Ask me anything about Cornell

<p>^
So what’s the point of Wharton for IB then if everything can be learned on the job? Surely it can’t be that easy if they’re taking mainly strong students from top schools.</p>

<p>Wharton has connections and is seen as “prestigious” for IB</p>

<p>Wharton is a lot more selective, even more so than A&S at Penn. I was told that their courses were also more rigorous. IBs/consulting firms want the best and the brightest. They often use selectiveness of top tier schools to do the filtering for them. AEM students will need 3.75+ to be competitive, whereas Cornell Engineering/physics/math students could get away with 3.5. One of Cornell’s biggest advantages is its size. It is worth an employer’s time to travel to Cornell to recruit, but maybe not so much to Hamilton, Williams, or other smaller and more remote schools. When employers cut their recruiting budget, they will often keep Cornell on because they’ll get more bang for their buck. Another plus for Cornell is its large alumni network. I know when my older daughter was applying for jobs, there were many “meet and greet” events at banks hosted by Cornell alumni over the winter break.</p>

<p>morrismm: I’m not going to argue with you here. Nor did I mean for “complement” and “overlap” to mean the same thing. I’m just stating what worked for my friend and what he told me. Oldfort even pointed this out, in math/econ, he was able to fulfill multiple course requirements, which is precisely what my friend did, and he’s still able to graduate a semester early. Again, I’m not a double major, but good luck to whatever you’re doing.</p>

<p>Saugus: College definitely still prepares you for a job in finance, even investment banking. Rarely, or more closely never is anyone hired off the street to do IB. People in ILR still go into all kinds of different fields. I was talking to an MD at JPM who was ILR, worked in IBD. This was during the DotCom boom when they were hiring everyone, back when IB had a lot more dealflow going on. Still, if you have the right knowledge, you can do any job, not just IB. There could be a Bachelors Degree in Trimming Trees here at Cornell. If said applicant could do the work they could still get a job on Wall Street.</p>

<p>unibames, do you think I should stick with ILR then considering the current state of wall street? (full post above^^)</p>

<p>i just graduated from AEM this december and am joining a BB in july. so i know this was a while back, but to answer TomasT’s question:</p>

<p>“I applied through CALS to AEM solely on the basis that it was a full business school, but through research and dialogue with my interviewer, I’ve kinda understood that as a business program Dyson’s just getting started and really not that developed. For example, I don’t think Dyson has its own building, faculty, etc. This kind of worries me because I have no interest in agriculture or life sciences, only in business and economics. You said you loved the AEM curriculum, so I was hoping you could give me some insight on it and why you enjoy it and maybe even talk a little bit about the AEM program.”</p>

<p>as a “business school,” Dyson has just gotten started since it transformed into a business school the summer before my sophomore year. however, this major (AEM) has been there since the early 2000s and before that it was an agribusiness program. Dyson’s building (Warren Hall) is being renovated right now and we share this building with DSoc. Dyson’s half will be completed in summer 2013 (you lucky bums) and the school is always adding more members to the faculty.</p>

<p>i had no interest whatsoever in agriculture going in and it didnt concern me at all that it stemmed from an agribusiness program. AEM is a traditional business program, with most of the students specializing in Finance, Marketing, Strategy, or Accounting.</p>

<p>recruiting at Wharton may be amazing but it does not mean it is not great at Cornell as well. Cornell often represents one of the top 5 schools that BBs recruit from, and personally, i dont think i would have gotten my sophomore IB or junior IB internships if i had been one of the hundreds of Whartonites interested in finance. AEM being a pretty easy major, it gives you a lot of time to spend on extracurriculars – which i think is as important as or more important for a business student, as developing as a leader is very very very important and it’s what those BBs will be looking for. in the end, im happy with my past 3.5 years in AEM and things always turn out the way they should!</p>

<p>side note: BBs usually do first rounds on campus and then the superday in NYC, with the exception of one BB that does both in one day on campus.</p>

<p>What was your gpa and SAT score?</p>

<p>are you asking me? HS GPA?</p>

<p>BreakingGrace: Well, this kind of deviates from the whole Cornell questions. But here’s my thoughts here. Take it with a grain of salt as it likely comes from snobbery/my own personal success, but my view is if anyone can constantly improve and adapt themselves to stand out as much as possible then they can stay in front office roles their whole life. Granted, Wall Street is probably more competitive now than ever before. Still, I see so many of my peers not maximizing their potential to excel in a finance interview. Many just can’t hold an in-depth conversation about finance for more than 5 minutes. </p>

<p>Honestly, stick with ILR if it’s within your comfort zone. Study your organizational behavior, labor history, etc etc. You can still also take AEM classes on the side. I got a friend in ILR with a full time at Barclays (and no, it’s not in HR) waiting for him after graduation. There is no secret formula here to learn finance overnight. Read everything available to you. Read the Wall Street Journal for your daily take on the markets, read The Economist to realize where it’s going in the more distant future, watch Bloomberg to get news as it happens live, and read the opinions of others. I love Zerohedge, more pessimistic views of the industry but it’s good to absorb everything available to you. If finance is what you want to do, read everything. </p>

