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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DS was accepted two years ago for CS. Originally applied ED, was deferred and got in during regular decision. DS ended up going elsewhere.

While I’m sure he would have been happy there, he is really thriving where he ended up. Ultimately it was the Cornell admitted student’s day (April) that turned him off and made him reconsider. Things that made him rethink Cornell were class sizes (especially for intro classes) and lack of freshmen with summer internships. It also seemed the college of engineering did nothing for admitted students day - opened up buildings for touring in your own and a few tables in a lobby with a handful of students to answer questions. It was pretty lame. The weather was horrible that weekend too.

They couldn’t throw together a presentation on why Cornell CS or Engineering is so great. They couldn’t bother to have a few professors there. We did our best to ask our questions to the student reps. Their responses were probably the most honest we would get but did not put Cornell in a great light - eg classes could be 1000+.[/quote]

This raises an important point about Cornell re 'fit'. Cornell, especially STEM but really across the board, is a research-focused university, and perhaps on the opposite end of a SLAC in terms of undergraduate attention. The Professors are great and do interact with undergrads, but their prime focus is on their research programs and (grad/postdoc) research groups. It is a good fit for an undergrad that is very self-directed and independent academically, but not as much for students who want more from the faculty than solid and rigorous courses and exposure to academic research. One exception to this is that Cornell has extremely strong professional networks across the board and these are excellent for undergrads aiming to find alumni mentors and professional peer groups. But in general I don't think it's the kind of place where departments and faculty are going to put on a big tap dance for undergrads about how great their department/program is. [/quote]

I’m the PP you are quoting. DS ended up at a university twice the size of Cornell. Both have top 10 rated CS programs. Both universities do lots of research and have strong grad school programs. In fact, Cornell “visited” this university to learn about their CS program.

His intro classes can be large (~200-300 students), but never 1000+ students like we were told Cornell has. At this university, the admitted student day had a presentation from the department chairman and another professor.. Other presentations were from students. Both professor presentation were relatively canned (eg minimal effort for them to pull together). The chairman presentation was on why this university’s CS program over other universities and other professor presentation was about computer simulation work he did for movies. They made the effort. It took max 2 hours of the professors time. Cornell CS made absolutely no effort. The impression we got from
Cornell is that as student you are absolutely a number and they are living off their reputation.

As a parent, I’m making a decision to drop $240K in the case of Cornell. I traveled to them to make help this decision and Cornell CS couldn’t bother to show up. They had a handful of students in a hallway to answer our questions. That was it. Guess they were too busy with their “research” (btw - buildings were empty when we were wandering around). Other schools are able to do research and show up for admitted students.

In fact, DS’ university encourages freshmen to engage in research. One of his friends (sophomore) just presented at a conference this Christmas break. Didn’t hear about any undergrad research opportunities at Cornell at all. Maybe they do, but wouldn’t know it.

As for Cornell network, a current senior posted on our neighborhood listserv this past spring looking for an internship over the summer. It actually struck me as a little odd as I would have thought Cornell/ivy networking would kick in over our VA suburban neighborhood. Of course, this is could just be a one off type thing.[/quote]

I am an active alum and generally find many of the criticisms of Cornell on DCUM to be unfair or inaccurate, but PP is correct that Cornell does an abominable job with accepted students’ day. Just really weird that they don’t try a bit harder.  [/quote]

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