<p>I want to add that one of the things I find most upsetting and ignorant on CC is the constant low level denigration of Cornell. Cornell is a world-class university – really a great institution – and it has been in that class for a century and a half. In its own way, it has a great history, one that doesn’t stretch back to the 17th or 18th Centuries, but which is a lot more relevant now. One can argue that the founding of Cornell, more so than the founding of Harvard or William & Mary, is the most important event in the history of American higher education. No one who cares about American universities ever forgets that.</p>
<p>Cornell sparked the great 19th Century wave of educational reform and innovation that resulted in the founding of, among others, Stanford, the University of Chicago, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, and Carnegie-Mellon. Among its signal innovations were co-education of men and women, a focus on science education and on-campus scientific research, the idea that undergraduates should “major” in a specific field while receiving a broad liberal arts education as well, and last (but hardly least) demonstrating that it took a great deal of money to create and to maintain a vibrant university. Harvard and Yale are great today not because they have been continuously great institutions since their founding, but because they embraced the innovations Cornell pioneered and executed them successfully. </p>
<p>There is no better way to sound like a complete ignoramus than to dis Cornell in any meaningful way.</p>