<p>If you read my Wustl post. I was trying to gather some info and did not want to appear bias. good point though.</p>
<p>Ok, penn kids have higher average GPAs, sats, and class ranks than cornell kids. Penn has a larger endowment, penn has more programs ranked in the top ten, more nobel prize winners in the last decade (only behind harvard) more billionaires, does this convince you that Penn is better or should I keep going? I cannot bother to provide you with links but I am sure you can look them up :)</p>
<p>Greenexcess the only thing you accomplished there is reaffirming my statement that UPenn beats Cornell on paper…</p>
<p>I didn’t see you post, it takes a long time to type in my phone hahaha but yeah, just reinforcing the issue here</p>
<p>@greenexcess, do you realize that most top schools, including Penn and Cornell can only accept students with 32-36 ACT and 2200-2400 SAT if they wanted to? As previously said, its about fit. Those stats mean nothing in reality.</p>
<p>Actually, those stats DO mean something. Those stats indicate you can’t just be a test master to get into those schools.</p>
<p>But they don’t, there is a reason HYPSM have the highest SAT averages, tuurrumm because they are the most selective!</p>
<p>Are you also going to say that all the other things I said mean nothing? My point stands</p>
<p>@greenexcess, I think you misunderstood what geekoratheletic is saying. If cornell and Penn just wanted good test takers with high scores and no substance, they can easily fill their schools with them. and stop selling yourself short to the HYPSM, i am also sure that many penn and cornell students can put some HYPSM students to shame.</p>
<p>Well, greenexcess, let me ask you this. What are the odds of an International student getting accepted (with FA need) in a need-aware school (like Penn and Cornell) in Early Decision?</p>
<p>The odds are very low, but what does that mean?</p>
<p>Not just very low, couple in thousands low. They are the students that all the schools in top 20 try to take. It almost becomes a bidding war in some sense. Every top 20 schools have students like that. Granted, many are at HYPSM. But there are still many like that at Penn, Cornell, Brown, etc – these are the guys that can easily outlast many HYPSM students.</p>
<p>Penn and Cornell are at the same level. Arguing about which one is better is a pointless argument. How you do in college is significantly more important than which college once you are in the rarified USNews top 20.</p>
<p>Penn is not more selective than Cornell. If you asked 1000 people across the country which school to choose if admitted to both, I would guess Cornell would do better, owing to more “lay” recognition and prestige.</p>
<p>^ Well said. UPenn is a great school but just like WashU, their school names arent distinct enough to catch people’s attention.</p>
<p>This is turning into a feel-good thread, which is fine, but there are far too many foolish claims being bandied about, and greenexcess needs a little heavy firepower to get his point across.</p>
<p>The basic point most of the Cornell kids appear to be making is that at a certain level, selectivity becomes a wash. This is certainly true, to some extent. But that argument is contingent on this claim: splitting statistical hairs at such a high level in meaningless and, ultimately, fruitless.</p>
<p>And honestly, I would contest that. Yes, Cornell is highly selective - but the simple truth is that it is, on average, less selective than the rest of its Ivy League peers, as well as Stanford and MIT. And yes, this difference, however small it may seem to you (and it really isn’t - you guys are being intellectually dishonest), is significant enough to place Penn in a group of higher selectivity than Cornell.</p>
<p>OBVIOUSLY there are students at Cornell that could “outlast” (I don’t quite agree with this language within this context, but whatever) HYP students. Of course there are! There are students like that at Texas A&M (in far lower concentration than Cornell, of course).</p>
<p>But the simple truth is that, no matter how you slice it, the average SAT and HS rank of students attending Brown/Penn/Columbia/Dartmouth is higher than that of a Cornell student. Most top-10 selectivity rankings include some combination of HYPSMC, and Columbia, Penn, Brown and Dartmouth, occasionally switching off with Duke. Cornell ranks below that. An excellent school, but more on par with Hopkins, Northwestern or Chicago (all excellent!).</p>
<p>So, yes, I’ll agree that we’re splitting hairs.</p>
<p>But no, it’s not a meaningless exercise.</p>
<p>Full disclosure: I transferred from Cornell to Penn, so it may seem as though I’m eager to grant my switch some credence. But selectivity was far from a central impetus, and in that regard I’m fairly impartial.</p>
<p>One last comment: the claim that Cornell could accept as much of their class ED as Penn does is absurd. Cornell “only” accepts 33%, and their ED acceptance rate is already 41%. If they accepted 47% of the class - as Columbia and Penn do at about a 30% acceptance rate - Cornell’s ED rate would climb to nearly 60%. THAT is why they do not employ the same strategy - not for some more holistic admissions philosophy.</p>
<p>To answer the OP’s question:</p>
<p>I personally believe Cornell is more name recognized than Upenn. When I would talk about Upenn in high school my peers thought i meant Penn state :(</p>
<p>However, as a Cornell student, I must admit Cornell econ gets raped by Wharton. Furthermore, Upenn is more selective than Cornell. So bottom line is, cornell is more prestigious to “common people” but Upenn is a better school and more prestigious to people who know colleges. </p>
<p>I think my claims were a bit out there, but it is what I think. I am open to disagreement :D</p>
<p>Also, so what if Cornell is the least selective college.</p>
<p>Its freshman admissions rate was what 19%? and Upenn’s was 16%? </p>
<p>3% is not that big of a difference. 
</p>
<p>We are all just pulling out c0cks on the table and comparing them to boost our ego. we are both ivy league schools, and the top few colleges in the world. :D</p>
<p>Penn was 14% actually, with CAS at 10% and Wharton even lower (CAS and Wharton compromise the majority of the student body), the nursing school and engineering are what bring up the average (both in the 20-25 range)</p>
<p>And just for some anecdotal evidence an unhooked guy at my school got into Cornell, and honestly this guy has no business whatsoever at ivy league caliber schools (he got rejected at every school ranked above cornell, including penn)</p>