@ RPI Fri 2/11/22

And most of the other PAC-12 schools are not academic peers at all. I Think ASU is regularly ranked as the top party school in the country.

osorojo
Stanford is the "Cornell of the west". Leland modeled his university after Ezra's. You can look it up.

Re-read what I wrote and consider whether I needed your reference.

nshapiro
And most of the other PAC-12 schools are not academic peers at all. I Think ASU is regularly ranked as the top party school in the country.

Berkeley and UCLA are top notch, and Washington is really good, too.

Swampy

Scersk '97
With all due appreciation of the irony, I would like to see us make a bid to be the "Stanford of the East."

Do you really think Cornell would benefit academically by switching from its current, Ivy peer group to one with the likes of Syracuse, Rutgers, UMass, and Penn State?

A quick response to one notion: Are the Ivies really our peer group? Is it possible that, since we are sufficiently independent (due to our reasonable endowment) in a way that Penn State, Rutgers, and UMass are not and since we are yet strongly state-connected in a way that Syracuse (except for forestry) is not, we are without a true peer? My suggestion is that Cornell is sui generis, but, as the "midwest of the Ivies," often unfairly suffers when compared with its supposed peer group of institutions that it shouldn't be compared with in the first place.

On our own, I don't think anyone serious—particularly internationally—would compare us with Syracuse, Rutgers, UMass, etc., etc. MIT does just fine standing on its own; very few people compare Stanford with its other Pac-12 playmates. Yet we're constantly connected with and compared to a group of institutions that, in my mind, are of a quite different construction and character. I mean this honestly: what do we get, besides some sort of reflected but shaded glory, from our Ivy association that those institutions would not be interested in maintaining if we left the League? Would they kick us out of the library consortium, for example? Will we stop our scientific collaborations? Would they really stop talking to their red-headed stepchild?

Stanford and Northwestern are odd men out in a good way; we seem to be the odd man out in a bad way. I'm kind of tired of it.

osorojo
Stanford is the "Cornell of the west". Leland modeled his university after Ezra's. You can look it up.

I’m not questioning this. Leland also offered White the job as founding President, and hired White’s former student — David Star Jordan — after White turned down the job. Just under half the faculty were former Cornell instructors when Stanford opened its doors.

But back then Stanford was free and its mission included teaching the virtues of “cooperative” forms of economic organization, and times have changed. Just ask Lizzie Holmes.

Instead, my point is that most of Stanford’s intercollegiate athletics is in the PAC-12, which is a big reason for Stanford’s athletic success. As evidence, consider Stanford men’s lacrosse. Because the PAC-12 doesn’t have intercollegiate men’s lacrosse, Stanford men’s lacrosse plays in the WCLL and MCLA. “Ever heard of ‘em?”

Swampy
But back then Stanford was free and its mission included teaching the virtues of “cooperative” forms of economic organization, and times have changed.

To be honest, as shitty as Stanford has become, one could argue that Cornell is not much better.

The whole narrative arc of these schools follows that of America itself.

Thanks for the last and greatest betrayal
of the last and greatest
of human dreams. -- W. Burroughs

My time machine's set for 1980, but it's probably already too late.

Trotsky

Swampy
But back then Stanford was free and its mission included teaching the virtues of “cooperative” forms of economic organization, and times have changed.

To be honest, as shitty as Stanford has become, one could argue that Cornell is not much better.

The whole narrative arc of these schools follows that of America itself.

Thanks for the last and greatest betrayal
of the last and greatest
of human dreams. -- W. Burroughs

My time machine's set for 1980, but it's probably already too late.

This is the greatest sport forum of all creation. I come for hockey but stay for threads like this.