UNC/Rutgers/Cornell

College Search & Selection
1

<p>There are only a few days left and I'm still deciding. Anyone have an opinion?</p>

<p>Rutgers - <em>FREE</em> since I got a full ride scholarship, which is actually the only reason I'm even considering it. Only a half hour from home, my whole family went there and most of the graduates from my HS go there too, so it's really familiar and comfortable. PROS: Money, familiarity. CONS: too close to home, not as good a school, new brunswick sucks</p>

<p>UNC-CH - A much better school, plus I was invited into the Honors program which is actually really prestigious and has some real perks (much better compared to Rutgers' Honors, which takes pretty much everyone with certain objective stats)... they also offered me a free laptop up to 1,500 bucks. I haven't visited (I know, bad idea) but I might this weekend. PROS: Better academics, more prestigious, great college town and classmates, relatively cheap CONS: I haven't gotten my finaid yet, which sucks. Also have ZERO interest in athletics, which makes up a large part of their social life. </p>

<p>Cornell - Probably the one I like the least. The only thing it has going for it is its relative prestige and good academic rep, though I think UNC is the same, if not better in these aspects. PROS: Ivy rep CONS: Sucky, depressing, isolated location, partying social vibe, overwhelming richness and whiteness of student body, expensive (I would exhaust all my savings and go over 60,000 in debt)</p>

<p>AGAIN, I know sooo little about the latter two schools, which is why I'm posting this. If I'm dreadfully wrong about something, flame away. Also, comments like "omgggg UNC is like the best school evar hehehehe" from current UNC students are unhelpful and counterproductive. If I had to name my most important factors, they are money and whether or not I will find my social niche there (students like me and a student body who is interesting, diverse, intelligent, and open). Things like prestige and academic rigor are important as well, though secondary, because I plan to pursue advanced degrees after my undergrad and will probably try to transfer. Weather wise, I'm more fond of warmth and find winter a horrible black vaccum of suckage and despair. </p>

<p>I plan to study History, though I am not closed to pursuing overlapping fields like anthro, classics etc.</p>

2

<p>First off, you can’t borrow $60,000 without a co-signer, so unless you have someone lined up, Cornell is out. Secondly, if you could borrow that much, you would be paying roughly $690 each month for ten long years to get rid of that debt. This is like two extra car payments on top of all of your regular living expenses. You can’t afford Cornell. Wave that place good-bye, and move on.</p>

<p>You don’t have your aid package from UNC-CH yet. It could be just as bad as Cornell’s or even worse. Don’t get too attached to that place until you find out about the aid. It is OK to pick up the phone and call them and ask.</p>

<p>Rutgers is an excellent institution. You have a full-ride there. Unless your UNC-CH offer will leave you with no more debt than that allowed for the Stafford Loans, Rutgers is hands-down your best option. Run the aid offer numbers here and see why: [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Award Letter Comparison Tool](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Award Letter Requirements - Finaid) I know you don’t want to read that, but it is the truth. If you don’t want to see your family that much, try to live on campus.</p>

3

<p>^^ the loans are part of the financial aid package from Cornell. So should I decide to take on the debt, I do have the loans available. Thanks for the bluntness. I know that financially Cornell is the worst option, which is why I’ve mentally placed it at the bottom of the list. I think, however, that I should still keep that option open since it has advantages too. </p>

<p>^Why do you say so? Do you really think that Rutgers compares to UNC in terms of location, prestige, opportunities, etc? Even in terms of silly things like weather, UNC seems much better, as it does in more important categories like accomplishment of the student body. Even if you look at the objective stats like acceptance rate, graduate school placement, admitted student SAT scores etc, UNC just seems to be at a much higher level. I don’t mean to argue, I just want to know why you think Rutgers is just as good.</p>

4

<p>Just because Cornell included “Parent Plus” loans or whatever in your package doesn’t mean you can get them! Every year people have those kinds of loan application rejected. The only loans you can get on your own are the federally determined ones: Stafford and/or Pell. Not to mention that $60,000 is flat-out excessive. That would pay for a on-year MS after college at a lot of places and leave you with some change.</p>

<p>Everywhere except in New Jersey high schools, Rutgers is considered to be an excellent institution of higher education. Why you kids all hate it so much is entirely beyond me.</p>

5

<p>Sorry, that should have been “Why you kids all dislike it so much is entirely beyond me.”</p>

