which is more difficult to get in: Cornell vs Northwestern

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Interesting to note that--until recently--Cornell University used to get its Presidents from Big Ten schools. Cornell is much more like the typical Big Ten school than it is an Ivy. Other than Northwestern, almost all Big Ten schools have a college of Agriculture.”

The current President of Cornell is from Michigan.

https://president.cornell.edu/about/

Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, and Northwestern. 4 of the 14 schools in the BIG don’t have an agricultural college. it’s not almost all.

Isn't the point that Cornell is the only Ivy with a College of Agriculture ? Clearly, almost all (10 out of 14) Big Ten schools have a college of agriculture. (If you prefer, substitute "most" for "almost all" .)

You could have said, “other than Iowa, almost all Big Ten schools have a college of Agriculture.” It would have made the same amount of sense.

[Anonymous]

Are all Ivy Leaguers from the DMV this dumb? Who the heck goes around actually believing the ED acceptance rate for Northwestern is 60%? Lol.

[Anonymous]

Agree it depends on major. If you are aiming for liberal arts, I think they are about equal. Cornell engineering is crazy hard to get into -- you need perfect stats AND to get lucky. But I think Northwestern yield protects more aggressively which means plenty of very qualified students are rejected, especially from the DMV where there are often many applicants with fantastic stats and well-rounded applications.

I do think you have to be careful about using anecdotal evidence from any particular school, especially the Big 3ish privates, because Northwestern is a more popular destination, so more students apply. For students applying to Ivies, Cornell is likely to be a target for a student interested in a specific program. Students who are looking at Ivies but are less directed are more likely to be drawn to Brown or Penn. The weather and isolation puts off a lot of potential applicants for Cornell.

All of which can give the impression that Northwestern is "harder" to get into, because you are more likely to come across students who were rejected. But that does not mean the school is more selective. Both schools are very selective and Cornell has several colleges that are particularly challenging to gain admission to. But far fewer students apply to those programs specifically because they are so selective.

[Anonymous]

Just FYI Cornell's overall acceptance rate is 6.91 percent for Class of 2026. Figure the NY schools are higher so Arts and Sciences is only going to be harder. The ED acceptance rate was about 21 percent.

https://www.collegevine.com/questions/28020/cornell-s-admitted-today-that-it-offered-4908-admission-this-cycle-or-6-9-a-record-low

Northwestern was 7 percent for the Class or 2026 so pretty even.

https://dailynorthwestern.com/2022/03/30/campus/as-northwestern-admits-7-of-applicants-for-its-class-of-2026-president-schapiro-says-he-still-reads-application-files/

[Anonymous]

I know Northwestern is ranked slightly higher and Chicago suburb is probably more desirable than Ithaca, but if it were me, an Ivy League degree is an Ivy League degree. US news has Northwestern at 10 and Cornell at 17. WSJ has Cornell at 11 and Northwestern at 9. Forbes has Northwestern 11 and Cornell 16.

Is the slight uptick worth it? Where will your kid be? East Coast? I would do Cornell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know Northwestern is ranked slightly higher and Chicago suburb is probably more desirable than Ithaca, but if it were me, an Ivy League degree is an Ivy League degree. US news has Northwestern at 10 and Cornell at 17. WSJ has Cornell at 11 and Northwestern at 9. Forbes has Northwestern 11 and Cornell 16.

Is the slight uptick worth it? Where will your kid be? East Coast? I would do Cornell.

While I agree with you, neither of us is a high school senior. Chicago is a bigger draw than Ithaca, and Northwestern is a big enough brand name to make it a bigger draw for a lot of kids. But I agree with you that based purely on academics and value of the degree, I'd go with Cornell. But I have the benefit of decades of working and also being in a position to hire people. Kids look at these things a little differently. They often view it as choosing a lifestyle more than a degree.

[Anonymous]

Northwestern

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just FYI Cornell's overall acceptance rate is 6.91 percent for Class of 2026. Figure the NY schools are higher so Arts and Sciences is only going to be harder. The ED acceptance rate was about 21 percent.

https://www.collegevine.com/questions/28020/cornell-s-admitted-today-that-it-offered-4908-admission-this-cycle-or-6-9-a-record-low

Northwestern was 7 percent for the Class or 2026 so pretty even.

https://dailynorthwestern.com/2022/03/30/campus/as-northwestern-admits-7-of-applicants-for-its-class-of-2026-president-schapiro-says-he-still-reads-application-files/

I don’t think the 6.91% figure for Cornell is accurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know Northwestern is ranked slightly higher and Chicago suburb is probably more desirable than Ithaca, but if it were me, an Ivy League degree is an Ivy League degree. US news has Northwestern at 10 and Cornell at 17. WSJ has Cornell at 11 and Northwestern at 9. Forbes has Northwestern 11 and Cornell 16.

Is the slight uptick worth it? Where will your kid be? East Coast? I would do Cornell.

