<p>Here’s my two cents, fwiw…</p>
<p>My father taught at Cornell and I grew up in Ithaca and then went to college at UChicago. To put it briefly, the schools represent two vastly different approaches to higher education.</p>
<p>Cornell is dominated by its large undergrad system. The gap between the varsity athletes/facilities and the student body at large is similar to those on a Div I campus. The school is physically huge and sprawls over acres and acres of beautiful rural countryside. Within the undergrad system itself, you have different schools and hierarchies co-existing withing the university. If it sounds huge, that’s because it is. Everything about Cornell is large; the football stadium is large, the Greek system is huge, the lecture classes can number in the hundreds and there are more than 13,000 undergrads on campus.</p>
<p>UChicago is the opposite in this regard. It has a relatively small college (about 30% the size of Cornell) surrounded by a much larger graduate division. There are no separate schools within the college. There is only the undergraduate College. The classes are small, the athletic facilities are relatively modest and the campus is a fraction of the geographic size of Cornell. Cornell has a real marching band for its football team while U of C, at least when I was there, had an 8’ long paper mache kazoo that volunteers would carry about the field. And yes, anyone could bring their own kazoo and join in.</p>
<p>In many regards, one could argue that Cornell is a Div I school on academic steroids. It has very strong programs, a highly selective admissions process and top notch faculty. Its social life, and school structure and culture, however, couldn’t be more different from UChicago’s.</p>
<p>Choose carefully and good luck!</p>