Or you can get a single room like my D has. She love it. And when you want to be social, you leave your door open. It’s the best of both worlds.
@TiggyB62 Doesn’t that cost more? If so, by how much more per year?
@ArthurDent42 my D is in Balch Hall and it costs about $1,000 more per year. Well worth it, though. She loves having a single. The beauty of Cornell freshmen housing is that there are lots of singles, so you don’t feel “left out” so to speak. Also, some kids actually did request a double but were assigned a single. In this case, they are charged the price of the double room.
My daughter last year as a Freshmen had a Triple (we requested it, for financial purposes). She was in Dickson and the triple room is really big. She even had a walk-in closet. She got along with her roomates. One is a BFF right now. The other she was still friend with. They have the same personality and not into parties and all of them have demanding majors.
@IndoorCloud25 Did Cornell admissions ask your guidance counselor for your Q1 grades? Or did you just send them off?
@seniorlife555 They were automatically sent by my guidance counselor
@ArthurDent42 my D is not a partier at all. She is not into that scene. But there is lots of it that goes on. She says there is no pressure to partake though. She has found some friends with similar bents.
@crossovercuber from what i’ve seen, its not cut throat as people say so don’t listen to what others say
Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone knows how Cornell reads applications from the same high school. 9-10 students from my high school are applying; however, only one other student is applying to the same college as me (ILR).
TL;DR: Will I get compared to all 9-10 students or just that one student (In the case that we even get compared)
@NotAMathlete The first people to read your application will probably know your area very well. Although there is a different committee for each school, at some point you will be compared to the person they typically admit from your school (not necessarily those 9 students who are not applying to ILR).
@NotAMathlete @PaulDi pretty much got it right. Admissions to the undergrad colleges are done independently of each other, meaning you’re compared with other ILR applicants, not Engineers, CALS students, CAS students, etc. This is mostly because the different schools look for different qualities from their admits. For example, engineers are expected to submit STEM SAT II scores and have lots of ECs related to STEM, whereas an ILR applicant should have better writing/reading and history scores and ECs relevant to ILR. Since each school is separate from the others, you won’t be compared to your classmates unless they’re also applying ILR. Have no worries, 22 people applied from my school to the various colleges and 6 got in, which was the highest in school history.
Just here to add a different perspective on some of these issues. I’m also a freshman but I’m in CAS.
The Food:
The cafeteria food here is really good, much better than the food that I’ve tried elsewhere. That being said, the food gets really old really fast. There are only two places to eat on North, and you’ll find yourself eating the same thing again and again. There are other options like west campus and college town but it’s around a 20 minute walk (one way) or a tcat ride.
The Workload:
I probably have around three (+/- 1) hours of absolutely required homework a week. However, if that’s all I did, I would definitely fail all my classes. A lot of the learning here is outside of the class and put on the student. This allows you to either be lazy and procrastinate or to be proactive with your learning. I would say I typically do around 5 hours a day. Again this varies, during prelim season I might do 8-10 a day and other days I don’t do anything. Another note, many of the classes here aren’t graded like they are in highschool. Instead they’re graded on a curve so your final grade depends on your class rank. Your workload will also largely depend on where you want to end up on the curve. Finally, Cornell is competitive NOT cutthroat.
The Social Scene:
As expected, most of my friends I’ve made are from my major, my dorm, and my clubs. One benefit of skipping intro classes and taking 3000/4000 level classes your freshman year is that they’re a lot smaller, which is more conducive to meeting others. You have to go out of your, get involved, etc. to make friends though. It seems like most people go out to parties on the weekend. I’m not a big fan of this so usually I’ll find a group of people staying in and do something with them.
Ithaca:
Ithaca constantly ranks as one of the top college towns and I don’t know how. Cornell has ~23,000 students so it sort of becomes a town of itself. I don’t find myself leaving campus very often unless I need to go to Walmart or something. Basically there is nothing to do here, which I think is one of Cornell’s strengths. It forces you to get involved on campus (clubs, dance team, school work, etc). If you don’t get involved you’ll probably be terribly bored. There’s no major city to distract you.
The Dorms:
Dorm selection is random. North campus is pretty far away from stuff, especially if you’re in the low rises or high rises. Each dorm is pretty different (Balch, the new ones, Donlon, low rises, and high rises) so I’m not going to try to explain each. Low rises are considered the worst and they’re not bad at all. As far as single, double, and triple, I would say do not get a triple. A lot of them are forced triples, which means they were originally designed to be a double. I’m in a double and I think it was a great choice. I was planning on doing a single until everyone around me talked me out of it. Living with someone else is definitely a nice experience. Yes, you can just open your door in a single, but it’s not the same.
