HELP - transfer deciding: Cornell vs. Swarthmore

monydad
Wed, 09 Jun 2010 12:02:31 +0000

Yes, but you haven’t even arrived there yet. Wait till you are a senior and you can’t take a course you want because it is only given every other year, or the one professor who taught that subject just left. My D2 had these type of experiences, at a much larger LAC than Swarthmore. Limitations in course selection can matter, in the upperclass years, particularly if you get interested in a particular sub-area of your field. Swarthmore is theoretically advantaged vs. some other LACs in this regard via its consortium arangements, however use of same is limited by travel time constraints, etc.

It’s true Swarthmore students stats are higher, the avg mid-range SATs of 1435 for its liberal arts & engineering students combined, vs. 1419 for Cornell’s CAS and engineering students combined, 1405 for CAS alone. OP can decide where he/she best fits and is more likely to thrive academically, in the classroom vs. the other students that will be there. Moreover half of Cornell is attending one of its other five colleges. These other colleges may provide some valuable options, particularly for an econ major, in terms of additional relevant courses, and levels of the courses. Where there are more courses available you have more choices. For example, D2 was taking intro statistics and IIRC there were 3-5 different courses she could choose from, with varying prerequisites, focuses and intensity levels. You don’t necessarily want to be forced into maxed out. pre-PhD level work in every single course area you might want to casually explore. Some flexibilty in choices/levels can be preferable, IMO.

I also agree that at Cornell not everyone will be marching to the same drummer, there will be great diversity in student interests. Not everyone there will be planning to pursue a Phd, though plenty of people will.