Which would be better? Cornell Engineering or Lafayette Engineering? I’d be a recruited athlete, so Lafayette would be a full ride while Cornell I’d have to pay full price (don’t qualify for financial aid). I don’t have an offer from Lafayette yet and haven’t visited, but I love Cornell a lot, I just feel guilty about making my parents pay. Also there’s a chance my offer to Cornell goes away if someone else takes it
If you don’t have an offer, how can you possibly say you would get a free ride?
No one can really answer this question for you. But if you 1. Visit Lafayette and 2. Speak with your parents I expect you will get more clarity.
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It also sounds like the Cornell offer is not rock solid. Have the coaches told you they will support your application through admissions?
There is no free ride until the offer is on the table.
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Ultimately this and your situation is hypothetical - it would be of what’s of value to you -from the team, coaches to school size, to environment.
Both have many focus areas but Cornell more.
Both place -with Cornell showing higher salaries but is that worth $360k plus more ?
That’s a family call.
But as of now it’s like me wondering if my kid was in at Harvard, should I pay when I can get a full ride to Lehigh ? She’s not in at either nor does she have an offer at either.
For the sport I play, all d1 offers are full ride (ivy is the exception - they don’t offer scholarship)
They have. It’s a solid offer
As for it being hypothetical, they’ve done the pre-read at Cornell and it’s all good. (They can’t officially guarantee, but it’d be very very unlikely I don’t get in).
What I’m more so asking is are the career opportunities at Lafayette strong enough that I’d be in a good spot post-grad. Enough to wait and see if I could get an offer from them, since they’ve already expressed some interest
Will they be good enough? What’s good enough?
There will be some at Lafayette who outperform Cornell career wise…no different then some at Syracuse, SUNY B, Penn State or wherever that will outperform Cornell.
There are no absolutes - there are average salaries reported (which don’t include all people, only those who report. I didn’t check on those.
But I will tell you I did check how people found jobs - at Cornell, by far and away and this is common - internet postings from companies - same as my son who went to a public lower rated SEC and got 19 interviews and 5 offers - all this way.
Cornell Handshake (their internet) had 1/3 the amount and interview on campus 1/10 of the amount.
So a lot is going to be dependent upon you, yourself, no matter where you go.
I’m risk averse - so to me, it’s not worth $360k+ more - but I’m not you or your family and your college experience - yes is about getting a job but you can do that from anywhere - so it’s about so much more in my mind.
Talk to your folks - they’re the one making the investment so only they can answer the worth part.
But on a personal level - I’d imagine the coach, teammates, playing time, etc matter too - where you fit best there.
Good luck.
How long is your Cornell offer good for? If you don’t know, ask the coach.
What is attracting you to Lafayette? Also with the NCAA D1 changes now in place, there are no headcount sports anymore. So, while some still can and do get full rides (which is full COA), it’s not a given…so ask the coach, should an offer materialize.
I think its hard to argue that your prospects would be the same, at least at first, when Cornell is literally one of the top engineering programs in the country. What is not being said, however, is that the academic experience will be vastly different. Cornell Engineering is a grind. For many, it’s an awesome grind, but a grind none the less. Are you prepared for that?
If you have an exploding offer from Cornell you can let the Lafayette coach know. I personally would not forgo a sure thing at Cornell for a maybe at Lafayette. And if the coach does not make you an offer at the point, well, IMO you know your answer.
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Agree with this. Also, things have already changed a lot in the past few years in the world of job offers, so how you (@whatabout1) will explore job opportunities in 4-5 years is not something that should be a strong consideration at this point. That said, as @TonyGrace said, Cornell will likely have great internship opportunities and job prospects. Lafayette will have good ones as well, but perhaps not quite as strong. But the price difference between the schools is a compelling consideration.
Have you discussed the finances with your parents? What do they say?
Were you recruited by any other Ivies? Would you qualify for FA at any of those? Cornell will match FA from Ivies, MIT, Stanford, Duke based on recruiting contact. So if the Princeton NPC suggests you’d receive aid, and you had some recruiting contact there, you’d be able to get that package from Cornell. There’s a form for this.
And if you wouldn’t qualify for FA at even the most generous Ivies, then perhaps the financial aspect isn’t as big a concern for your parents as you think?
Cornell engineering is very strong and tough to match both in terms of academic strength and career opportunities. It isn’t easy and it’s cold up there in the winter but presumably you’ve looked at all that.
Agree with @Mwfan1921 that the old model of headcount sports and full rides is changing.
How much time do you have to decide?
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If the sport is football, there is a scholarship limit (so I wouldn’t assume a full scholarship). Patriot League football schools are limited to 63 full scholarships (this is straight from a head coach of a different school).
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Meaning they are not opting into the revenue model?
Still, that could change i a year or two right? Honestly, the NCAA craziness is another +1 for the Ivy League, which is the only D1 league that appears to be offering a modicum of stability right now.
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Correct, they did not opt in.
The entire Patriot League has opted out of revenue sharing.
FCS schools are limited to 63 full football scholarships, and the money pool can be allocated across the full roster (doesn’t have to be a full ride.) We don’t yet know if Lafayette or the Patriot League is going to fully fund (and we aren’t even sure OP is talking about football anyway.) The Patriot league has not yet posted its league policy and procedures manual for 2025-26.
You can compare pay level outcomes by major at College Scorecard. However, the student cohorts are those who used federal financial aid, which presumably does not include you if you and your parents could be paying list price at Cornell. It is also not obvious whether any differences are due to a treatment effect by the school (i.e. the same student in the same major at one school would have a better outcome than the other) or due to the selection effect of differences in student academic strength between schools.
Of course, be aware that engineering majors tend to be high workload majors (e.g. labs and projects). You may want to investigate how well student athletes in your sport or those with similar practice and competition time commitment handle engineering majors at each school.
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In addition, Cornell offers tremendous academic and non-academic support and resources to student athletes. Some teams have tutors/academic advisors traveling with them, to take one example. If OP’s talks with the Lafayette coach become more serious, he should specifically ask what support and resources Laf has for student-athletes.
Some full pay students do take the federal direct student loans. If so, they would be included in the College Scorecard data.
If this hadn’t already been said - highly advise you understand the commitment to engineering and your sport - are their other team members also majoring in engineering and ask to speak to them about their experience with workload, ability to get classes around practice time, internships, career support to name a few.
edit to add: Cross post as @ucbalumnus 
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