Cornell University

This is one of the most overlooked reasons as to why Cornell is such a great education and other schools falter. Cornell has the 12th largest research library in the US with 19 libraries with millions of volumes and microforms, as well as subscriptions to a substantial amount of academic journals, sound recordings, maps, theses, etc. Cornell's library system makes student research more accessible than most schools. This is the academic factor that I never thought of in high school, but has made all the difference now that I look at my own work and the work of my high school friends who had smaller collections at their schools.

That and Uris Library is now open 24/7. Score. (in a weird, nerdy way)

Beyond that, some other things of note. Cornell is a large school so it's difficult to get anything from it's administration, and class lectures (mostly at the intro level) are often monstrously larger than they should be. Upper-level courses make up for this with smaller class sizes, and so does Cornell's total course offerings (something like 4,000 courses? whatever it is, there will always be more courses that you want to take than what you can).

Cornell's size also makes its social scene. It's size allows for a diversity of people, but it also makes it 'clique-ish', the dreaded word from college reviews. However, cliques are actually a way to get a smaller, family-like setting with such a large school. I've never gone greek but I have participated in similar activities, and that sort of smaller social setting makes behemoth Cornell more personal. There are plenty of extracurricular activities and program houses that help supply smaller communities if greek life does not appeal to you.