I concur. While Lafayette’s engineering programs may be stronger than that of some schools in the Ivy conference, few schools, including other Ivies — such as, say, Yale — compare with Cornell for engineering.
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The Cornell offer is good until me or someone else who plays my position takes it.
From what I know Lafayette is a good school, which is what’s attracting me to it. And I think I would like it’s location, although I’ve never been.
I play basketball, which generally offers 15 fully funded scholarships before and after the revenue sharing deal.
Do you want to take the risk of losing the Cornell offer for a school that you haven’t visited and the coach hasn’t offered a coach supported slot yet?
There are no headcount sports anymore, everything is equivalency. Honest game sums up the changes simply:
Instead of being limited to offering either a full or no scholarship in head count sports, NCAA member schools will have the flexibility to provide each student-athlete in any sport with a full, partial, or no scholarship, depending on their program’s strategy and funding.
Also, because Lafayette has opted out of revenue sharing they can stick with the 13 scholarship limit. Has the Laf coach told you something differently? If so, that would be good to know here.
They won’t tell me the details but have told me that although the ROI may not be equivalent at Cornell vs a full scholarship elsewhere, if I want to go there they’ll pay.
I got recruited by UPenn, Brown, and Dartmouth and they all said the same thing about FA.
I’ve got until someone else decides to take the offer.
But again there are no absolutes. There will be Lafayette kids that outperform Cornell kids - just like there will be kids from name your large, average public school that will.
But on average, they won’t.
There’s no assurance going to Cornell will produce a better outcome and for some it won’t.
But that’s where the family has to decide, if the full ride vs full COA is a reality - next year Cornell is $93k so when it’s all said and done a $400k delta.
Congrats to being such a strong recruit - The team and coach are so important and I hope you are getting time to get to know them and understand the dynamics. This will be your group at college and so important to be the right fit. My daughter was an Ivy recruit and meeting the team and spending time with them and the coach really redefined her list and she eliminated many top schools due to the school, team and/or coach not being the right fit. I hope you are getting a chance to get to know the programs fully.
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Nobody here can gve you an answer. But Some things to consider are:
–You are comparing a LAC to a large university. Which environment appeals more to you?
– What can your family comfortably afford (minimal loans, no hardship)?
–Can you visit Lafayette? Do you expect to know about an offer before you need to decide on Cornell?
–Do you prefer one coach, one team dynamic, etc.?
To me it sounds like Cornell is likely affordable and you seem to love the school – personally I would not risk losing that offer.
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If you weren’t offered any FA by any of those schools it suggests to me that this likely isn’t a significant financial burden for your parents.
I’d be more confident of that if HYP were in the mix, but even so those schools you list are pretty good for FA.
Obviously, that’s a generalization and your parents would know the specifics. But the issue for them is whether this would hinder their ability to pay for college for other kids, force them to underfund retirement, or require them to reduce their standard of living in unacceptable ways. Only they can answer those.
ROI isn’t the proper lens for analyzing this unless you are able to attach dollar values to quite a few non-financial benefits/costs.
Personally, I would not hold out for a school I hadn’t visited if Cornell is a good academic, social, athletic, financial fit for you.
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I agree 100%!
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A couple of things to think about:
- will both coaches let you major in engineering? When my son was being recruited, not every coach in the Ivy League was open to engineering majors (different sport from you).
- Lafayette and Cornell are two very different schools. They aren’t even ranked in the same lists for engineering programs (offers PhD, vs MS as highest degree). Cornell is a much bigger program, and the faculty are rewarded for research and advising PhD students (many are still great teachers, though), whereas the faculty at Lafayette will all be focused primarily on undergraduates. Undergraduate research opportunities will exist at both schools, but will be a little different. (would you have time to get involved in undergraduate research?) You can get a great engineering education at either type of school, but it is important to understand the difference before you make a decision. In my opinion, the differences in approach/goals are more significant than differences in quality/reputation.
- make sure you understand the resources that will be available to you as a student athlete at either program. Possible things to pay attention to are: tutoring/mentoring/advising on the academic side; and training and workout facilities on the athletic side.
- are the student athletes part of the larger community at the schools? Can/do they take advantage of the other offerings the campus has to offer. This may or may not be a big deal for you, but my son noticed differences, and it affected his choice.
Both campuses are beautiful, and both offer strong engineering programs.
You should let the coach at Lafayette know that you now have an offer at Cornell that will go away at some point. You don’t need to mention the difference in cost when you tell the coach this, but it is fair to say Lafayette is your first choice (if it is).
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Ditto! However, the challenge is, even if you (@whatabout1) visit Lafayette now, its going to be pretty quiet, so other than meeting with the coach, it may be hard to get a true feel for the school.
And this is super important too. Spot on.
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Note that college basketball season overlaps both fall and spring semesters, so you need to manage in-season athletic time commitments with your classes in both fall and spring semesters.
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That’s a good point. I assumed the pre-read involved admissions to the college of engineering and that this had been discussed with the coach but this is worth confirming.
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Cornell is typically quite prescriptive in what school/major they will allow a recruit to apply for (communicated with preread results.) FWIW and IME I’ve seen more D1 schools not allow athletes to major in nursing or education than engineering. Even Clemson athletics welcomes engineering majors (I know we aren’t talking about Clemson here but many might see that as a surprise!)
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I know you know this but for those who are surprised, the first two have to do with practical training requirements, the later with workload. It’s really difficult to do your rotations and meet a practice schedule.
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This should not be overlooked. I have the impression basketball is also one of those sports that seem to travel and play outside the main league a lot too.
Am I the only one wondering if OP really likes Cornell as much as they say? Most would be jumping at the bit for that opportunity and trying all sorts of math to see if the money works. The take it or leave attitude makes me wonder if OP deep inside doesn’t see themselves there.
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Here are some schedules of the most recent year. Note the presence of weekday games (including away games).
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Re: hoops season— it’s a factor to consider but wrt Cornell the fairly long winter break helps and then it’s conference play from there on out.
Unless your team makes it to March Madness…but then your GPA and thesis topic will be all over national coverage and social media so that’s fun
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It might not be an issue at all. Most Ivy coaches my son spoke to would let him major in anything he wanted to. But not all, so I suggest OP makes sure they are told that explicitly by both coaches before any decision is made. I would say the same to perspective nursing, etc. students. It’s just due diligence.
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