<p>I was accepted into both undergrad and I don't know which one to choose?</p>
<p>Uchicago:
Pros- I would major in Econ/ math and those are very highly ranked
- literally known for Econ
- #4 overall ranking
- high quality education that will make me well rounded
-next to city
Cons- far away from my hometown (NY)
- don't love social scene
- don't like philosophy and students at this school LOVE philosophy
- gonna dislike the core curriculum
- more theoretical than pre- professional
- Econ program is very competitive</p>
<p>Cornell:
Pros: beautiful campus
- well established ORE dept
- easy transport
- Cornell engineering is arguably the best ivy+ engineering combo
- might be better for job placement on Wall Street but idk
Cons: not as prestigious
- ORE students aren't taken as seriously (not a fact but it's the vibe I got)
- a lot of ppl say it's dumb to pass up the opportunity to get a uchicago Econ degree</p>
<p>Any comments? Do the pros at uchicago make it a bad choice to pick Cornell? Is uchicago that much better if I want to be employed on Wall Street? I'm think a quantitative hedge fund. Thanks for any opinions. I'm kinda lost.</p>
<p>Hmm … great options … congrats on the acceptances</p>
<p>To me there are two big differences.</p>
<p>First, At Chicago you’re getting a liberal arts education revolving around a core of liberal arts courses. At Cornell to be a ORE major you’ll need to take the engineering “core” … 4 maths, 3 physics, chem, intro engineering classes etc. VERY different first two years … I would think one feels appealing while the other not so much.</p>
<p>Second, very different environments. UChicago is (sort of) a big LAC in an urban environment (great city) … while Cornell is a pretty big school in a classic college town. Pretty different … again I would think one would be more appealing than the other.</p>
<p>One final thought. I was an OR major at Cornell and had the best of both worlds. I got my OR degree and essentially got a minor in Economics (Cornell did not allow formal cross college minors when I was there … however I took 5-6 econ courses as electives hence my “minor”). I do not know if something similar can be done at Chicago … are there OR courses you could take as electives while being an Econ major?</p>
<p>Cornell is arguably more prestigious. UChicago is one of those highly ranked school that has no traditional aura of prestige associated with it. In terms of prestige right now, it’s typically Ivies&Stanford&MIT>rest (including Duke, UChicago, Northwestern).</p>
<p>^That may have been true 5 or 10 years ago, but these days I think Uchicago has become a more prestigious, household name. </p>
<p>Also among academics Uchicago is as well respected as HYP. </p>
<p>Also I think Duke is probably as prestigious as the lower ivies. </p>
<p>Anyway, OP, </p>
<p>I think you should go where you could see yourself doing your best and where you feel would be the best fit for you. Both of these schools are incredible.</p>
<p>You seem like UChicago is a bad fit even though it may have a little bit more prestige. If you feel like you will be happier at Cornell, then go there. </p>
<p>Also, you say that going to UChicago will make you more well-rounded but you dislike the core. Why is that?</p>
<p>@friedman You have a gross misconception about Penn. Except for the last 5-10 years Wharton students were the dummies of Penn. Penn is Penn and not 2 universities.</p>
<p>Normally, choosing between School A and School B is a hard question for me to answer. Assuming the schools are close in reputation (which Chicago and Cornell are by any standard), it really comes down to intangibles, and everyone is different.</p>
<p>In your case, however, I think it’s an easy choice – which comes down to the following:</p>
<p>Do you want to be an Engineer?</p>
<p>If the answer is “yes” then go to Cornell, it’s a no brainer. Chicago does not have an engineering school and does not have the program you want. BTW, if you do want to be an engineer, Cornell has an excellent program where engineers can minor in business through the undergraduate business school (Dyson).</p>
<p>If the answer is “no” then go to Chicago, it’s a no brainer. Engineering school is rigorous and hard. You should only go to Engineering school if you want to (or think you might want to) be an engineer.</p>
<p>If you’re strongly considering engineering, you don’t like Chicago’s Core concept, and you dislike its social scene, then it makes no sense to be seriously considering Chicago at all. Both schools have respected economics departments (not that that necessarily matters all that much at the undergraduate level). Chicago doesn’t offer engineering (other than its new molecular engineering program.) The Core isn’t just a few courses to suffer through on your way to the major; it’s a defining feature of Chicago’s undergraduate program.</p>
<p>These are peer schools. Choose the one that best fits your academic needs and personal preferences.</p>
<p>What I was getting at is that with the Engineering Curriculum is such that it’s generally easier to transfer out than transfer in. Specifically, going to Cornell Engineering gives the opportunity to move into another discipline if Engineering isn’t for you. Going to Chicago does not have any path (other than transfer to another school) that allows one to be an Engineer.</p>
<p>So if you ‘think’ you want to be an engineer, go to engineering school.</p>
Odd … my wife with a grad degree in OR from MIT might disagree … actually MIT was at the forfront of the development of the field … it has not historically had an OR department though; it was (is?) a major within other department.</p>
<p>PS - sort of agree with the comment OR isn’t engineering … it’s more like applied math/statistics/probability … finding a home for the major is a challenge with different schools having different set-ups.</p>
<p>If you do not like the UC core, choose Cornell. It has plenty of prestige and with the new tech center in NYC will have lots of opportunities if you want to work in NYC area.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses! To answer a few questions, I don’t like the core curriculum because I think that I will have a hard time dealing with all the readings about topics that I don’t care too much for. It might be good for a school to force me to do this and make more cultures and stuff but I know that I won’t like it. Now with regards to OR, I know that it’s not exactly engineering and that’s why Cornell isn’t a no brainer. I also don’t know whether an employer in my field would prefer a Cornell or uchicago degree. Obviously that wouldn’t be the deciding factor but it would be nice to know which degree is “better”</p>
<p>Operations Research is considered an engineering specialty. It is very math and CS oriented. From Cornell website:</p>
<p>"The foundation of the major is the development of basic skills in calculus, statistics, probability, optimization, mathematical programming, and computer science which provide the fundamental tools used in the field. "</p>
<p>Economics would be a totally different field from that. Chicago Economics is second to none.</p>
<p>So it is important to think through which major you might like better first rather than relative prestiges of the two schools. </p>
<p>I don’t believe your cons are accurate for either school since these are perceptions and not reality. If you don’t like writing or core, it is an entirely different issue.</p>
<p>A double major in economics and statistics trumps an OR major. OR is a part of industrial engineering that isn’t really very useful outside of manufacturing. There are limits to what one can do with LP, queuing, renewal and reliability theory. OR departments have tried to reinvent themselves as training grounds for “financial engineers”, but there’s so much outside of OR that’s more useful for employment.</p>
<p>The real issue what campus environment OP wants to be in. If OP prefers Ithaca to Chicago and doesn’t like the Core, he should go to Cornell. Cornell is far more vocational/preprofessional than Chicago.</p>
<p>BTW, Cornell OR is considered better than Columbia OR.</p>
<p>Actually, it can matter if the student wants to emphasize mathematical economics or go on to a PhD program in economics, since some economics departments offer significantly more mathematical versions of the intermediate economics and econometrics courses (of course, good offerings in math and statistics are needed in this case). Checking the course catalogs would be indicated in this case.</p>
<p>Chicago’s economics courses appear to be more mathematical (requiring multivariable calculus) than Cornell’s economics courses.</p>