校友教康奈爾如何成為藤校Top3

關於Cornell University

背景簡介：建校於1865年的Cornell University康奈爾大學，數百年來一直秉承著其創始人埃茲拉·康奈爾提出的「I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study」，即「我要建立一所大學以使所有的人可以學到任何他所想學的學科」這一宗旨，吸引著全美及全球的學生前往求學。

從教育理念上講，康奈爾體現了任何人都有權利獲得教育的平等精神，它是美國常春藤盟校中第一所實行性別平等的男女合校大學，不計貴族身份，不分信仰和種族，皆可入學。從教學方法上講，它體現了根據學生特點和興趣進行引導的工作態度，並在全美率先實行了學生自由選課制度。正因其校訓的精髓和立校之本，康奈爾大學一直被譽為美國歷史上第一所具有真正意義的全民大學(The first truly American university)。

康奈爾大學從一開始就兼具公立和私立雙重性質，具有「公私合營」的特點，也是常春藤名校中唯一採用公私合營的辦學模式。在14所學院中，私人捐助建立10所，依靠州政府資助建立了4所公立學院（農業與生物學院、獸醫學院、人類生態學院、工業與勞工關係學院）。這些受州政府資助的學院其實並不算純粹的公立或州立學院，它們只是在康奈爾與州政府合約下運作的州立合約學院（State Contract College）。同時，也正由於其半公立半私立的特殊辦學性質，康奈爾大學每年的錄取率都比其他常春藤成員校略高，且SAT平均分較低。藤校學生也常戲稱康奈爾為Lower Ivy。

「康奈爾如何成為藤校第三？」

前不久，有人在Quora（美國版知乎）上提出了一個問題：

Does Cornell have a chance to be a top Ivy League school in the future (20-30 years)?

在未來的二十到三十年間，康奈爾有機會成為一所頂尖的常春藤大學么？

在眾多回答中，一位叫Bruno Avritzer的康奈爾工程物理專業在校生給出了一個肯定的答案，而且詳細論述了康奈爾能超過耶魯成為藤校第三的可能性，以下節選自他的回答中和學術相關的部分。

「Yes.

But,it depends on what you mean by top. Currently there are three top Ivies, Harvard, Yale and Princeton, with most people considering Columbia and Penn a bit below these, and Cornell, Dartmouth, and Brown below that. If you』re asking whether Cornell will become the best Ivy in 30 years, I would say probably not for reasons I』ll explain below.

是的，但這取決於你如何定義「頂尖」二字。目前頂尖的三所藤校分別是哈佛、耶魯和普林斯頓，大多數人認為哥大和賓大要略遜一籌，而康奈爾、達特茅斯和布朗更次之。如果你問我康奈爾是否在30年內成為最好的藤校，我應該會回答你「不太可能。」，原因我後面再解釋。

If you』re asking whether it will be top 3, I could see it happening. One way this could happen is if Yale drops into the second tier and Cornell rises to the top of that category. Then, H and P would be in a class of their own and Cornell the next best. I』ll start with how Cornell could become top of tier 2. I can see this happening if the following occurs:

如果你問它是否能進前三，我認為很有可能。一種可能的情況是耶魯下滑到第二梯隊而康奈爾上升到第一梯隊。那麼，康奈爾將達到僅次於哈普二校的位置。接下來，我將論述一下康奈爾如何成為第二梯隊的老大，如果以下設想能實現的話。

Cornell maintains or improves its CS department. CS is one of the most rapidly developing fields and Cornell is the best Ivy CS department and arguably top 5 CS overall. The current president of Cornell is also a CS prof., so it would be nice to see a heavy investment into CS. This would potentially create a lot of wealthy alumni to contribute to Cornell』s pedigree and its endowment. It would also take advantage of the current and predicted future CS craze to increase the quality of Cornell students. I think Cornell』s strong theoretical CS department in contrast to more applied departments at other schools (not that Cornell lacks application) uniquely positions it to dominate the high-end of future CS as the field becomes more complicated and theoretical.

康奈爾應該保持或提升其計算機科學學院的優勢。計算機是發展最迅速的領域之一，且康奈爾擁有藤校中最好的計算機學院並能在全國排到前五的位置。現任康奈爾校長也是一位計算機教授，所以學校很有可能會大量投資在CS方面。這勢必會培養一大批富有的校友將來回饋母校。同時，現在這股CS熱潮能幫助提高康奈爾學生的整體素質，而且預計這一現象在未來將會持續。我認為，與其他應用型計算機學院相比，康奈爾的更偏理論，這並不是說康奈爾就不教應用。隨著計算機逐漸往複雜性和理論性發展，康奈爾的獨特地位能幫助它在業界佔領尖端領域。

Cornell』s College of Business works out well in the next 20–30 years. Of the Ivies, only Cornell and Penn have undergrad business programs. Penn』s is currently better, but if Cornell can beat some of the middle competition like NYU Stern it will be a huge boom. Having an undergrad College of Business also fits really well with the way Cornell is positioning itself as a pre-professional school. Rather than selling itself as primarily a brand like Harvard does, what with its lack of an undergraduate business or pre-law program, Cornell combines the lesser Ivy brand (compared to Harvard) with strong pre-professional programs like engineering, CS, pre-law, undergrad business degrees etc. which Harvard and similar schools often lack. In this sense it tries to sell the combination of the credential and the Ivy brand as opposed to a superior school brand. The new branding strategy doubles down on this and combined with the next point it may draw pre-business students away from other top schools, if Cornell does a good job.