Northwestern is one of the small handful of schools where the “Ivy League degree is an Ivy League degree” argument doesn’t work. I agree that nitpicking about rankings is useless (although I haven’t really seen that here in this thread), I just don’t see how a school simply just being in the Ivy League has any material benefit. In your own words, is the slight uptick (of being able to say you went to an Ivy League) worth it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know Northwestern is ranked slightly higher and Chicago suburb is probably more desirable than Ithaca, but if it were me, an Ivy League degree is an Ivy League degree. US news has Northwestern at 10 and Cornell at 17. WSJ has Cornell at 11 and Northwestern at 9. Forbes has Northwestern 11 and Cornell 16.

Is the slight uptick worth it? Where will your kid be? East Coast? I would do Cornell.

Northwestern is one of the small handful of schools where the “Ivy League degree is an Ivy League degree” argument doesn’t work. I agree that nitpicking about rankings is useless (although I haven’t really seen that here in this thread), I just don’t see how a school simply just being in the Ivy League has any material benefit. In your own words, is the slight uptick (of being able to say you went to an Ivy League) worth it?

DP. My observation is that Cornell's alumni network and name, particularly in certain fields, carries more weight deep into a career than Northwestern's does. I'm sure Northwestern's network is very strong in the Midwest and obviously the school is very well respected elsewhere. But Cornell's network is more deeply in entrenched on the East Coast. There are two major advantages to going to a brand name school like this, from a career perspective -- one is the degree to which that brand name gets you in the door. I think the schools are roughly equal in that respect, with some variation depending on industry. But the other is the degree to which the school offers pipelines to certain industries and employers. I think that's more true with Cornell than Northwestern, and generally more true for Ivy League schools than others, at least when looking at the major East Coast markets (NY, DC, Boston, Philly).

[Anonymous]

Depends on which college, CS and Dyson are probably much harder to get in

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know Northwestern is ranked slightly higher and Chicago suburb is probably more desirable than Ithaca, but if it were me, an Ivy League degree is an Ivy League degree. US news has Northwestern at 10 and Cornell at 17. WSJ has Cornell at 11 and Northwestern at 9. Forbes has Northwestern 11 and Cornell 16.

Is the slight uptick worth it? Where will your kid be? East Coast? I would do Cornell.

Northwestern is one of the small handful of schools where the “Ivy League degree is an Ivy League degree” argument doesn’t work. I agree that nitpicking about rankings is useless (although I haven’t really seen that here in this thread), I just don’t see how a school simply just being in the Ivy League has any material benefit. In your own words, is the slight uptick (of being able to say you went to an Ivy League) worth it?

DP. My observation is that Cornell's alumni network and name, particularly in certain fields, carries more weight deep into a career than Northwestern's does. I'm sure Northwestern's network is very strong in the Midwest and obviously the school is very well respected elsewhere. But Cornell's network is more deeply in entrenched on the East Coast. There are two major advantages to going to a brand name school like this, from a career perspective -- one is the degree to which that brand name gets you in the door. I think the schools are roughly equal in that respect, with some variation depending on industry. But the other is the degree to which the school offers pipelines to certain industries and employers. I think that's more true with Cornell than Northwestern, and generally more true for Ivy League schools than others, at least when looking at the major East Coast markets (NY, DC, Boston, Philly).

I really fail to see a case where this might be true. Certainly not my experience as a passive observer of both schools and seeing how grads fare.

[Anonymous]

Cornell is sexier

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on which college, CS and Dyson are probably much harder to get in

Dyson is at best a top 30 biz school. Kellogg is M7 and undergrads can get certificate, similar to Princeton's finance certificate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know Northwestern is ranked slightly higher and Chicago suburb is probably more desirable than Ithaca, but if it were me, an Ivy League degree is an Ivy League degree. US news has Northwestern at 10 and Cornell at 17. WSJ has Cornell at 11 and Northwestern at 9. Forbes has Northwestern 11 and Cornell 16.

Is the slight uptick worth it? Where will your kid be? East Coast? I would do Cornell.

Northwestern is one of the small handful of schools where the “Ivy League degree is an Ivy League degree” argument doesn’t work. I agree that nitpicking about rankings is useless (although I haven’t really seen that here in this thread), I just don’t see how a school simply just being in the Ivy League has any material benefit. In your own words, is the slight uptick (of being able to say you went to an Ivy League) worth it?

DP. My observation is that Cornell's alumni network and name, particularly in certain fields, carries more weight deep into a career than Northwestern's does. I'm sure Northwestern's network is very strong in the Midwest and obviously the school is very well respected elsewhere. But Cornell's network is more deeply in entrenched on the East Coast. There are two major advantages to going to a brand name school like this, from a career perspective -- one is the degree to which that brand name gets you in the door. I think the schools are roughly equal in that respect, with some variation depending on industry. But the other is the degree to which the school offers pipelines to certain industries and employers. I think that's more true with Cornell than Northwestern, and generally more true for Ivy League schools than others, at least when looking at the major East Coast markets (NY, DC, Boston, Philly).

I'm based in NYC, and very few ppl in my circle considers Cornell brand stronger than Northwestern's. Yes, Cornell has a bigger network in NY, but it's different from considering it a better school. Just look at recent rankings, Cornell has been slipping to mid teens in all the publications