<p>Will everyone work on Wall Street? Of course not. Did I figure this all out on my own? Of course not. I’ve networked with everybody. I’ve networked with Johnson MBA students, professors, hit up every contact at every info session on-campus, I’ve perused Cornell’s alumni network, I hit up my fraternity alumni network. I’ve been fortunate. Again, you can do it with any major. I’ve been to pre-interview receptions and had every major under the sun in attendance. Viticulture & Enology (winemaking), English majors, and, you guessed it, ILRie’s. Just have a genuine interest in the market, and do not just want to do it for the money. Easier said than done, right? Private message me if you want to know where to start at Cornell, who to talk to. While I’m a firm-believer you can do whatever you want in whatever major here at Cornell, you won’t be studying what you want in ILR. Unless you have some contingency plan of “If Finance doesn’t work out I’ll be content in HR or set my sights at law school.” I still fail to see how ILR brands itself as this pre-law school…Did they just advertise themselves as such and run with it since they don’t need to educate “union leaders” any longer? Maybe someone else here knows. Peace.</p>

<p>hilariousimlolin:</p>

<p>Congrats to you. Hilariousimlolin also harbors similar views as myself as to why I preferred AEM to Wharton. CCnet had just about every bank this semester listed with the exception of Credit Suisse? Yet I still hear of AEM kids applying on the firm’s website and getting interviews and offers. Good for them. I thought dSoc was in that annex building next to Plant Science though?</p>

<p>^CS does not recruit on cornell campus but you can still apply and interview, as Unibames said. got an internship offer from them last year so its not that they dont like cornell; someone once told me that they dont recruit on campus because cornell students do not choose them as much so their cost v. benefit did not justify going on campus.</p>

<p>are there many if any Australians that are admitted every year? Or do you see many on campus at all?</p>

<p>I got into Cornell as a transfer, and I’m still trying to decide if I should go to Cornell or USC. My major is communications. Do you know anyone who is in communications who has graduated, or just in the comm major at CALS? If so, how do they like it, and what jobs are the communications majors getting, or are they generally getting work?
I like Cornell because it’s an ivy league, although not sure about the weather, I hear it’s freezing cold most of the year and there’s snow 9 months out of the year, is that true? I’m also not sure about the workload, how hard is Cornell compared to say USC or a community college? How is Cornell as a transfer student?
I like USC because it is ranked nationally the top 5 for it’s Annenberg School of Communications. (plus also awesome weather)</p>

<p>ishfromaus: Firstly, does your username attempt to spell the word “afro”? Cool man. The only Aussie I met is an exchange student in ILR. Likes to drink and fornicate a lot at parties. Oh, and one Aussie grad student, she was cute, we saw each other for awhile.</p>

<p>limabean587: Dude, turning down an Ivy cause of the cold? Man up bro. If it was a matter of finances, then okay, I could meet you halfway there in understanding. And yeah, my friend who transferred from the same college is in Communications. He wants to become a lawyer and do some kind of “special” law or something back in his hometown in Korea. Don’t know too much of the specifics about it.</p>

<p>limabean, what unibames is trying to say is dont make a decision simply based on the weather. ive heard great things about Cornell’s comm program and know of some grads who are in finance / journalism. Cornell has a vast alumni network so id imagine getting a job isnt a problem. it is freezing in ithaca but students bond over it… first snowfall probably falls around halloween / november and there are occasionally winter storms in april but its not as bad as you think / say. i dont think Comm workload is too bad but definitely more than a community college… lots of transfer students at Cornell; not something you should be worried about.</p>

<p>ishfromaus: i know one student from australia (maybe more?) in Dyson. id think being an int’l student from australia would make you stand out somewhat.</p>

<p>

[quote]
I got into Cornell as a transfer, and I’m still trying to decide if I should go to Cornell or USC. My major is communications. Do you know anyone who is in communications who has graduated, or just in the comm major at CALS? If so, how do they like it, and what jobs are the communications majors getting, or are they generally getting work?
I like Cornell because it’s an ivy league, although not sure about the weather, I hear it’s freezing cold most of the year and there’s snow 9 months out of the year, is that true? I’m also not sure about the workload, how hard is Cornell compared to say USC or a community college? How is Cornell as a transfer student?
I like USC because it is ranked nationally the top 5 for it’s Annenberg School of Communications. (plus also awesome weather)
[/qoute]</p>

<p>The weather is a non-issue. I’m from somewhere where it doesn’t ever snow and is nearly as warm as the weather in USC; but if you wear a jacket the weather at Cornell is nothing. Also LA weather isn’t that nice in fall and late spring/summer since it can get extremely hot.</p>

<p>Did anybody get a “Cornel Prospect:” email? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1454164-cornell-prospect-e-mail.html#post15406853[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1454164-cornell-prospect-e-mail.html#post15406853&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Please help!</p>

<p>If the only thing you like about Cornell is that it’s an Ivy League university, you are going to be miserable here. The Ivy League thing will be the furthest from your mind once classes start.</p>

<p>So how bad exactly is Ithaca weather? I want to hear your worst anecdotes! Also, is it bad during fall/spring? I can of course understand during winter, but how about at the beginning of the fall semester and the end of the spring semester? Also, if you happen to know, when is the beginning/end of the Marching Band season at Cornell?</p>

<p>not quite, it’s meant to be read as ish from aus.</p>

<p>Thanks for your response.</p>

<p>@hilarious</p>

<p>Yeah? haha lets hope it makes me stand out a bit, fingers crossed! </p>

<p>So nervous about decisions :S</p>