Cornell. It's big. The classes are large and often impersonal. But Ithaca is great, the campus is beautiful, and they have many really great programs. I like it here a lot. I went into CS because it excites me. It's fun to be able to easily plan, build, and use tools that actually work, which is easy to do since it takes nothing but a computer to build a program. And analyzing problems algorithmically is interesting to me. However, I am definitely not going the standard route of the Cornell CS major. Most of my peers are going to go work at some mature internet startup as a software engineer. They'll get paid handsomely to build tools that most likely will not involve effecting meaningful change in the world or exploring or learning about the world or universe. I need to do those two things. I hope I'll figure out how to during grad school. But until I know what my first career will be and I'm done with school, I don't want to sit around doing nothing productive except school like it's all I'm good for. I need to get involved with something meaningful now.
Hm. A lot of my friends finish undergrad and head into finance or consulting--two huge brain drains from Ivy League schools. CS seems to have a lot of potential though. It's definitely going to be the future of a lot of stuff and the next big things are falling into the category of CS. I don't know how your financial situation is, but I feel like that's always a burden as well to some extent. Maybe you could start your own startup? Or apply to internships at facebook,google, etc.? I think that's what some of my friends are doing. I don't think they intend to stay there their whole lives, but I guess it's a starting point and they can learn from it. It just depends on what you want in the future. If you have a vision of effecting the world,I think it'll happen. Many people want to find love,start a family,be "happy"-- effect another type of world.Which is fine too. Depends on what you find fulfilling in life. I rooting for you man. Too often do we get trapped into cynicism or get ridiculed as naive "idealists." I say,you only live once: mind as well see what you're capable of doing, what your capable of effecting. You'll never know unless you try.