<p>I recently completed my marathon tour of the east-coast colleges I'm interested in. Of the 20 schools I attended information sessions for, Cornell stood out as by far the worst. </p>
<p>I'm wondering if anyone else has attended an information session at Cornell. I don't want to judge a school based on the presentation. But if all their presenters were as bad as the one I saw, I wonder what the school's administration is like if they choose people like the one I saw to convey their school.</p>
<p>I came into the session excited about Cornell. But during the session, the presenter conveyed almost entirely negative things. Every couple minutes she told us to make sure that we know everything about the options offered at the school before we attend. She went on to say that if there is anything we don't like about the structure of the school, we should not apply. She made the different colleges seem highly restrictive, and she even admitted that the administration is often impersonal.</p>
<p>She even got angry during the beginning of the session when she asked a girl what her interests were. The girl said that she was interested in international relations and forensics, which Cornell does not offer a major in. The presenter exclaimed in frustration immediately and went on a 15 minute rant on how ignorant about Cornell many of the applicants are. The girl got up before the presenter finished and left. The atmosphere in the room was extremely tense the whole time. No one asked a question and about a quarter of the audience left before the end.</p>
<p>So, has anyone else had a different experience with a Cornell information session? I don't want to eliminate a school from my list because of one person, but I feel compelled to.</p>
<p>Sounds totally different than anything I’ve ever gotten/experience from the school…</p>
<p>Who led the session? Admissions counselor, student, alum? Could’ve been having a bad day too. If you liked the school itself (minus the session) I’d definitely give it another look. I had a less than stellar info session at McGill, but I didn’t base my opinion of the school off one info session, because the research I had done outside of that told me it was a place I’d be happy at. Granted, I chose Cornell over McGill, but I would go to McGill in a heartbeat even though I didn’t get the feeling that they were the nicest bunch around.</p>
<p>Whoa. I attended info sessions before and after being accepted, and they were both extremely impressive. The faculty and volunteer students were nothing but warm, friendly, and eager to help, and nothing but good things were said of Cornell.</p>
<p>I can’t blame you for being put off by such a bad experience, but I hope you keep an open mind and maybe even try to attend another session if you can. Sounds like your presenter was having a bad day, which could happen at any school. If Cornell seems like a good fit based on academics, location, social life, etc., give it a second chance.</p>
<p>I’m really sorry to hear about your experience. I am a student ambassador for the school so many times I am one of the students at the info sessions answering any questions perspective students may have. Throughout the year I have spoken to the faculty running the info session and they are generally warm, helpful people. I would assume that maybe you caught a session where one of them was having a bad day. Sadly, it happens to all of us.</p>
<p>I find it funny, because I remember when I originally went to an info session for Cornell a few years ago I also did not love the presentor. However, I really love Cornell and I’m so happy I decided to come here.</p>
<p>If you are really interested in Cornell please come back to campus and speak with more people. My recommendation for visiting any school is talk to the students. They will give you the real deal when it comes to…well, everything! </p>
<p>Good luck with your applications and school visits!</p>
<p>I went to a CALS information session, but didn’t bother with any of the tours. Most of my information came from professors and a few of their students. I guess the TC just ran into the wrong people at the wrong time.</p>
<p>Sometimes, when do you a job long enough… you snap. I’m guessing this particular presenter probably has spent years answering questions that could could have easily answered if the questioner bothered to do any research… and finally lost it.</p>
<p>Of course, I never even bothered to visit the campus before I came here. So meh.</p>
<p>Hey silver! I actually visited Cornell over spring break and was so excited to go there. It was one of my top choices and when I got there… things kind of fell apart. The information session was not really appealing to me at all for some reason and felt so detached and strict in comparison to wherelse I went (SUNY Geneseo + URoch). After going on the tour and seeing how big the school was, it overwhelmed me in a way and now Cornell is not even on my list of schools to apply to now. Hope I helped and best wishes =]</p>
<p>Cornell is definitely a big and overwhelming experience. Those who truly understand the structure of cornell and know it has 7 different colleges with distinct areas of study will get a better understanding and feel for Cornell.</p>
<p>Personally, I think the general info sessions and walking tours are pretty useless, unless it is followed up with the info session from the individual college.
My kid did not have a true sense of cornell until she attended the human ec and ILR info sessions. She was then able to judge whether the programs offered met her academic needs. </p>
<p>If my kid only relied on her first visit to Cornell, she probably would not be a cornell alum today.</p>
<p>You need to attend an information session for a specific program/school. The CALs one was extremely well run and professional; the ILR one was pretty good too. Can’t speak for anything else.</p>
<p>Cornell was probably our best college visit. The tour guide was this happy-go-lucky engineering major who played the trumpet (I think) in the pep band and he loved hockey. He was accompanied by a senior who had just completed her exams for the year.</p>
<p>In the admissions area, my daughter expressed an interest in some Chinese program they have and someone went running to find a young man to come talk to her about the program. He talked to her for a while and then wrote down the name of a professor and his office address. </p>
<p>We were there right at the end of the semester. It was warm. Summer was coming. I thought about writing to Cornell’s admissions office to say how great our experience had been.</p>
<p>woah that would suck! i would definately have bad bad feelings towards cornell after that too!
however, i have never attended an info session by them.</p>