Cornell CS vs JHU- competitive pressure and happiness

EurekaLightBulb4
Thu, 29 Apr 2021 17:57:46 +0000

Thank you all, I really appreciate the perspectives. My son had his second Covid-vaccine dose yesterday and unfortunately now is in bed with aches and chills and fever, so I’m trying to do some opinion-gathering for him till he can think.

A couple of things in reply.

1. I have no doubt that he can do the work, he will have to work very hard but so does everyone at both schools. He is definitely someone who takes schoolwork seriously. He is not afraid of the academic rigour of Cornell, just the possibility of intense overwork and competitive, non-collaborative, all-nighter-pressure. The anxiety is a problem, but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to attend a top school. The anxiety is something which will be difficult and will have to be managed wherever he is. I know a lot of kids who have high stress at college so I’m not sure anxiety is so rare. But given the situation, we’re trying to figure out which school is best for him and those are the two that he’s narrowed to. He’s also considering Tufts which might be less pressured and is in a great location (sibling in Boston too), but he doesn’t like the significantly lower CS rankings.

2. I don’t agree that the ivy league is just for the bumper sticker and confers no advantages. I went to an ivy (not Cornell). And although I have a plain-old regular life and career and there are many people who make more money than I do, and I never talk about it unless asked, I feel good about where I went and I feel there have been certain benefits. The way I feel about the Ivy prestige is that it’s one factor to consider, but only one among many, and definitely not the most important.

3. I am probably leaning towards Cornell for intangible reasons: I have relatives who went there and loved it, my sibling went there for 4 years of grad school and I spent great time up there, it’s incredibly beautiful, and it’s just a great university overall. Not my life or decision, though. My son is also leaning towards Cornell but the lean is slight, he mostly feels on the fence and says he will decide at the last minute, but I can tell he feels very stressed about the decision - even though I’ve repeatedly reminded him that both schools are great. I believe he is leaning towards Cornell because of the top-notch CS education. He says that even after two visits to each school he does NOT really have a gut feeling. He liked the intimate campus of Hopkins but also the gorgeousness of Cornell. It is of course not possible to really know what will come along in college that will lead to happiness or unhappiness. So in the end it’s hard to know how much weight to give all those second-tier factors.

4. And sometimes the second-tier factors make or break the experience. For example, if you’re a night owl like my son (and like most kids during the pandemic?), it’s helpful to roll out of bed at a JHU dorm and be at class in 15 minutes, vs. having to get up in time to take a bus to class at Cornell! Again, hard to know how much to weight something like that.

4. When we recently went to Cornell the weather was cold, dreary, gray, drizzling. We met CS students liked CS/Cornell, but all said it was hard with periods of intense stress. All said they really liked CS except one, who said “it’s hard”. When we went to JHU recently it was a gorgeous sunny day in the 70s. We also met CS students who seemed to be happy, some said they “loved” JHU. They did not seem to feel the pressure or workload were intense, they all said it was manageable - one graduating CS major said she wouldn’t give up a night’s sleep for anything and never had had to at JHU. She said if you managed time well it was very doable.
My son and I ended up concluding that although students will work hard at both schools, maybe the intense pressure-cooker stress JHU is known for applies mostly to pre-med students. Not sure.

5. But the fact that JHU’s CS focus is bioinformatics/biomed is a con - he’s not really interested in healthcare or medical fields. He has a pure love of technology.

6. So putting aside all the other factors, I think the most important thing he’s trying to get a feel for is: With the hard work/academic intensity a given, do Cornell CS students find it to be a heavy stress inducing, happiness-limiting, highly competitive pressure cooker environment?

May all our kids be happy where they end up!!

Thanks!