<p>
</p>
<p>Why it isn’t for everyone:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Large breadth of offerings. You really need to be self-motivated or you can get overwhelmed.</p></li>
<li><p>When you think of schools like Brown, MIT, Harvard, Wellesley, etc…, you conjure an image of a typical student. The minute you think you know what a typical Cornellian is, you’ll turn around and find the opposite. For people like me - who thrive in the gray area between the wealthy and the poor, the abstract and the pragmatic - this diversity of backgrounds and interests provides an extraordinary learning environment. For those who like to be surrounded by people similar to themselves (you’ll see many such people attacking Cornell on these boards), it doesn’t work.</p></li>
<li><p>Similarly, the reason some people think Cornell is the “least prestigious” is because it was founded on an egalitarian mission to provide access to anyone who qualifies to study in any field of their choosing. This began with allowing blacks, Jews, and women in long before it was accepted and continues today in ways that make it clear that Cornell is not interested in being a Northeast private boarding school feeder like many of the other Ivies. The school just built a massive new life sciences complex to study the likes of nanobiotechnology and genetics alongside studies of agricultural systems for farmers. Again, this is great if this is the way you role. It can be hard if you want that elitist sense of privilege and superiority that comes from a more abstract liberal arts focus where nobody ever gets their hands dirty.</p></li>
<li><p>I’m a winter person, but enough people complain endlessly about Ithaca’s relatively mild winters (average about 67" of snow compared to areas of the Midwest that can get upwards of 150"). Be sure you can handle the isolation of a small yet funky college city that gets four seasons. Even friends from Florida marveled at the changing of the leaves and the energy that accompanies the first day of spring.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Cornell’s shortcomings:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I think it has trouble marketing itself due to its breadth. It seems to let others dictate its reputation in ways that are not always flattering for the school. I think if it were independent of the Ivies like Northwestern or Duke its reputation would be much improved. As it is, it’s constantly compared to schools that have fundamentally different missions. Yet, if you scratch the surface, you’ll see Cornellians have a hand in many of our most prolific technologies today. </p></li>
<li><p>I guess this is true anywhere, but being a research university, some of the professors are extraordinary and some are very lackluster when it comes to teaching. There were times I really questioned whether I was getting my money’s worth and there were other times I felt extremely satisfied and intellectually stimulated.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I actually disagree with moneydad about the significantly lower med school acceptance rate at top LACs. In fact, the rate of acceptance IS very high for those college seniors applying to med school. A school like Williams (and I have a kid there now, another recently graduated) does not weed out premeds or discourage them at all. BUT, a good liberal arts education will expose you to new ideas and new potential careers, and may (for good reasons not always apparent to the high school senior or college freshman) send you in a differnt direction from where you thought you were going. So many entering college students who were initially premed change there “major” because they find something they are more passionate about. I think that is what college should be about. If this scares you (and I strongly hope it doesn’t), then avoid the 4 year liberal arts college experience.
I thought I wanted to be an art major when I graduated high school, started off college as an anthropology major, but ended up graduating up as an honors biology student. I attended med school, and am a happily practicing physician. But my four years at an LAC were invaluable.</p>
<p>I actually disagree with moneydad about the significantly lower med school acceptance rate at top LACs. In fact, the rate of acceptance IS very high for those college seniors applying to med school. A school like Williams (and I have a kid there now, another recently graduated) does not weed out premeds or discourage them at all. BUT, a good liberal arts education will expose you to new ideas and new potential careers, and may (for good reasons not always apparent to the high school senior or college freshman) send you in a differnt direction from where you thought you were going. So many entering college students who were initially premed change there “major” because they find something they are more passionate about. I think that is what college should be about. If this scares you (and I strongly hope it doesn’t), then avoid the 4 year liberal arts college experience.
I thought I wanted to be an art major when I graduated high school, started off college as an anthropology major, but ended up graduating up as an honors biology student. I attended med school, and am a happily practicing physician. But my four years at an LAC were invaluable.</p>
<p>To be clear, all of these colleges (besides UIC) offer broad programs of studies where opportunities to develop other interests may occur. If one is open to that, I would expect that the number of different majors, courses, areas of study that can be explored are far larger at the universities, which of course also have comprehensive colleges of arts and sciences, as well as other colleges and programs.</p>
<p>I also imagine that most of them have high reported senior year med school success rates. And that all the people submitting those applications, in the end, are not all the people who started out with that interest. And I would agree that probably a good number of those entering students simply developed other interests along the way.</p>
<p>But I certainly know people who pooped out, at various colleges, primarily because, early on, it became clear that they were not making high enough grades. And IMO the most reasonable interpretation of the quote I pasted from that Williams College alumnus, when he said “weeder”, is that he meant “weeder”, in the conventional, most commonly understood use of that term in this context. Otherwise his statement would not really make sense.</p>
<p>And finally, it’s M-O-N-Y. Not $$$.</p>
<p>The problem is that the statement, “the real number is closer to 25-30%” is simply wrong, whether you call it weeding or denying or discouraging or social engineering. </p>
<p>Williams kids do very well in medical school admissions. Any student who demonstrates an interest early on is given a good deal of guidance and support to achieve that goal. If s/he follows the course guidelines, gets some medical exposure during breaks and summer, keeps his/her GPA to the required level, prepares for the M-CAT, s/he is reasonably assured of acceptance to a good program. </p>
<p>My son is only two years out of Williams so not too many of his class has gone through the application process, but those who have have been satisfied with the results. Two of my son’s good friends changed their minds from medicine to law sometime near senior year; however, that was a personally motivated decision not one driven by the college cultivators.
But back to the OP.</p>
<p>Elgin, Williams has at least as much grade deflation as Cornell and JHU, maybe more. They are all excellent choices but all three are very different in personality and ambiance. You will do the best at the one you feel the most comfortable, socially and academically. Go for fit.</p>