[ventana]

We are now working with our son to determine where he will go to school. He has been offered several scholarships to top schools paying half or full tuition. He is also an NROTC sholarship winner and two of the schools he was accepted to will match the NROTC scholarship with room and board meaning a totally free ride (well, he will be in service after). He wants a career in medicine in research or clinical work and has been accepted at Carnegie Mellon, Univesity of Rochester, and Cornell among eight schools total. He is now deciding between U of R and Cornell. Cornell is liberal, but the Ivy League which is a major factor in its favor. Additionally, it has excellent scientific research. University of Rochester is superb, too. Not quite the name of Cornell, but a complete full ride with no debt. Freepers, any points pro or con you care to make will be appreciated! V's wife.

[Blueflag]

Visit the schools physically when school is in session.

My brother went to Ga Tech after visiting Cornell (was his first choice)

[jude24]

University of Rochester is superb, too.

Cornell vs. U of R? No contest -- go Cornell. Rochester costs as much as Cornell, but isn't anywhere near the calibre of Cornell.

Just about any university will be extremely liberal. U of R is especially bad, though.

[MortMan]

For my money, I'll take U of R and Strong Memorial Hospital for anything medical related. UR is VERY well known for its quality, and Strong is the region's premiere hospital, IMO.

[Incorrigible]

Of the Universities you mention, I would totally endorse Carnegie Mellon.  I didn't go there but I know people who did.  I visited Pittsburgh frequently while they attended.  I don't know about their pre-med program but the engineering is top notch.  Perhaps he'd be interested in a Bio-Med Engineering program?  Almost all the NROTC guys I went to school with were engineers.  (Marquette Univ, BSEE, 1987)  I'll put a plug in for Marquette as well and note that they have a very good NROTC program.

The other benefit is that he'll be farther from home.  I left New Jersey to go to Milwaukee.  I almost went to school in New Jersey but going to school more than 1,000 miles away added to the level of maturity I attained

Cornell???  What are you thinking???!!!  :-)

[applemac_g4]

V's wife,

I'll give you a little background on myself, and then share the conclusions I've reached. I was admitted to Notre Dame and went there straight out of high school turning down a full ride at an in-state university figuring that the name of a well known school on the resume would be worth something. I did graduate in four years with a double major in the early 90's, but I had to finish some credits in the summer to pull it off. After working for a while, I'm back at school (this time at a small local private college with around 2000 students) a few miles down the road from where I live to pick up some credits before applying to grad school. If I had to do it all over again, I would have come here to earn my bachelors and skipped Notre Dame altogether.

Speaking as someone who has done it, I would strongly advise against turning down a full ride at one school to go to another school where I had to pay tuition. Four-year degrees are simply too numerous these days to have much value without going to grad school, and while brand name universities make a lot of grandiose claims, they are awfully hard to quantify. I suppose that if I was interested in a career in politics, law, or finance in the northeast corridor, I'd try and go to Harvard or Yale...but that would be more for the contacts that I could develop while there. There's nothing about the educational experience at those schools that makes them worth choosing. Also, grade inflation in the nonsciences is known to be widespread at the undergraduate level and so GPA has become a sort of absolute measure of performance that exists apart from the name on your sheepskin.

My advice would be to pick a smaller, rural university at the division II or III level. For the most part, high profile and very large universities should be avoided for undergraduate work. Classes at smaller schools are taught by real professors speaking English, not foreign grad assistants who don't have a handle on the language. If you need questions answered outside of class, finding the professor during office hours isn't a problem. The administrations of most small schools are much better at customer service than those at large universities, and classes aren't difficult to get into.

When it comes to evaluating the political leanings of schools, there's a college guide out that helps quite a bit. I don't recall it's name, but I believe that Bill Bennett is the author. I'd find it and read it. When I refer to small vs. large schools here, consider an arbitrary cutoff of around 5,000 students as the number i use to differntiate the two.

Finally, there are other things to consider: which school is going to have better housing facilities? Since your son is going to be in NROTC, which program's officers does he seem to get along with better? Which school is closer to home? Since it's likely that he is going to meet the woman he ends up marrying during his college years, what is the male/female ratio at the school? What sorts of kids go there (working class, spoiled brats, etc)? How big a role do fraternities and sororities play in campus life (for instance, at Duke, they dominate campus social life...one of my reasons for turning down that school...)?

Good luck as you make your decision.

[Jim Noble]

I think your son's naval service will reduce the importance of the degree from U of R vs. Cornell.

The name of your school is important before you do anything. Your son will have a track record after graduation and before the business or professional world.

When I am picking medical students, I care where they went to school only if they have no work or other relevant experience.

Your undergraduate school is a surrogate marker for what you can do-and not a very good one, at that.

Pick the one you like best, and don't worry about it.

[LibertarianLiz]

Rochester is superb, too. Not quite the name of Cornell, but a complete full ride with no debt.

As a parent of a daughter who is paying out-of-state tuition, please believe me when I say --- TAKE THIS DEAL!

[Looper]

Congratulations on your child's success! If it was up to me, I would choose Cornell. As you mentioned, it's Ivy League and with the reduced costs there's really no downside.