<p>^ Yeah, I totally get what you’re saying. In fact, my Williams Previews experience wasn’t all peaches and roses for me. There were definitely some caveats, and some things I didn’t like. Overall, though, I liked a few things about Williams more than about Cornell. That’s what it came down to.</p>
<p>If I don’t end up liking Williams, I’ll probably transfer to Cornell (or Yale… or not, lol) but I doubt I’ll be transferring unless I absolutely hate it. </p>
<p>I did that, too, the whole walking by myself to soak in the campus thing. At Cornell, I saw a lot of people who were very different, and didn’t necessarily like a lot of what I saw. At Williams, I felt like I could fit in a lot better. I guess it’s just abstract/intangible things like that that influenced my decision.</p>
<p>The good thing about both visits, however, was that I was mostly not with my parents, and didn’t let their opinions get in the way of a less biased experience. They were definitely great about that.</p>
<p>@ Colm: LOL nice poem! I will always wonder what I missed above Cayuga’s waters’ mist (lol) but that’s just life. If I had chosen Cornell, I would have always wondered what life would have been like in the Purple Valley.</p>
<p>@Resurgam: Yes, I’m going to be a Spanish major at Williams and also be a pre-med. I’ll be taking some Chinese there, too. And Italian? And Japanese? Maybe? Too many languages I want to learn, too little time!
I think I am more of a liberal arts person who also is very pre-professional. I’ve wanted to be a physician for a long time, but I also want to delve deeper into languages along the way. So the HBHS major, after all, wasn’t the best fit (who knew?)</p>
<p>let us know how language classes are at williams…and how the people are…</p>
<p>also did you talk to many HBHS pre-frosh? were many of them accepted into better schools? i remember that during DHW a lot of kids were bragging about Yale, Standford, Berkeley admissions and were only visiting to have fun…</p>
<p>Would you care to expand on this a bit? Was it the engineering dorks, Ag School hicks, ILR prissies, or clove-smoking AAP students who you didn’t like?</p>
<p>Yeah I guess they were right, in the end. I mean, if Williams hadn’t accepted me, I would be 1000% going to Cornell right now. I’d just prefer to do Spanish alongside premed, rather than just premed. </p>
<p>Yeah sure, nope it wasn’t any of that. I was eavesdropping on some conversations between Cornell students (not prefrosh) and they were all so heavily focused on law school, getting Cornell Commitment scholarships, hating on classes, decrying homework, and complaining about professors. At Williams, there was definitely some complaining, but everyone seemed to enjoy what they were doing because they were doing it for learning’s sake as well as grad school’s sake. Don’t get me wrong, I’m into the pre-professional stuff. But I don’t want it to be the sole focus of my undergraduate career.</p>
<p>Cayuga, it was actually a tougher decision in the end than I thought.
Resurgam, yeah I talked to a fair few and saw a few more speak in panel discussions, etc. I went to the Pre-Med Panel and about 18 out of the 20 kids there were HBHS majors. I just feel like it’ll be easier and more natural for me to stand out in med school admissions as a Spanish major/premed instead of an HBHS major. Provided I do well, of course.</p>
<p>you are right…i have to battle giving into this type of pressure here all the time…everyone is pre-law, pre-med, pre-iBanking…</p>
<p>i could be pre-something too but i’m not one who focuses on such things…i have too many options to pick something…although i guess i’ll have to pick something eventually…</p>
<p>my main problem is whether i want to go back to my hometown or not…and if so for how long…</p>
<p>Just wondering are you guys going to be de-briefing, in this manner, every person who is accepted to cornell but chooses another college instead?</p>
<p>Then maybe you can set up “open letters” to each and every one of them, and then cross-examine them under a spotlight, while they are tied down.</p>
<p>Look the college selection process is like that, one has to make the best decisions one can, with limited information, under conditions of uncertainty. You can be wrong, but you still have to make your best guess. So everyone does. The people are not the same, their guesses may not be the same, their information gathering may have been faulty, or hopefully not, but they have to make a decision based on something, so they all do. That’s all.</p>
<p>It’s true that it is possibly more reliable to assess campus culture from a small sample at an LAC with few people than at a larger school. We’ve posted before about the diversity there , and how it can take a while, in some cases to find your group. But the reverse side of that is there will be lots of people there you can casually encounter on a first blush who you actually don’t like much. That really is true, I think. You don’t have to hang out with those people, once you sort things out socially, but they can still be in your classes and in the dorms. Not everyone prefers this aspect of diversity.</p>
<p>while chandler is free to answer any questions he wants…i (and probably cayuga) want to learn as much about cornell (esp. the downsides) to provide a clearer picture to students in the future who are considering coming to cornell…</p>
<p>for example…HBHS is a very pre-professional major with students graduating with a BS and not a BA…</p>
<p>it brings us back to the point of (i forget who said it) that students might consider not applying to programs that do not offer them as big of a liberal arts curriculum as they might want…</p>
<p>Hey Chandler - Congratulations on your decision! My D is a pre-frosh HumEc but in DEA. I’m sure you will both have amazing experiences. Good luck at Williams!</p>
<p>Just to be clear, my wish for you was that you would not wonder (at least too much) what might have been missed. Be happy where you land, and make the most of it in the Purple Valley! Read the lines with care Chandler, and you’ll see.</p>
<p>hey ChandlerBing, just wanted to say congrats on your decision! It would’ve been nice to get to know you at Cornell haha, but I know that you made the right choice for YOU and that is what’s most important. :)</p>
<p>Monydad: from my perspective very few people, if any, are “cross examining” CB in the post Bing-decision posts. They are simply asking a few questions, out of curiosity, on the Cornell board. CB could have kept his decision private, but he chose to come back to the Cornell forum and list his reasons in a surprisingly frank manner. He came back to this winding-road of a thread, and continued to engage the Cornell CC community. In light of this, the Cornell folks are well within polite bounds to ask him a question or two, in addition to the amazingly many well wishes that have been put forward. A different sort of personality than Bing would have set up a new account after a private decision, and gotten on with things anew in their chosen community. My guess is, however, that CB has a lot invested in his screen name — and if that’s how he rolls, then so it goes.</p>
or not, lol) but I doubt I’ll be transferring unless I absolutely hate it. </p>