<p>I think my acceptance to Cornell was a great accomplishment and that my willingness to undergo a rigorous Cornell education should be respected, but I browsed through some of the boards for the other ivies on CC and I found an inordinate amount of Cornell bashing. What's up with the hate? I even saw some ridiculous statements like "how is cornell an ivy", and that people only enroll here because its an ivy and someone saying that random state schools were more selective, etc. I'd hate to be looked down upon for selecting cornell. The only folks I saw standing up for CU were CU students/alums. Is this a real part of cornell's rep? Or is this just some over excited and immature high school students making posts based on misinformation whose sentiments are not reflected in industry or academia?</p>
<p>Nesquik: as someone who never went to Cornell but has known several graduates who are spectacularly successful in their various fields, I can tell you that Cornell is a fantastic school and I would ignore anyone who disses it. Just move on. Trust me, if you are looked down on by certain people for selecting Cornell, the problem is those people and not Cornell.</p>
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Or is this just some over excited and immature high school students making posts based on misinformation whose sentiments are not reflected in industry or academia?
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<p>Bingo. Nobody in industry or academia disrespects Cornell. Nobody.</p>
<p>That said, Cornell has always been a leader in higher education, and because of that, it's often treated as a lone wolf or outcast to those who are seeking more conservative college experiences, especially among commentators on this board. If you start to read a bit of Cornell history (and I can refer you to some excellent books on the subject), you will learn some fascinating things. </p>
<p>It was the first to admit blacks and women. It was one of the first admit Jews without regard to quotas. It was the first to teach American history and literature. It was the first to really pursue rigorous scientific research in such applied fields such as labor relations, agricultural management, hotel administration, and human development. It was the first school to develop a "work study" program.</p>
<p>Even today, Cornell is still leading in ways that gets it ridiculed by others. For instance, it's one of the most aggressive top privates in terms of recruiting community college students, as well as "mature" students (students over the age of 25). It was the first American school to set up a Medical School abroad...</p>
<p>Even so, I think it's worth exploring why Cornell harbors such impressions from other students and why a decent amount of the Cornell student body holds an inferiority complex and constantly feels the need to wrap themselves in the Ivy League title.</p>
<p>I would suggest getting off CC and getting some real world opinions on Cornell from people who matter, not random 17 year olds on an online message board.</p>
<p>^^amen to that</p>
<p>all the "hating" on Cornell means Cornell is doing something good ;) ... let those people continue to bash Cornell ... i'll just sit back and enjoy reading some of their ridiculous statements.</p>
<p>On this board, there are some ridiculous bashing going on for Cornell. I've come across posters who claim that Cornell grads are stupid and he was glad not to choose to go to Cornell becuase of that, but instead went to Berkeley.
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/495055-cornell-overrated.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/495055-cornell-overrated.html</a></p>
<p>Also, there seem to be some posters from Duke who seem intent on bringing down Cornell's name on every single occasion, like some poster arguing that Duke students are way smarter, more attractive, athletic, and more gifted than Cornell students. Other than that, people usually aren't too bad haha.</p>
<p>Yeah it is very stupid for people to judge Cornell when most of the people are they haven't ever visited Cornell before. I'm sure if all the "haters" spent a semester at Cornell, they'd respect MUCH more lol.</p>
<p>I think you'll find the Cornell haters fall into two categories. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>They are associated with a school whose boosters are working to improve its perception (i.e. Duke mentioned above) and (mistakenly) believe Cornell only has a good reputation because it joined the Ivy League. They often see Cornell as an easy school to pick off and thereby improve their school's reputation. </p></li>
<li><p>They see any school associated with egalitarianism or quasi-public associations as inherently inferior to schools focused on pure private school elitism. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>As I've said on here many times before, Cornell doesn't fit into any box. Its mission of egalitarian opportunities for anybody capable of meeting the academic rigor is fundamentally different from that of Harvard or Duke or Brown or other such schools. You can choose to either scoff at Cornell for that (as many do) or respect Cornell for sticking to its mission and for continuing to extend top quality education beyond the prep school crowd to the people and corners of society (from upstate NY to the Middle East) who perhaps need it the most.</p>
<p>I had friends whose parents had occupations ranging from janitors to CEOs of major global corporations. It's a diverse school with many speciality programs that a lot of people looking at raw data don't understand. Check out eopinion.com and the reviews of people who've actually gone there. While obviously biased, few on there thought they were underworked or had a free ticket to an "Ivy" degree, whatever that is. </p>
<p>In fact, much of the frustrated inferiority complex you find from Cornellians is that they are rumored to have to work a great deal harder for their grades than students at the top universities. I've questioned many Harvard grads and found they all agree that once they were in (which is no small feat), they found it surprisingly easy. I think many Cornell students feel they received a rigorous education, but others outside the school do not bestow them the intrinsic respect they might other schools.</p>
<p>Don't take my comments as trying to say Cornell's better than other schools - I just think it offers a unique environment that can't be categorically ranked as so many desperately try to do on this board.</p>
<p>I believe there is a reason why a big difference exists between the opinions of the '17 year olds' and the employers/admission officers of grad school.
