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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DC was accepted to Cornell CS last year. We went to the admitted students day. What an absolute miserable experience. It was by far the worse admitted students day we went to. For being an Ivy, Cornell was not impressive at all.

We started with an open house with the CS/Engineering dept. And by open house, I mean a few students standing by some tables. No tour of the buildings/dept, no chairman of the CS dept speech selling you on how great the program is, etc. The CS student we could find said intro classes could be as large as 600 students. Also said very few students get internships after freshman year. Compare that to other top CS programs.

We went next to a general discussion about life Cornell put on by admissions. It was a student panel discussion. After that we had a walking tour of the campus. It was an assigned time slot and the check in point was overrun with people also trying to checkin. We waited 30 mins to just checkin. The tour guide was awful. She talked while standing on the sidewalks in front of building. This, the group could only be about 2 people wide. No one could hear. Compare to other schools that either have the student guides microphones to be heard or only talked at gathering points where the whole group could gather around. Several people dropped out of the tour. We at a late lunch/early dinner at the dining hall and headed home.

Based on our experience with the students, the culture seemed very cut throat. Students were studying early Saturday morning and throughout the day - more students studying than we noticed on other campuses.

I’m glad we did the visit as it really helped solidify DCs decision to go elsewhere. DC doesn’t wonder what he was missing out on.
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The audio quality of a campus tour affected his decision? Yeah - probably not a good fit for him. None of the negative aspects of his admitted students day translate to negative experiences as a student.

And studying on a Saturday doesn't make a school "cutthroat". 
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I’m the PP you’re quoting. Yep - the audio affected his decision. Folks on the tour told the guide they couldn’t hear. Guide shrugged her shoulders and kept going. Guess what happened next - parents and kids all jockeyed to get to the front. Sure - we could have too. But for an Ivy and $80K+ a year, I expected a lot more polish. Every other schools admitted students day was about selling you on the school and program and getting you to say yes to them. Every other school blew away Cornell’s admitted students day. Cornell could not have cared less about selling us. It was a half baked attempt. If they couldn’t put forth the effort at an admitted students day - the kids they want to wine/dine - what’s to say what it’s like when you are there. First impressions count. When you go to these admitted students days it’s the little things you notice and ask questions about - like are the kids going to football games on a Saturday or is there vomit all over the quad from partying the night before or are the kids already in the library at 9am. Noticing all this stuff gives you clues about a school.

[b]DC ended up at T10 CS program at a large state school. The honors program director sent a hand written note hoping he accepted. Knew his name and his background from his application when we showed up at admitted students day. DC’s had a great experience there.  Has a summer internship lined up. Has been wined/dined by Jane Street a couple of times already. Finds classes challenging but not too hard. Knows he has help. CS dept assigned a mentor (junior) to be a big brother. Still has time for some social activities. All for $30k less per year than Cornell. I really wanted to like Cornell because it’s closer to home, but it just couldn’t compare.
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Heck - maybe it was just our experience, there’s a lid for every pot. Cornell just didn’t fit our pot.

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Would love to know the  name of this school. Must be GA Tech, UW, UT-Austin, Berkeley, UIUC?[/quote]

+1 Where is this utopia?[/quote]

I'm guessing UW given the comment on distance, plus it's the cheapest (-$30k). [/quote]

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