Cornell VS. Northwestern for BME and Engineering in General

StanfordGSB00
Tue, 01 May 2018 16:20:36 +0000

I will copy what I wrote in another thread. Both are great schools but I think Northwestern has the slight edge due to its ‘more talented’ student body on average.

@prezbucky - I agree with prezbucky’s grouping. Based on attending Stanford for my MBA and living / working in NYC at a prestigious investment bank / mega private equity fund: my ranking would be.

Tier 1A: Duke / Northwestern / Brown / Hopkins / Dartmouth / Cornell CAS and Engineering

Tier 1B: Cornell (rest of Cornell) - I put this here because its selectivity is significantly less than the others. Ask anyone in a high-prestige job in NYC on Wall Street or ask students at top private prep schools (Dalton, Horace Mann, Trinity, Andover, Exeter, etc, ), they will put Cornell a step below the others. As of just a year ago, the average SAT at Cornell was almost a 90-100 points lower than Duke and Northwestern. That’s significant. Cornell is really a hybrid of a private ivy league and a top tier public university like Michigan, given its state subsidized schools. Part of prestige relates to exclusivity and selectivity and Cornell is the least selective of the schools in Tier 1A and 1B.

Being very familiar with both schools, I would say that you generally have 2 types of students admitted / enrolled at Cornell. Student A is choosing between Cornell, Michigan, Emory, CMU - many of these students were denied or did not have a chance at JHU, Duke, NU, etc. Many of these students are enrolled in the NYS state colleges at Cornell, which provides easier admissions to NYS residents because of the state funding. And Student B is choosing between JHU, NU, Wash U, Duke, etc. You will see less of this distinction at the other schools listed in Tier 1A, where more cross admits will be choosing between the Tier 1A schools.

Tier 2: Georgetown / Vanderbilt / Rice / Wash U / CMU

I would choose Northwestern. And to support the prestige argument in Northwestern’s favor – one of the most prestige driven industries out there (Management Consulting) has Northwestern as a Tier 1 target and Cornell as a Tier 2 semi-target. Check the recruiting pages for McKinsey, Bain and Boston Consulting and see where they do active recruiting / on-campus recruiting, presentations, and national placement. Good luck.