Special points if you really don’t know, eh, marvin? Or second hand. Or old.
and I always rib my bro that Harvard is a decent safety when you can’t get into Stanford:)
What school are these words depicting? I’d guess they fit one school more than another.
A sample here and a sample there and then we may get the whole picture. This resembles a shotgun approach that nailed the sequences of the human genome (or so I was told back then as a non genetics person).
Your guesses are at least as valid as the rest of the thread!
Well, yeah, but in genomics they used between 50,000-200,000 base pairs, so, um, we’re going to need a few hundred thousand more people’s anecdotes 
my d was just accepted to cornell cals, I find it interesting that people (someone) in this thread think it’s easier for in-state students to gain admission to the contract schools. She overheard a cornell junior from our town that attends A&S say that she got into “the real cornell” which didn’t make my D feel great.
I’m not sure where the truth lies, I know cals is about 50 per cent in-state and I simply assumed the competition for the in-state spots would be much higher than the other schools due to the in-state discount.
in any case, I’ll answer the ops question on my daughter’s behalf for cornell - most diverse, non-elitist of the ivys. At least that’s the way it looked to her 18 yo eyes and the reason it was her first choice.
There is some truth to the perception that Cornell’s Ag school is easier to gain admission to compared to Cornell’s more competitive divisions such as Engineering, A & S, Hotel School, etc.
This was certainly the case when I was in HS in the early-mid '90s and before and the snide ribbing of Cornell Ag students from the snobby counterparts in the other undergrad divisions is a bit of an old-tradition going back at least to the '50s when an aunt was a Cornell undergrad back then. I think one derisive term for Cornell’s Ag school from the snobby students in the other undergrad divisions back then was “Cornell’s Cow College”.
Ironic considering Cornell’s Ag school is one of the critical reasons how Cornell made its reputation as one of the nation’s most elite universities within a matter of a few decades after its founding.
Whether Cornell students are non-elitist can vary greatly. There’s a small, but very vocal contingent who IME tend to exceed HYPSMCC in the level of snobbery/elitism precisely because they’re overcompensating for internalized feelings at having been rejected from HYPSMCC level elite colleges.
This was one of the things which annoyed and amused my Cornell attending cousins, especially considering it was their affirmative first-choice school(1 in engineering, 2 in A & S).
On the flipside, most HY students IME tend to not be snobby/elitist precisely because they are secure enough in themselves to not feel the need to bother.
Cornell’s Ag School is a little easier to get into than it’s other schools. Amusing thread. Carry on.
I always find it amusing when people post about the “ease” of getting into any of these schools as compared to others. These are all high achieving students and most make decisions based on what they want to study not the perceived prestige. In the case of the Cornell ALS school it is one of the top in the country and I doubt many that are looking at Brown are also looking at Cornell Ag. In addition, the Cornell Dyson school which is hosted in ALS has an independent admissions as do other parts of Cornell.
my sense is that the perception that ags is an easier admit is still in place. However, based on 2016 admission rates, ags had a slightly lower acceptance rate than a&s:
http://irp.dpb.cornell.edu/tableau_visual/admissions
I’m guessing her observations on elitism and diversity were very superficial, based on dress and the manner in which students interacted. Duke and Dartmouth were her top schools for > a year but, for whatever reason, she felt a fit at cornell (and the $15k/year discount didn’t hurt).
Ironically, the woman that made the “I got into the real cornell” statement, applied to coe, which offers a 25% admit rate to women. She subsequently found the work too hard and transferred to another school.
I think that while schools do have some overall cultures, that when you have schools full of bright kids like most of these schools attract, you will find pools of culture there. Not everyone who goes to an Ivy is either a trust fund kid acting like Thurston Howell III or someone obsessed with working at Goldman Sachs, not everyone at MIT is a complete nerd who spends all their time in the lab or whatnot. Wouldn’t surprise me that MIT has something of a rep for parties, being in Cambridge and the Boston area already is inducement, as is the stress, and there are bright kids going to MIT who ace tests and whatnot who don’t spend all their time thinking of tech, I promise you lol. The traditional culture at some schools may not be a kids cup of tea but there usually are all kinds of cultures at any school, U Michigan has a thriving arts community, intellectually curious people, the fact that they have a top notch football team (and an insane coach who wears khakis) and a big time football atmosphere doesn’t change the rest (known more than a few people who went there who couldn’t tell you how the team did, whether they had a team, etc lol).
@quietdesperation; Thanks for the link. It does show that Ag’s Acceptance Rate is now finally on a par with A&S. Ag’s Yield is 66.8% compared to A&S’s 44%.
Cornell’s applications have doubled since 2004 for a 6% annual increase. Acceptances have stayed roughly the same. The only question I have is if my grandchild applied to both schools, would he stand a better chance of being accepted to Ag due to lower admission standards?