A few thoughts regarding social life for freshmen… Cornell offers quite a few pre-orientation programs, the largest being Outdoor Odyssey. These programs are a great way to meet people even before moving into the dorms. My D participated in one of the OO programs that involved camping in the Adirondack mountains, and she is still best friends with some of the kids she met on the trip. Here’s the link: https://odyssey.coe.cornell.edu
Also, first year housing isn’t completely random. If you show any interest in the all-female dorm (Balch), you will most likely be assigned a room there. It’s an old dorm, but has some character, and most of the doubles are connected to other doubles with a “sink room”. Many of the girls end up good friends with some of their “sink mates”, as did my D.
@IndoorCloud25
Hey there, I’ve been following this post for a while and I just wanted to thank you for the time you’re taking off to help us prospective students. You definitely didn’t have to, so you’re a great guy, I hope to meet on campus one day!
I did have a question though hahah, now I know admissions to each of the colleges is very competitive (some more than others apparently, but overall still hard). My focus and greatest objective is to get into the Human Ecology college. I won’t ask “how hard is it?” But I would like to know if it’s a popular choice among incoming freshmen. Within the department itself I would like to major in DEA(Design, and Environmental Analysis) hopefully concentrating in Sustainable Futures.
Also, unfortunately due to immigration taking its lovely time with my case, I only managed to immigrate here to the US quite recently. I ended up missing the ED1 deadline in November. In your opinion, do you think that RD applicant face an uphill battle, less chances, etc? I know stellar American students have a tendency to apply to all, or most, Ivy Leagues to see where they land, but Cornell was the only one that really rang with me, and the only one I’m applying to without a doubt. From what I’ve read, Ivy Leagues consider a student’s interest in their particular college questionable if he/she applies RD.
@AGoodFloridian Haha it’s no problem, I love giving advice and answering questions. As for HumEc, one of my friends told me that the application is all about fit. By this I mean that they probably look past the GPA, courses, and test scores more than the other undergrad colleges. One of the things he told me is that he had an interview for admissions that really grasped the admissions officer’s attention and showed how he was a perfect student for HumEc. He actually told me that the admissions officer recognized him when they saw him around campus this fall.
For DEA, there are special requirements as per the admissions requirements page, which I’m not too familiar with, but really use that supplement to your advantage, and make it appeal. The DEA and FSAD majors within HumEc are generally less popular among applicants and matriculating students since HumEc offers many bio related majors perfect for premeds. This might mean that you have a slight edge over the majority of HumEc applicants, but don’t bank on it. Also, HumEc is one of the smaller colleges at Cornell (I think HumEc, ILR, SHA, and AAP have lower enrollment than CoE, CAS, and CALS).
Concerning ED and RD, most schools like Cornell tend to fill a large fraction of the incoming class through ED since they are guaranteed to enroll, giving the university better yield rates. During the RD round, there are thousands of more applicants, but not all of them truly want to go to Cornell. Although it may seem like your chances are hurt during RD, they really aren’t if you can show how badly you want to be here through the application and interviews. Most RD applicants probably won’t be as passionate for Cornell as you are, but you have show that your not one of those students.
How is the internet/wifi?
@Chrysanthemum14 WiFi quality is decent, but depends on the day and location. Some days it can be great, other days it can be absolutely terrible and unreliable. Generally, being in or near a building means good internet, but being outside is much more spotty. Also, Cornell caps you internet usage to 100GB per month with something like $0.0015 per MB after that, which I think is ridiculous. Some tips for the best internet experience would be to not use a wireless printer, bring ethernet cables, and don’t excessively stream in HD as much as you want to binge Netflix.
@Chrysanthemum14 Yes, re: wifi, @IndoorCloud25 is correct. My daughter has not gone over her allotment yet, but she nearly did a few months ago. They will send you a notification if you are nearing your 100GB. You will be charged for all overages on your bursar bill and so it’s best to not stream in HD. Change your setting on netflix (might need to search a bit on how to do this as HD is default on netflix) but I’m sure you tech savvy kids can do this. Don’t ever use a wireless printer because others in your dorm can tap onto it. Also, the fine print: you can be kicked off the network, too. Most colleges have this policy if they feel you are file sharing etc. Make sure you read their internet policies.
IMHO, for all the tuition money we pay, it can’t believe they set limits like this, but that’s life I guess!
Does anyone know if it will hurt my chance for admission if no one from my high school has ever gotten in before?
@rosiem714 admissions will not consider your school’s history with not getting kids in because those decisions are independent of the decision they will make for you. However, they will take into consideration the quality/rigor of the school relative to other schools to gauge your performance over another applicant from a different school. For example, my school had a history of getting one or two kids in each year with no one committing. This past graduating class had 6 admits to Cornell and 4 matriculations, which was the highest in both categories in school history. I don’t know if that made much sense, but since I don’t work in admissions I can’t give a concrete answer, though what I said is generally the case with many colleges.