Cornell Confusion

William W. Cornell (Cornell College’s namesake) and Ezra Cornell (Cornell University’s namesake) were distant cousins. You might say that William had bragging rights over his cousin because Cornell College was founded in Mount Vernon, Iowa, 12 years before Cornell University was founded in Ithaca, New York.

Cornell alumni are not surprised when people assume they went to school in Ithaca instead of Mount Vernon. Explaining the differences between Cornell College and Cornell University seems to be a commonly shared experience among alumni. Even the Wall Street Journal has noticed the confusion between similarly named institutions, including the Cornells, and has published an article about it.

 

We decided to talk to two Cornellians about their own Cornell confusion.

“I did apply to Cornell College by accident,” says Martin Rosenfeld ’20. As a military child, Rosenfeld spent most of his childhood on bases in Germany and Italy. It was while living in Italy that Rosenfeld sent his ACT and SAT scores to his top college choices, accidentally sending his scores to Cornell College, thinking he was sending them to the university in Ithaca, New York.

Rosenfeld is so pleased with the Cornell College experience that he became a tour guide. “I think that fate had the right idea in mind when I discovered Cornell College,” Rosenfeld says, “because the small class sizes and very personable professors seem perfect for my learning style. Not only that, but I seem to be excelling on the block plan and on the campus in general, due to the variety of experiences that the block plan and college has to offer.”

Like Rosenfeld, Yasmin Bou Karim ’15 mistook the college for the university during the application process. She and her family are from Brazil and didn’t realize the difference until she came to visit.

“It was the best decision I could have made, and I do not regret it one bit,” Bou Karim says of enrolling at Cornell College. She credits the people of Cornell for her current success and acceptance at Imperial College London. “At Cornell College, professors knew our names and they cared about us,” Bou Karim says.

WEB EXTRA: Learn the finer points of differentiation between the Cornells on the “We’re Not in Ithaca” web page, and read the Wall Street Journal article on confusion among similarly named institutions.