Reply to How to pick between Columbia, Cornell or Princeton?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
This seems awfully convoluted (or, stated differently, the PP who spoke to her experience at two Ivies is far more credible).

I'd encourage my kid to look for a school that is a good fit in the first instance, not hedge his or her bets by picking a school in, say, Boston, just so they might be able to hang out with kids from another school if they decided they didn't want to spend time with students at their school any longer.   [/quote]
Being stuck in the same rural college town of 4000-6000 students gets very old after 1-2 years, especially for college students. You won't figure out 'fit' within one college visit or looking at the school's website.

Its not hedging, its understanding that city life in general provides better opportunities for more activities, regardless of how many 'activities' the school itself sponsors.

Harvard and MIT students have their own campuses and then have access to the entire city of Boston and students from other colleges.

However if you are a quiet student who doesn't do much, certainly you might want small rural school where students in your proximity are forced to become friends with you due to lack of people so you can monopolize their attention. Other students want more options and opportunities in life. [/quote]

Are you talking from experience or just rambling?

4,000 is a lot of students, in the first place. That's a thousand students per year. It's pretty hard to see a situation where you won't find like minded peers from the same student body. You might have a point about a small, rural LAC with a highly homogeneous student body but not a 4-6k student school regardless of location.

I'm sure there are some students who, for some reason, shun their own college's student body because they didn't fit in for whatever reason, and sought friends and companionship at nearby colleges but they would be the exception, not the rule. And for the top colleges, the rare exception. [/quote]

First of all, you seem like you attended a large state school, so I'm struggling to see why you are commenting on student bodies of 4000-6000 students in rural areas.

It's not about peer groups. Its about culture. How is this so hard to understand? Schools, especially top ones, with 4000-6000 student have a homogenous student culture. Students are generally all from the same upper-middle class suburban upbringing. Similar students attend the school as they have similar interests and the school tends to have certain strengths i.e. humanities. Having other universities in the vicinity is therefore very beneficial because those other schools tend to have different student bodies.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
This seems awfully convoluted (or, stated differently, the PP who spoke to her experience at two Ivies is far more credible).

I'd encourage my kid to look for a school that is a good fit in the first instance, not hedge his or her bets by picking a school in, say, Boston, just so they might be able to hang out with kids from another school if they decided they didn't want to spend time with students at their school any longer.   [/quote]
[b]Being stuck in the same rural college town of 4000-6000 students gets very old after 1-2 years, especially for college students[/b]. You won't figure out 'fit' within one college visit or looking at the school's website.

Its not hedging, its understanding that city life in general provides better opportunities for more activities, regardless of how many 'activities' the school itself sponsors.

Harvard and MIT students have their own campuses and then have access to the entire city of Boston and students from other colleges.

This is insane.  I've always been very social and went went to a college of 2400 kids.  That was plenty of people to get to know--I found my tribe several times over.  Plus there were another 600 kids coming in every year so in my 4 years there were 4200 potential friends.

[/quote]
Again, this is [b]not[/b] about friend groups. It's about the school [b]culture[/b]. Everyone attending school of 4000-6000 students tend to have a similar culture. That culture gets boring quickly for dynamics students that want novelty and excitement. There's only so many frat parties with the same [i]kinds[/i] of people - not the same people, the same [i]kinds[/i] of people - that you can attend before it gets boring.
You can join a different friend group and they might all be the exact same essentially, because you are still limited by the culture of the school.[/quote]

Cornell has anything but a homogeneous student population. The 15k undergraduates are incredibly diverse - MANY different cultures, activities, and academic pursuits (“I would an institution where any person can find instruction in any study”).

Cornell students face many challenges - boredom isn’t one of them. 😂
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