<p>The above highlights some actual differences to consider, though the “spin” reflects personal preferences regarding these distinctions.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>There is probably more freedom of course selection at Cornell CAS (distribution requirements vs core), and probably far more areas of study and courses available to choose from (via the other colleges). It takes a particular type of person to view less discretion and less to choose from as a positive , though that happened in above post.</p></li>
<li><p>I did not encounter a high proportion of all those “easy courses” when I attended. For better or worse. But if they are there, a few of those, if they were interesting, would not have been such a bad thing to mix in with the rest. It was a pretty tough school. If Chicago doesn’t offer a smattering of such “easy courses” to take some of the edge off, and Cornell does, that would be something to investigate and consider. But my conclusion about it would be opposite of the above. Both of these schools are considered to be tough by outsiders, sometimes enough is enough though. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Personally I think it would be preferable to have some control over the degree to which you were killing yourself, depending on how things are actually going for you once you get there. If someplace offers notably less of this degree of control, seems to me that could potentially cause some issues for you.</p>
<p>But again, I did not really attain a great ability to manage this while at Cornell either, I found it pretty tough sledding. Most people there found it pretty demanding , from what I could see, and that was its reputation. That was a long time ago, but the reputation is still the same. for better or worse.</p>
<p>Finally, Cornell is undoubtedly a far more diverse school , in terms of programs of study in the various colleges but also types of people enrolled in these different colleges. Only 1/3 of the undergraduates there (which is still a large number of students) are enrolled in the Arts & Sciences College, which is the one college there that is most similar to U chicago. In the dorms you wil be in the company of this entire diverse group. You will likely share some classroom time with people outside your college as well, but to a greater or lesser extent depending on your particular program of studies.</p>
<p>Some people prefer the company of people who are most homogeneously similar to themselves. Other people may thrive in the company of more diverse groups of people, and feel they grow personally by exposure to people who have differing perspectives.
So that’s a choice about which one may differ, but there is probably some real difference there.</p>
<p>Finally, I don’t recall if this was mentioned previously, Cornell has fraternities and stuff, ,most people aren’t in them but a lot are.(better housing, for one thing). And they have some sports teams, notably hockey, that some people there actually like. There are a large number of intellectually-oriented people there, but there are also lots of people- sometimes the same people- who are into this kind of stuff. It is simply a very diverse place.</p>
<p>Ithaca is beautiful, Chicago is a great city. Though I lived there when I was not a student, and had money. I don’t know how great it is for a student with no money. It would be important to determine whether the presence of the city detracts from the cohesion of the student body and the college experience, I’ve a family member who left an urban school for this reason.</p>
<p>That’s why I think one really ought to overnight at each if possible, get an inkling for what life would really be like, what a typical weekend evening would be like, see where you best see yourself loving it. There will likely be different answers for different people.</p>