康奈爾商學院在未來20-30年內發展穩健。八所藤校之中，只有康奈爾和賓大有本科商學院。目前賓大更好一些，但如果康奈爾能打敗一些例如紐約大學Stern商學院這種中流對手（小盒註：史上Stern被黑的最慘的一次！！），將會有巨大的益處。擁有一個本科商學院同樣也非常符合Cornell目前以職業為導向的定位。與其像哈佛那樣宣傳品牌卻缺少商學院和預備法學課程，康奈爾雖是較弱的藤校品牌（相對於哈佛）卻結合了強大的職業預備項目如工程、計算機、法律、本科商學院等等，而這些正是哈佛和同水平學校缺少的。這種意義上講，康奈爾把職業保障和藤校品牌結合起來於一個頂級學校品牌抗衡。如果Cornell能做好這一點，這種新的品牌策略無疑會吸引更多想讀商科的學生。

Cornell Tech manages to capture a strong slice of NYC』s entrepreneurship. This is what it was created to do and the future is technical and scientific entrepreneurship. Stanford is a great school, but it only has top 5 status because of how good its Silicon Valley connections are - otherwise it would probably be around where Brown is if it had to rely on its libarts. Cornell Tech has the potential to really shake things up by competing with Stanford for CS students as all major tech companies have HQs in NYC.

康納爾工院在紐約創業者中佔得一席之地。這是它創立的初衷而未來也屬於科技創業者。斯坦福是個很棒的學校，但他排名第五也是因為矽谷的關係非常好，否則如果只依賴人文學科的話，他的地位應該和布朗差不多。康奈爾工學院有潛力同斯坦福在爭奪CS學生方面一較高下，畢竟所有主要的科技公司都在紐約設有總部。

Cornell』s admission rate dips below 10%. This year it was 12.5%, a marked decrease from 14% last year. If the above pans out, Cornell should easily dip below 10% admission rate due to increased applications, but I think this is a prerequisite for any school to be viewed as top nowadays. I think it』s stupid, but what can you do?

康奈爾錄取率低至10%。今年從去年的14%驟降到12.5%。如果確實如此，康奈爾將很快由於持續上升的申請人數而使錄取率降到10%，但我認為這是現如今任何一所學校想要被認為是頂尖學校的先決條件。雖然這很不理智，但我們又能怎麼辦呢？

I don』t think any of the other professional graduate schools are important to consider. Cornell mainly suffers in rankings because of its undergrad - it already has exceptionally strong medical, veterinary, law, and business schools, and its graduate researchers are also top-notch.

我不認為其他專業研究生院都值得考慮。造成康奈爾排名不夠高的最大的問題存在於他的本科教育，他已經有非常強的醫學、獸醫學、法學和商學院，也有頂尖的科研人員。

Now, about Yale dropping out of the top tier. This is somewhat starting to happen already. Yale is getting more and more of a reputation as a humanities-based school, and regardless of merit this will eventually serve to lower its standing. One thing Yale has going for it is a great Law school and its excellent representation among politicians - another is its great school of drama. However, people increasingly hate politicians and the value of a Law degree is decreasing. I』m not saying people will stop getting law degrees, but politicians may not all have them in the future and that would cause fewer prominent Yale alums. It is also likely that parents would not be as interested in sending their children to a school that has a reputation as ahumanities-based school as opposed to a top CS+business school.

接著，關於耶魯跌出頂尖級別，其實這某種意義上已經在發生了。耶魯作為一間博雅人文教育學府的形象已經深入任性，但這長遠來看會降低它的地位。耶魯一方面坐擁值得稱頌的法學院和它在政客圈裡的地位，另一方面它的戲劇學院也很棒。然而，政客正逐漸失去民眾的擁戴而法學學位的價值也在減少。我不是說人們不會再去讀法律，但未來政客不肯能都去讀法律，因此會減少耶魯的傑出校友數量。此外，和一所博雅教育學府相比，家長們會更願意送他們的孩子去一所擁有頂級的計算機和商科項目的大學。

This all assumes that the Ivy League means anything in 30 years. It may very well not. I think it』s very likely that we do all our learning or at least most of it online within 30 years - at that point it』s likely no one cares what the top Ivy is. If not, I still don』t see Cornell passing Princeton in the next 30 years because Princeton has a strong all-round focus and is very good in STEM. I also don』t think Harvard』s brand will collapse in 30 years to the point where it』s not the most prestigious school - it has too many strong grad programs and too much history. But, I think there is a real possibility that Cornell will occupy Yale』s position.

以上均基於常青藤聯盟在未來三十年後還有價值。而事情也有可能並不是這樣。我預測很有可能我們在三十年後都在網上學習，而那時候沒人在乎頂尖藤校是哪一所。若不是這樣，我依然不相信康奈爾能在未來三十年里超過普林斯頓，因為後者在所有領域都很強大，包括STEM領域。我也不認為哈佛這個品牌在三十年內會暴跌以至於撼動他現在的地位，畢竟它有太多強大的研究生院和悠久的歷史。然而，我相信康奈爾真的有可能佔據耶魯的位置。

特此註明：中文對照為小編自己翻譯，轉載請註明出處。文中意見不代表本公眾號意見，歡迎大家留言發表自己的看法。

英文原文出處：https://www.quora.com/Does-Cornell-have-a-chance-to-be-a-top-Ivy-League-school-in-the-future-20-30-years

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