Cornell vs top LAC?

Hey all. I am a current senior who will be going to college in the fall at a top liberal arts school. Back when I was receiving notifications from colleges, I received a guaranteed transfer offer from Cornell which basically states that if I maintain above a 3.3 next year at my school (easy), I will be guaranteed a spot as a sophomore the following fall.

Here's the rub. I strongly believe in a liberal arts education, and have no doubt that the education I will receive at my school will be excellent. However, would it be in my best interest to go to Cornell... especially if I want to go into finance and venture capital?

My entire life, I thought that I wanted an Ivy league education. My father attended an Ivy and I thought that it was what I wanted. However, I now believe that a liberal arts education can be just as valuable.

Should I eschew personal fit and intimate academics for a larger, albeit more prestigious university?

 

If you're going to go to Cornell, do it before Freshman year. A lot harder to make friends/meet people as a transfer student.

If you're a top student at the liberal arts college, you'll be fine with getting internships/jobs. A lot of great firms are really starting to respect and some favor the smaller liberal arts education.

 

Just to clarify, the school isn't Amherst/Williams though it is in the top 10 of liberal arts schools. I suppose that the thing I'm most worried about is prestige... does the Ivy name trump a LAC?

 
Best Response

Looking back I made almost the same decision and am really glad I didn't go to the liberal arts school. I too was sucked into the belief that employers like "well-rounded liberal arts" students and picked econ rather than finance but still picked Cornell since I can take a lot of finance classes anyway. Though there are really only a small handful of schools where you can get away with being a liberal arts major and still get top jobs and those are pretty much limited to the top 15-20 or so undergrad schools plus Williams/Amherst/Swarth. Even like Pomona/Claremont McKenna/Bowdoin are great schools but frankly finance recruiting is not gonna be that great I'd imagine.

If this is Cornell AEM/Econ then its a no brainer if your goal is finance and the school is not Amherst/Williams. If it's ILR/Hum Ec/other CALS major then you're not really on the right track.

 

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