm definitely really excited to go. I'd say go for Cornell (and I'm coming from a Boston school too...but not one as good as BU because I went to a school I knew I'd get the grades at lol). GL w/ ur decision!</p>

18

<p>One was for Harvard. There were like 4 for Cornell, 3 for WashU, etc., etc.</p>

19

<p>BU is definitely good so don't think I'm saying that...but out of over FOUR THOUSAND Freshman one turned down Harvard and four turned down Cornell. Just sayin...</p>

20

<p>That's out of the 2K on Facebook and and even smaller proportion of which reported where they turned down. But i'm sure it's not a huge number. Still though, to say that we're a bunch of Ivy rejects is a bit harsh, no?</p>