For the vast majority of the '17 year old' Cornell critics, they are inspired by the US News Report 2008 and various rankings related to selectivity. Also, all stories they learn about Cornell are from fellow critics and/or inexperienced people who 'heard' Cornell is not up to par. </p>
<p>However the employers/admission officers actually have valid reasons to respect Cornell: they possess a plethora of hands-on experience and performance records with the Cornell grads. Additionally, as these companies/institutions/universities accept grads from other elite colleges, these employers and officers have a valid standard to compare Cornell grads to other schools' grads. Cornell obviously does very well in this elite pool of people from elite universities, and has achieved its rightful respect from these institutions.</p>
<p>Just wanted to point out the discrepancy in the sources the critics and the experienced employers/officers utilize.</p>
<p>high schoolers are weird. and stupid/rude/disrespectful/idiotic. u fill in the blanks =)</p>
<p>Most of the people who post here are 16- and 17-year-olds whose perception of various colleges' prestige has developed on a relative scale (which isn't their fault! It's part of a culture that spawned US News and the SATs), meaning that if Cornell is right below Dartmouth on some rankings list, Cornell IS worse than Dartmouth.</p>
<p>The more sardonic (or maybe smart) of these people will realize that there really is no difference, and say "yeah, it doesn't matter... but it's still there." Which is true. Which is why in the end YOU have to get over it. Or just get off the internet, because...</p>
<p>You have to remember one of the most important rules of the internet: No one acts in real life like they do online. What this means per this topic is that no one, at Cornell or Harvard or Tompkins Community College, will ever consider Cornell "bad" and will, in fact, admit that it's a great school. Everyone knows that. You know that. So don't let it get to you.</p>
<p>Hmm... I think that even U.S. News Ranking and other Ranking institutions give Cornell pretty high marks</p>
<ol>
<li>Applied Engineering and Physics #1</li>
<li>Agriculture Program #1</li>
<li>Hotel Management #1</li>
<li>Vet School #1</li>
<li>Architecture #1</li>
<li>Computer Science #5</li>
</ol>
<p>The list goes on...</p>
<p>All those number 1 programs are nothing to laugh at. It just depends on what you're interested in. Looking back.. I think God put me in the right place when I got rejected from Harvard and Yale. My life long dream is to mix engineering with medicine ... I don't think there exists a better institution for me. Plus its quiet, peaceful and suitable for thinking. I love the place so much that I'm considering trying to become a professor there so I can live there forever. I love the rural area and how peaceful it is. Despite what people think... Cornell has some amazing people doing amazing things. There's the Mars Mission going on there. I saw Mechanical Engineers getting down and dirty building cars detecting mines... I met a crazy computer science professor/musical genius who was combining the two to do research on this amazing project. Lets face it, Cornell is amazing. Its more than an honor to go there. I think there is enough evidence to back up Cornell's prestige all over the internet. Its even better when you go there. I mean Bill Nye the Science guy went there. What more do you need? :P I bet Harvard wish they had good old Nye ;)</p>
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Plus its quiet, peaceful and suitable for thinking.
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</p>
<p>Ithaca is an intellectual's utopia.</p>
<p>Its because its the least selective and has the most "back doors," i.e. hotel school, etc.</p>
<p>Slipper, I do not appreciate you considering the Hotel School as a "back door" into Cornell. It is just as much a part of the University as the College of Arts and Sciences or the College of Engineering.</p>
<p>Who cares? It's one man's opinion. I usually take Slipper's posts on Cornell with a grain of salt anyway. I still have no idea why he wastes so many posts on a school he knows nothing about.</p>
<p>The funny thing is that the Hotel School has an incredibly low percentage of students using it as a "back door" to other parts of the University. See page seven of the following report:</p>
<p>As a Dartmouth alum, Slipper should know that it's generally not wise to speak about topics that you don't know anything about.</p>
<p>Okay so I'm wrong. But the perception is that Cornell has ways to get in that are less selective than Arts and Sciences.</p>
<p>^Yes, but that wouldn't be via the Hotel or Arch Schools (which have the lowest SAT scores out of any of Cornell's colleges). Those two are extremely picky in what they look for (hospitality-related experience for the Hotel School and a great portfolio for the Architecture School). You can see how someone who wants to backdoor into a bio or a philsophy major might have trouble assembling a competitive application.</p>