I’m deciding between Cornell and William and Mary right now. A few people have told me that Cornell will give me more connections, but I’m not sure whether that’s true or should be a serious consideration. I know CU connections aren’t as good as at some of the more exclusive Ivies, and that connections don’t matter as much for the fields I’m interested in (psychology, classics/history, film studies, English) as they do for many fields, but is there anything to this claim? For the record I’m interested in grad school and may attempt to enter academia. I might also look for work in journalism or creative writing. Is there any reason to think Cornell will help me more with this than William and Mary? Thank you for anything you can tell me.
If you’re interested in journalism, Cornell is clearly superior because of the Cornell Daily Sun. It’s a daily, student-run paper (M-F), completely independent of the school. It is consistently named among the top five student newspapers in the country every year. William and Mary’s student paper is the Flat Hat, and it’s produced once/week. I give this advice to aspiring journalists all the time: You have to go to college that has a DAILY newspaper to get relevant experience.
The Sun is a pipeline to many major media outlets, notably The New York Times (The Michigan Daily is a major pipeline to the Wall Street Journal). That’s not to say you can’t become a journalist if you attend W&M, but the path would be easier from Cornell.
Perhaps the best-know Sun alum is Kurt Vonnegut. He put his reporting skills to good use as a POW during the bombing of Dresden. Which eventually resulted in “Slaughterhouse Five”.
Cornell also offers other opportunities/venues besides the Sun to get one’s written work in front of the public. Which is what you want to do if you want to work in journalism, I think.
Doesn’t mean W&M does not have similar opportunities, I’ve no idea.
If I were you I wouldn’t bank on any “alumni network” helping you very much. What will best help you is the experiences you can accrue. Your actual demonstrated capabilities.
It is difficult to say definitively, but my feeling is they would not be too different unless you are talking about a specific geography (New York or Washington, D.C.) or perhaps a very specific field.
It seems that for the fields you are interested, both are relatively equal in terms of offerings and opportunities, with Cornell perhaps having the slight advantage in some areas. William & Mary will have a slight advantage in terms of class sizes and teacher-student interaction because classes are much bigger in Cornell, which is something you should consider if you want to go to grad school.
History: William & Mary has the advantage here being the second oldest college and having access to a wide variety of resources being next to a living history musuem. It has partnerships with the NIAHD program, Native American history programs, Monticello, and more.
Creative writing: Both seem to be equal in terms of offerings, both as minor programs.
Psychology and English: Don’t know enough to comment, seems to be strong in both.
Film Studies: At William & Mary, film studies is a major and at Cornell it is a minor. However many of these film classes are theoretical in nature, although a few production and capstone classes are offered. Also I don’t know what is offered at Cornell, but at W&M they have a media lab where you can check out cameras, DSLRs, video equipment, 3-D printers, pianos and keyboards, laptops, 360 cameras, etc for free from the media lab.
Journalism: I will give this one to Cornell. Depending how stressful this might be for you as a journalism student, M-F daily journalism does sound more impressive than a weekly newspaper. However neither seems to offer journalism classes as an undergrad program. William & Mary, though to its credit, offers a unique seminar called the Sharp journalism Seminar where if you get in you can write for the Pulitzer Center and get a travel grant to do journalism anywhere in the world. I am doing this next year and I have had friends travel to Hawaii, the Gambia, and Uganda to cover under-reported stories. I do not know if there is an equivalent offering at Cornell.
Since you are posting this on the Cornell forum, you will likely get many more people familiar with Cornell on here. As a person from William & Mary, here are just some of my insights. I agree with monydad that your experiences will be more important necessarily than “connections,” so choose based on experiences and fit. But alumni networks can be helpful for learning about fields and getting your foot in the door, depending on the nature of the field.
Completely agree with the connections from The Sun — I write for The Sun and have met Pulitzer Prize winners, people covering the 2016 election, and I had my entire summer internship experience paid for last year through a Daily Sun alumnus. I hate networking — I’m absolutely terrible at it — but The Sun makes it easy and the connections I’ve made through it are invaluable regardless of the career path I take.
If you want to discuss The Sun at all, let me know! I’d be happy to answer any questions you have about it.
@Ranza123 wow that’s awesome about the internship! @aveimperator speaking as a Cornell parent I’ll say that the experiences my S has had at Cornell have been the best for him both academically and socially. Yes, Cornell is big but my S has had wonderful classes where he’s worked with professors and received ample one on one learning from them. Overall I’d say his first year has been positive in terms of a caring and supportive learning environment. He’s also received financial support from alumni and I can’t tell you how much of a blessing that is! The FA is generous. Because of access to your professors you can easily develop good relationships with them which can lead to other connections and a great LOR for graduate school. Plus, I think the Daily Sun is a great paper!
Forgot to mention that my S is STEM major but has taken two first year writing seminars so far and has really enjoyed them! Last semester he took Economics and the Environment and this semester he’s taking a course on Econ and Surburbs (something like that)
Journalism courses are 100% UNnecessary. If journalism is a goal, all you have to do is 1) Go to a college that has a DAILY newspaper that is independent of the school and faculty. 2) Walk into the student newspaper office on your first day on campus and join the staff. That’s it. If you do well and like it, you will be prepared for a job in print journalism (including digital).
For what you want to major and do in the future, I would try to incur as little debt as possible.
Hi. I’m not sure whether anyone will see this, but I wanted to post a final update. I’ve decided to go to William and Mary. I’m glad that I was able to make this choice after having a reasonably good idea of how $30,000 in debt would have affected my life; a few weeks ago I had never even considered the possibility of taking out loans and I might have ended up deciding without a good understanding of my options. I’m thankful for the people who gave me advice on this forum.
Congratulations!!!