Does anyone actually care where I go to school (engineering)?

coralqueen
Sun, 22 Mar 2015 15:08:20 +0000

Thank you everyone for your responses. You’ve given me some new things to think about.

I think it’s relevant to mention that I got on a research team within a month of starting at UB, and all I had to do was send an email. The experience has been phenomenal. It seems like research is far less available to undergrads at Cornell.

My biggest issue is feeling like I’m wasting my academic potential at a school where more or less the entire top fourth of my high school was accepted. I’m also a 1st gen college student so being accepted to Cornell was a pretty big deal.

I’m also not very interested in teaching at the collegiate level; I want a doctoral degree for the research benefits and pure desire to learn as much as I can, and optimally would like to work in the public sector (US Dept. of Energy is my dream job).