6

<p>OK, Cornell is the farthest thing from rich and white. It’s incredibly diverse (31% of students are self-described as minority–, and 17% are international), and certainly more geographically diverse than UNC (which has a state mandate to take 80% of its students from NC) or Rutgers (NJ dominated).
While Ithaca is out in the country, it is a town with 26,000 college students in it (Ithaca College plus Cornell). You will not have days when there is nothing to do–the problem is deciding which of many things you want to do. There is a lot going on.
You can party at Cornell if you want to, but you don’t have to. DS1 is a recent grad and is not a partier–had a great experience there. It’s big enough so that you can find people like you. (And BTW, I believe UNC has parties every now and then as well.)
The financial issue is a big one (and it sounds like weather is too, for you), but don’t decide against Cornell based on misinformation.</p>

7

<p>Go to Rutgers full ride.</p>

8

<p>“…it is a town…” </p>

<p>To be technical it’s a city (and town), actually, of 30,000, which is the cultural center for the Tompkins county metro area of 100,000. It is an hour from Syracuse and Binghamton, two hours to Rochester, but nobody goes to any of these places, they generally find they have more than enough to keep them busy in their college town. Because so many of their fellow travelers are right there themselves. If you put 30,000 students in “the middle of nowhere” it is no longer “the middle of nowhere”, by their very presence and energy. Leaving everything else aside.</p>

<p>“…with 26,000 college students in it (Ithaca College plus Cornell)”
You’ve undercounted, you left out TC3.</p>

<p>"…but don’t decide against Cornell based on misinformation. "</p>

<p>Agreed. The painted picture indeed sounds horrible, but is far from the reality that I experienced or my D2 is loving there now. It reads like an unflattering caricature that one reads from time to time from people who don’t go there. Has OP even visited?</p>

9

<p>It’s hard to tell if UNC is the right school for you if you have not visited or received your financial aid package. However, I can tell you a little bit about it. It is one of the top rated public institutions by US News and World Reports. You do not need to like sports to have a good time there. It is more affordable for OOS students than other top rated public universities such as Michigan and UVA. My son is completing his junior year there and is having a great time. However, he is disappointed by the political science department (his major) and many of the professors he has had. The NC budget cuts has affected the quality of education there as well. If you have trouble making friends, not the place for you as approximately 84 or 86% of the students are in-state. That being said, if you get financial aid I was seriously consider the school. You are moving away from NJ and getting to meet new people and are part of a great college town. The fact that you made the school OOS shows that you are very intelligent. You will get an excellent education. However, without financial aid, I would take the full ride to Rutgers. Just my two cents.</p>

10

<p>Rutgers had Snooki give its commencement speech…that should scare you away from it right there.</p>

<p>In order of prestige, I’d say:</p>

<ol>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>UNC</li>
<li>Rutgers</li>
</ol>

<p>Atmosphere:

  1. UNC
  2. Cornell
  3. Rutgers</p>

<p>That’s my input.</p>

11

<p>Having been a New Jersey resident for most of my life and having gone to high school in NJ and having attended Rugters here’s my opinion:</p>

<p>Rutgers has a growing reputation and is seen as quite a good public school - outside of NJ. You’ll find a lot of NJ residents are not that impressed Rutgers. </p>

<p>UNC-CH, idk who said UNC isn’t substantially better than Rutgers, but I would highly disagree with this statement. I’ve met a number of students who were UNC students and I can confidently say they were leaps about bounds more knowledgable than some of the Rutgers students that I know.</p>

<p>Cornell - By far the best choice (finances not considered), at least academically. It’s my understanding that Cornell has it’s own social life since it’s in the-middle-of-nowhere-Ithaca. That being said, everyone I know who has ever attended Cornell has loved it.</p>

<p>My experience:
I attended Rutgers for one semester, took a grouping of advanced classes and TRANSFERRED OUT. I found the classes to be slow paced and the material covered to be non-indepth, even for what were supposed to be 300 level classes. I was quickly bored and did not learn much from the classes. I applied to transfer to multiple schools in the Cornell/UNC range and eventually wound up at NYU. </p>

<p>Depending on what the cost difference between UNC and Rutgers was, I would DEFINITELY recommend UNC over Rutgers.</p>

12

<p>^^^
Actually, they paid Snooki $32,000; more than they paid someone with a Nobel Prize. Clearly a wise use of money.</p>

<p>In general they’ve (Rutgers) had a bad year.</p>

<p>The whole Tyler Clementi disaster and subsequent law suit </p>

<p>And now, the Rutgersfest disaster which involved four shootings, one of which was on campus.</p>