Cornell - Public? Private?

[Anonymous]

Cornell has a far larger enrollment (more than 14,000) than any other Ivy – actually more than twice the enrollment of all other Ivies except UPenn (which is less than 10,000). Not sure I understand the structure, but it seems that Cornell is part private and part public – what percent of the enrollment is associated with the Public portion? Is it easy to transfer or cross register from the Public portion to the Private Portion?

[Anonymous]

You can look it up on their website but I believe that 4 of the 7 schools are land grant and 3 are private (may be the other way around). I think Ag and urban planning were 2 of the land grant schools. Hotel is private. It's only relevant if you are a resident of NY state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can look it up on their website but I believe that 4 of the 7 schools are land grant and 3 are private (may be the other way around). I think Ag and urban planning were 2 of the land grant schools. Hotel is private. It's only relevant if you are a resident of NY state.

Human Ecology, ILR, and Ag are public for undergrad. The tuition is higher than SUNY but less than the endowed colleges at Cornell. If you are out of state, the price is the same regardless of which school you go to.

If you are an in state student attending one of the land grant colleges, you are limited on how many courses you can take in the endowed colleges without having to pay extra. The limit is relatively high but it prevent you from being able to double major or minor easily without additional cost.

Transferring between colleges requires you to apply to the school you want to transfer to. This isn't the traditional application for new students but it's more than just a form and has to be approved. Unless you're trying to transfer into a much more selective program (i.e. transfer into engineering or architecture) it's generally approved.

[Anonymous]

Cornell is made up of "Colleges", so for example, the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences are private, but the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is public.

You can take classes at the other colleges, but to transfer from a major in one college to a major in another college is a bit of a process. So if you struggle in Engineering, it's not so easy to transfer to a different major in arts and Sciences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cornell is made up of "Colleges", so for example, the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences are private, but the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is public.

You can take classes at the other colleges, but to transfer from a major in one college to a major in another college is a bit of a process. So if you struggle in Engineering, it's not so easy to transfer to a different major in arts and Sciences.

I know so many people that transferred out of engineering to other colleges and it was really no big deal. All of them got into the programs they wanted to get into and while they were waiting on the official approval, they were still able to enroll in classes in their desired program so they wouldn't be behind. Transferring really isn't hard unless you're trying to get INTO, not out of, engineering. ll the other colleges love the engineering "cast offs" since they tend to do really well in the other programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cornell is made up of "Colleges", so for example, the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences are private, but the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is public.

You can take classes at the other colleges, but to transfer from a major in one college to a major in another college is a bit of a process. So if you struggle in Engineering, it's not so easy to transfer to a different major in arts and Sciences.

I know so many people that transferred out of engineering to other colleges and it was really no big deal. All of them got into the programs they wanted to get into and while they were waiting on the official approval, they were still able to enroll in classes in their desired program so they wouldn't be behind. Transferring really isn't hard unless you're trying to get INTO, not out of, engineering. ll the other colleges love the engineering "cast offs" since they tend to do really well in the other programs.

Things may have changed since I was there then. My friends who wanted to transfer out were struggling and had issues with getting into the other school because their grades were so poor. But they may have gotten more lenient about it in recent years.