I’m thinking about applying to Cornell but do not know much about the environment. Are students more collaborative or competitive? What kind of a community is present? I know it is a big school so probably not a tight knit community, right? Any insight and information about Cornell is appreciated. Thanks
Parent of '10 and '14 grad here. From my perspective, Cornell is a big university with a lot of small tight knit communities within the school.
+1 to the above … big-ish school, but lots of overlapping smaller communities … e.g., within the colleges, within housin, in majors/concentrations, Greek system, sports teams (varsity, club, rec), music groups and also other clubs – lots of overlapping smaller, closer-connected groups within the school overall. I am a law grad from there, DW is undergrad alum, DD is '20 and DS is '21 … all similar experience in that regard.
It’s a big school, so you have to really work to find your niche. When I was in engineering, it was a mix of both. There were very competitive students, and some were very cooperative. It FELT more competitive though.
I’m also in engineering, and the atmosphere is kind of what you make it. Of course there are some cutthroat competitive people, but there are also a ton of friendly, cooperative people. If you make an effort to work with classmates you won’t have trouble finding people who’ll reciprocate.
My D attends Cornell and has found overlapping tight communities of friends, as others have posted above. Her best friends are her sorority sisters, and she is still close to the friends she met in her dorm freshman year. She’s also connected with students in her major.
Overall, the coursework at Cornell has been very challenging, but my D has not found the culture to be competitive at all in her major.
If you want to be in a study group, you should be able to form or join one. If you’d rather study on your own, obviously that’s an option too. This is the case at probably every school – i’ve neither been to, nor heard of, a school with a 100% competitive academic culture and 100% cutthroat students. You may need to reach out to fellow students if you want to collaborate, but life requires effort sometimes.
Consider the environment of Cornell and how it might affect the school’s social vibe: it is cold in the winter, fairly rural, and not really close to a big city. This means most of your entertainment will be on campus, enjoyed with felllow students, and winter weather dictates that most social activity (during that long season) will take place indoors. I think being locked indoors for roughly half the school year, in clubs or at parties with a bunch of your classmates, helps to form a sense of camaraderie and is a great way to make friends. You can’t all be off on your own jogging or kayaking in February, and I imagine trips to NYC or Boston are quite a hike and that few take them with any great frequency. Packed like sardines at parties, libraries, concerts, group events (etc.), you may encounter present and future classmates. If so, take advantage of those opportunities.
Talk to people if you want to study with them and if you do that in each of your classes, it won’t matter if many of your classmates are cutthroat – your study group won’t be.