HELP - transfer deciding: Cornell vs. Swarthmore

monydad
Mon, 07 Jun 2010 08:59:03 +0000

“Since your into theater, I’m going to assume Swarthmore is the best bet for you.”

???

I haven’t heard much about Swarthmore’s theater offerings, but here is some information about Cornell’s:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/theater-drama-majors/43729-cornell-theater.html
(esp # 7 & 3)
[Theatre, Film and Dance Department - Cornell University](http://www.arts.cornell.edu/theatrearts/CTA/archive/)
[Cornell Student Activities Office - Browse Student Organizations/url
[url=http://www.risleytheatre.org/]Risley Theatre | Welcome!](http://sao.cornell.edu/SO/browse)

Most Cornell students are not in fraternities and sororities, and in fact their influence is most felt by freshmen who are wooed at rush parties and have not yet developed their social paths. Upperclasssmen such as transfer students can most easily and blissfully have nothing whatsoever to do with frats if they so choose. My D2 is one such person, a transfer there herself who has nothing to do with frats and is having a great time there.

The generic university vs. LAC tradeoffs will be manifest, Cornell will offer many more courses,and sections of courses to potentially reduce scheduling conflicts in some cases, Swarthmore will have much smaller classes and a much more intimate environment.

As far as switching paths, between theater and economics there is certainly no problem at cornell, they are both in Arts & sciences. However you would have to specifically check major requirements at both schools and figure out how much lattitude you will have, at this point, beyond taking courses in your major. Suggest don’t take people’s word for it, look yourself. A greater proportion of Swarthmore students elect to do senior Honors theses, which cuts into yet more of your limited remaining time. But I believe this is optional, at both schools.

FWIW, while there is undoubtedly more diversity in types of students and their goals at Cornell, there is no shortage of intellectual students there. Many of my own circle from there went on to get PhDs. It is a big diverse place, hence hard to accurately stereotype the way one might for an LAC.