<p>"Are you implying that Cornell’s other schools have lower standards? "</p>
<p>Some may have have slighly lower standards, given their criteria, some may have slighly higher standards, given their criteria. But perhaps more the point is not that the standards are so different, but that the criteria used to implement the standards at the various colleges are different. Some may have processes which give relatively less weight to standardized test scores and relatively more weight to suitability for their specialized programs, via demonstrated interest and activities. And in other cases, yes the standards may be slightly different because proportionally fewer applicants want to pursue these specialized fields.</p>
<p>For example, the architecture college has the lowest admit rate at the university, but not the highest test scores. Because emphasis on design portfolio, suitability for the architecture major, is of prime consideration. If you are interested in one of the programs in the College of Human Ecology (formerly Home Economics) there are few better places to study in these fields. But let’s face it not everyone wants to pursue specialized studies in these particular fields. Its scores are actually pretty high, but admit rate is relatively high as well. Cornell’s Hotel school is the best of its kind in the world. But SATs have a lower priority in its process than relevant experience, personality and general suitability for its offerings. And again, not everyone in the world wants to study Hotel Administration, so they are choosing from among those that do.</p>
<p>“Maybe as more people realized this…”
I would certainly hope most people applying there inform themselves sufficiently to be well aware of this, currently.The data is there(though not yet updated for the past year). Otherwise people applying to certain colleges there are going to be somewhat misled about their odds, and peer group. This is certainly well known regionally. The contract colleges there offer reduced tuition to New York residents. And have always done so.</p>
<p>However it is probably the case that, if anything, more people realized it before than now. Because formerly, in the colllege guides before US News’s aggregates became gospel, SAT scores and admit rates were routinely reported by college for multi-college universities. IIRC they didn’t even report an aggregate across a university as a whole. Because nobody applies to an aggregate, they apply to individual colleges.</p>
<p>If you are applying to engineering colleges, and think its very important that average SATs at Northwestern’s communications school are higher than at Cornell’s Ag school, you should definitely go to Northwestern.</p>
<p>"Just because you’re interested in a field other than arts & sciences/engineering (e.g. hotel or human ecology in Cornell’s case) shouldn’t mean you’re dumber. "</p>
<p>Evidently Northwestern felt otherwise, that’s why they dropped their own Home economics college years ago, when they decided to pursue a loftier image. IIRC.</p>
<p>But no it doesn’t mean you’re dumber, there are plenty of smart students in these fields, at these colleges. Some of the smartest kids there are attending the NYS contract colleges to get reduced tuition. They as a whole are certainly a well qualified group for their respective areas of study. But on strict conventional academic metrics the numbers by college are what they are.</p>
<p>And yes there were differences in Northwestern’s college as well, IIRC, when these numbers were available. Perhaps to different extents, or those with the larger differences were a relatively smaller part of the aggregate.</p>
<p>"…there’s a certain smugness arts & sciences students at Cornell have towards their state school peers, which is unfortunate. "
There’s relatively little of this on campus now, is my report. People rib the hotel school kids, but nobody’s laughing when their job offers come in. People know that each of these schools is about the best of their type that there is. And there’s plenty of smart, accomplished people at all the colleges.</p>
<p>But yeah, engineers think they’re smarter than most and and work harder than everyone,etc. They all have their stereotypes. But it is a minor thing. If engineers at Northwestern think they are just the same as the education & communication majors, bully for Northwestern.</p>
<p>You want to see smugness, arrogance, and acrimony, spend some time on the Columbia CC board and read what they have to say about their College of General Studies, and Barnard. Cornell’s situation is nothing like that, thank goodness. But there is some mild internecine needling on occasion.</p>
<p>Sam, can you post links to Northwestern’s #s by college for the last year they broke them out??</p>
<p>“But cross-admits consider the strength of the overall student body when deciding where to go …”</p>
<p>Yes, and they consider lots of other things as well. And the result of such consideration of all these points would then be reflected in that college’s admit rates and stats.</p>