@tonyk based on the way you’ve phrased your question, it seems to me you believe you have your answer. Based on the research I’ve done, cals stresses fit more than the other schools. this observation is supported by cals requirement that applicants must declare a major at application time. applications are assessed for fit against the declared major.
so if your grandson is interested in an agriculture science major and has, say worked on a farm, I’d suggest he apply to cals and take advantage of what may be a lower admission standard. If, your grandson wants to major in biology, take pre-med requirements and is from NY, I’d suggest arts and sciences. imo common senses dictates that the competition for discounted tuition for pre-med is higher in cals than a&s.
This would doubly amuse my Cornell alum/attending cousins…especially the engineering major who is currently there.
She’s currently thriving and doesn’t feel Cornell engineering is cutthroat or “too hard”.
I’m not sure how useful it is to try to describe Cornell in one or two words. But I guess if I had to, my word would be “diverse”. There are very different people, personalities and interests scattered among 13,000 undergraduates in seven different colleges offering different majors. The contract colleges have a large contingent of students from solidly middle class families, with nearly half from New York State, accessing discounted tuition. The endowed colleges pull relatively more students from further afield.
On the same campus you have students interested in: electrical engineering, architecture, apparel design, landscape design, hotel administration, agronomy, art, philosophy….
Student political views are similarly diverse. The classic example: back in the 60s, when black students took over the student union and the SDS marched in support of them, engineering students mounted a counter-protest. The same university graduated Bill Mahr and Ann Coulter. Though some alums may bemoan one or the other. Or both.
There are very specialized majors at most of its colleges, one can call those “pre-professional”. But at the same time there is a large college of arts & sciences whose students are likely no different in profile, or more pre-professional, than those at most other arts & sciences colleges at other comparable colleges and universities. My own cohort from there is heavy with people who went on to graduate programs in social sciences and humanities. To apply a blanket descriptor of “pre-professional” to that large group of students, to imply it is a distinguishing feature of them, is inappropriate IMO.
There could possibly be pockets of endeavor where there are students who could be considered “cutthroat”- maybe pre-med? Which would make it reputationally the same as most places. However I never witnessed those people. Most people I encountered were not “cutthroat”. It was an academically challenging environment where people worked hard and played hard… That does not mean people did not cooperate, did not study together, stole people’s notes, etc. I never heard of anything like that there.
People who were less prepared, less smart, had poorer study habits, often- found it tough going. While others, though they worked hard, did fine. Or thrived. And did not consider it “too hard”.
Then there were groups of people who hit the social scene seemingly every night. Again, it’s a diverse place.
Throughout my involvement with the university CALS was not the easiest admit, by stats. That distinction went to the Hotel school. Some people entered with preconceived notions about students at the other colleges, but those opinions were often modified when they had people from other colleges topping them in classes. “Hotelies” graduated with multiple job offers. Every year there were ILR grads heading off to top law schools, CALS grads going to med school and top biology grad programs, etc.
CALS admits by major, and by repute not all majors there are equally competitive in admissions. Dyson, which in my day was a backwater “Ag Ec” program, is now the most selective admit in the whole university. Biology is also mentioned as a highly competitive major there.
Each college has individual graduation requirements, including requirements for # credits to be taken in-college. The best strategy for admission and attendance there, IMO, is to apply where you fit best and have the most interest.
An interesting relatively recent development there is one can now apply to two colleges there- a primary and a secondary, or something like that. A prospective Biology major can apply to both Arts & Sciences and CALS. There have been cases on CC where a student was passed on by CALS but accepted to CAS. Despite the fact that traditionally selectivity has tended the other way.
@monydad – completely agree with your post above, but wanted to let you know that Cornell has eliminated the primary/secondary college choice on their app. The colleges did not like it, but I do not know what was behind the decision to remove it.
thanks for the correction.
@monydad thank you for reply. In her place, I’d have applied ED to middlebury with an expectation (>50%) of being admitted. Your post helped me become more comfortable with her choice of cornell.
I’d just like to direct readers to the newest thread about socio-economic diversity at the elites, which features this article:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/18/upshot/some-colleges-have-more-students-from-the-top-1-percent-than-the-bottom-60.html
It definitely supports the experience of my kids that I commented on earlier in this thread.
responding to OP :
(Note I am a Harvard and Columbia Law grad – some bias is inevitable)
Princeton: Preppy, Socially stratified, Eating clubs, Undergraduate focus
Harvard: THE brand, and it is all that matters and makes up for everything else …
MIT: super smart nerds; sartorially challenged
Yale: gives new meaning to political correctness; off the charts liberal; downward trending
Stanford: Sports, science and technology. Perhaps the hottest school right now.
University of Chicago:
Exponential upward momentum; intellectual and better than ever. Global leading academic powerhouse. Respect.
Columbia: NY, NY. Cosmopolitan. Top school in the world’s capital. Major global reputation. A bit downward trending.
Penn: Party school. Wharton.
Caltech: Science and Tech geniuses
Brown: Seriously ? …major in finger painting and cocktail mixing:). Unknown outside of US.
Dartmouth: Balanced experience in every respect. PC holdout. Unknown outside of US.
Cornell: Sadly afflicted with an inferiority complex
Duke: Powerhouse of the South. Vast academic options. School spirit
Should we include the LACs (apologies if someone already has…)?