<p>So I happened upon an article on Cornell suicides, which was quite bleak and made me apprehensive as a possible incoming student. I know that Cornell is below the national average in suicide rates, but you can't deny that the school has had an alarming number of deaths in the past few years, particularly 2010 (an alarming 6 suicides). </p>
<p>I was curious to know, from current or past students, if they are/were happy at Cornell. Is the academic environment and social atmosphere as bleak as it has been portrayed in the media?</p>
<p>My older son graduated last year and couldn’t have been happier. He also had many happy friends, and some not so happy. The ones who were not so happy were from LA, hated the weather and Ithaca, and were still mad they didn’t get into Harvard. They spent four years going to class and sitting in front of the TV. Kind of a wasted opportunity.
He also had friends from LA who loved it and were actively engaged on campus. You’ve heard this a thousand times before, but it is a place with enormous resources and diversity. If you make an effort to find your activity, friends, community, you will probably be very happy there. If you sit in your room, probably not.</p>
<p>Most students at Cornell are happy. Also, you wont find any university that doesn’t have a small minority of disgruntled students. A top school – any top college – is intermittently challenging. I’ve even seen Harvard students gripe that it wasn’t up to their unrealistic expectations; but back to Cornell, the vast majority of students find their niche(s), and are more than content.</p>
<p>I’m sure some current or recent students will chime in, but in the meantime this is a very good thread to browse through:</p>
<p>[thread=648868]Life At Cornell: Traditions and General Social and Academic Life[/thread]</p>
<p>I was a past student. Ok, way past. But still, this is how it was for me.</p>
<p>My happiness was pretty much linearly correlated with the following two points, in order of influence:
-my social life was going well (first and far most important)
-I was doing well academically</p>
<p>With a bump for Fall, when I tended to be happy regardless because it was so beautiful there.</p>
<p>The cluster was very disturbing and alarming, but after I read up on these I don’t think it connotes anything particularly different about the university, vs. the four years previous when there were no such incidents whatsoever. What people think is, these are weird phenomena that occur from time to time, and the very publicity surrounding the first tragic events helps spur other copycats. Of course there has to be underlying symptoms, but a certain proportion of the adolescent student population at most academically competitive universities is depressed, certainly the size of the pool is greater than six. .You can read up on clusters, google it.</p>
<p>The many bridges overlooking steep gorges are among the area’s crown jewels, the vistas encountered as one walks to class can be inspiring. But these did not provide sufficient barriers to impulsive actions. This situation has now been changed, in response to the cluster, and one can only hope that the numbers will return to obscurity.</p>
<p>But FWIW I don’t think it reflects much on what goes on at the university, vs. other institutions of similar academic reputation.</p>
<p>"If you make an effort to find your activity, friends, community, you will probably be very happy there. If you sit in your room, probably not. "</p>
<p>I think this is excellent advice. Do not just sit there studying all day, or more likely pretending to, go out and do stuff. Non-academic stuff. Get a part-time job. Put yourself out there. I think that helps a lot.</p>
<p>Everyone I’ve ever met is happy…in fact, I often comment to my family on how happy everyone at Cornell always seems. The suicides were really surprising, considering how close the student body tends to be (honestly).</p>
<p>I think being the largest Ivy league school influences the number of suicides. Schools on par with Cornell (in terms of difficulty and family pressure to do well (aka other top Ivy league schools)) don’t have such large undergraduate populations, so they have fewer suicides in total. School that ARE as large as Cornell (like large publics, for example) don’t have the difficulty or family pressure to lead to suicide…but that’s just my take on it.</p>
<p>Problem is I’m quite the introvert, so it’s going to take me extra effort to make friends and socialize.
But I guess college is the ideal time to try and confront this issue and hopefully get over it.</p>
<p>^ I heard some great advice during a college tour today. Our tour guide reminded us that (especially during freshman orientation) there is no one that doesn’t want friends. Everyone wants to belong. Granted . . . some people have an easier time than others, but everyone appreciates someone else making the first move.</p>
<p>abyss: You will find many other introverts at Cornell and maybe you will be lucky enough to have a room mate who is a bit more outgoing who can help you make friends. </p>
<p>My D LOVES Cornell. Even in the winter, when it is snowing or raining or is windy. There is so much to do and so many neat people who are all friendly. It also seems to be very collaborative too–not so cut throat as other schools of its caliber.</p>
<p>And, if you are worried about making friends, go on one of the pre-orientation trips. My D loved hers and came back knowing a bunch of kids before she even moved in to her dorm becuase she had just backpacked with them for 4 or 5 days. In fact on move in day, I must have met 10 people from her trip who stopped by her room to hang out, say hello again, and planned activities to do once the orientation group meeting was over. She still hangs out with kids she met on that trip. It was money well spent. </p>
<p>As a parent, hearing how happy she is every time she calls is wonderful. She does work hard and has times when she gets stressed over the workload but so many are in the same boat that she never feels alone in that regard.</p>
<p>i’m choosing between rice and cornell; doing premed/chem. what i’m really worried about is the stress level/cut-throatness/ difficulty; is cornell really as difficult as they say it is?</p>