<p>Interesting dilemma… many parents would be pushing for the Ivy no matter what. I personally am NOT one who buys into the whole prestige aura around the Ivies, but I suppose in this situation you could try to use that in your favor. </p>
<p>And maybe you can leverage the US News and Forbes rankings (again, not something I buy into wholeheartedly, there are many legitimate reasons to pick a lower cased college over a higher ranked one). US New - Cornell #16 and NYU #32, and Forbes - Cornell overall ranking #19, NYU #56.</p>
<p>The quality of education really is NOT the same, Cornell is considered to be a cut above. </p>
<p>Is there some way you can ease their minds about Cornell? If you are female, are there any all female dorms you could live in at Cornell? (I would consider that a small price to pay to get to attend Cornell over NYU). And look into transportation home and the school schedule, and show them how you would come home and let them know that you would want to come home on longer schools weekends (pretend you want to even if you don’t). Remind them that you expect to be super busy with your studies at either place, so they likely would not see any more of you if you went to NYU. Good luck…</p>