University of Pennsylvania vs. Cornell University

Hey everybody,

I was recently accepted into both Cornell and Penn, two of my favorite schools I applied to, and I will definitely attend one of the two. I’m just having a lot of trouble deciding which one to attend. I’ll list what’s important to me and what I’m considering below:

  1. I was nominated and qualified for a "Tanner Dean's Scholar" program at Cornell, which they claim takes "the most outstanding applicants to the College of Arts and Sciences each year". This program would likely be a big boost in terms of networking and meeting fellow students and having a "group" right from the get-go. This is really big (to me, at least) and I think it can't be glossed over.
  2. Both schools have very good East Asian programs, which is a field that I'm very interested in, specifically Japanese. It's incredibly hard to find rankings or discussion about these programs, however, so any insight down below would be SUPER appreciated by me. Penn's website for Japanese makes it seem like they are more committed to it than Cornell but I can't really say. Cornell has a very extensive department though and it seems considerably bigger than Penn's.
  3. Penn is rated higher than Cornell for undergrad Chemistry, but both are rated very well (top 15 from the source I was using). This is another area of interest and if anyone has any other insights about how location may play a factor in finding opportunities related to STEM and specifically Chem, I would love to hear it.
  4. Penn is a prominent party school, but I'm not a party kind of guy at all. I'm pretty introverted. So, consider that a slight negative. I wouldn't love to be a part of a student body where more students initially became interested in Penn because it's the "social Ivy". But, then again, if I didn't want to be part of that life, it wouldn't be hard to avoid it. Just thinking out loud.
  5. I love the location that Cornell is in simply for the natural beauty and I think I would be happier living there. But, Philadelphia is a big city and undoubtedly offers far more opportunities than Ithaca does. Cornell still offers a plethora of opportunities as a school, but you just have to travel further to get there.
  6. Cornell is a bigger school and its student:faculty ratio is 9:1, and Penn's is 6:1. I prefer a smaller environment so I like Penn better in this way; I don't know if this will make a huge difference though.
  7. Cornell edges out Penn in terms of student body diversity according to the places I checked. For some people this is maybe a non-factor but I would really like to attend a school that is very diverse.
  8. This is definitely not a very important factor (hence why it's last) but it does exist. Penn is rated higher than Cornell overall by pretty much every college ranking source that exists. Penn is slightly more "prestigious" and a bit more selective: its acceptance rate this year was 8.4 compared to Cornell's 10.3. Either way, they are both Ivy League schools and I don't think the name would make a big difference on a resume. Please don't interpret this as me seriously considering superficial factors like this because I recognize that you do not, by any means, need to attend an Ivy League school or a "prestigious" school to be successful. It's just that close between the two schools and I'm trying to consider everything I can.

Whew. This was a really long post but I would SO appreciate any feedback that people can give, even if it’s just a tiny contribution. Thank you so much for reading.

Forget the rankings for these two schools, as the difference is minuscule and means nothing in the real world. I was an undergraduate at Cornell and went to Penn for professional school. I enjoyed both experiences, but I thought Cornell was a better choice for me as an undergrad, as I thought the scenic “classic” campus environment was what I was looking for, while for my graduate work being in a city was the best option. I think you should take your info listed in your post and put a “pros and cons” list on paper. At the end of the day I think you should go with your gut feeling once you’ve sifted through all the “objective” criteria.

FWIW, my daughter got her Bachelor’s at Cornell last year (ILR) and had a wonderful experience.

@scoop85 thank you, that’s good advice. I’ll start on that list.