<p>I got into these schools and now I have to choose. I am undecided but interested in pre-med or business. I applied Undecided to all 3. Money is not an issue since I got basically the same package from all 3. Which one is the better choice?</p>
<p>It depends who you are as a person.</p>
<p>Williams is a top LAC where the focus is just on the undergraduates so you’ll have full access to resources. It’s also located in a small town so most likely all activities will be centered within the university.</p>
<p>Emory is a favorite of many students because it looks like a country club. Since it is a university you may be sharing some profs with grad students which may be a drawback but at the same time you may have the opportunity to use some graduate facilities and cross register in higher level classes (I’m not specifically sure but that is generally the case) which could be a plus. Academically it is hard to compare Emory versus Williams because one is a LAC while one is a university. But the general feel would be that Williams has a better academic reputation. It’s location is near Atlanta so although you probably won’t be in the midst of the city every day you’ll have plenty of opportunities to take advantage of restaurants, shopping, and cultural events in the city while still having a campus.</p>
<p>Cornell is a very large comprehensive school which makes it a complete opposite of Williams. Academically rigorous and well respected I would rate it on par with Williams for some subjects though it really depends what you are interested in studying. Though it’s located in a pretty rural area Ithaca is a bustling city with other college’s such as Ithaca that provide a fair number of activities in town that cater to university students although you prob will be taking part with a fair share of activities within the Cornell community.</p>
<p>I hope this provides some insight for you as you move forward in the process! You have some really great options!</p>
<p>You have before you a small school, a mid-size undergrad school, and a larger undergrad school. Located in a small community, a large community which is a college town, and a major city. Clearly each setting has its pros and cons. Which do you like more?</p>
<p>Williams will obviously offer much smaller classes and a much more intimate environment , Cornell offers an amazing array of courses, with tremendous diversity of courses and students. Cornell’s course catalog is over 700 pages long. I imagine Emory is somewhere in the middle.</p>
<p>A NY Times article indicated Williams students did best of the three, on a percentage basis, in very top prof. school placement. However its results were highly misleading as they pertained to Cornell Arts & sciences grads, since it used as denominator all the students in the seven disparate colleges of the entire university, not Arts & Sciences college students specifically. Only 30% of Cornell students are enrolled in its Arts & Sciences college, and taken together the students there have substantially more diverse interests, goals, and abilities than a relatively homogeneous LAC has. </p>
<p>Williams is one of those places that claims something like 100% med school admissions, however their grading is not easy, evidently, and an alum once posted here that many there fell by the wayside before it got to that point. (before complaints from the faithful, evidently, led him to modify the post, years after the fact, to remove reference to the college specifically). I personally don’t believe attending a particular one of these schools will magically transform you into med school success, I think that depends largely on you. But you are free to believe otherwise.</p>
<p>They also supposedly have good percentage success at Wall Street placement. However, again, they have a more homogeneous student body with an atypically high proportion interested in Wall street placement in the first place. They have a lot of economics majors for its size, IIRC. I was on Wall street for a dozen years, in my department we had people from Cornell, and none from Williams. But that’s just what I saw.</p>
<p>Personally I think if you fit at Williams well, based on its prevailing campus culture, and seem satisifed with its course selection and location, it could be a great choice. If you don’t fit well it could be more of a risk, and there have been some posts on CC to this effect. My D1 attended a larger LAC and found that she did not fit well with its prevailing campus culture, and became disatisfied with its location and small size. These issues of fit are considerations that can be more important at a small school, because there are fewer places to turn.</p>
<p>But if you fit, you could love it there.</p>
<p>Of course many also love it at Cornell, and I imagine Emory too. And the people who are good enough attain great destinations following any of these schools (well certainly Cornell, I presume Emory too). You don’t have a bad choice here.</p>
<p>Emory is super strong in med fields. Emory owns hospitals so you can also intern/volunteer while you are undergrad. there is a lot of research opportunities in their Winship Cancer Institute that student can do. if you are going to do med, go to Emory. their business program is good but I don’t know how it stacks up against Cornell, but Emory definitely come with more opportunities you can have if you go pre-med</p>