<p>i disagree with applejack and others about these not being concerns…</p>
<p>of course they are…but they’re not unconquerable!</p>
<p>I’ll address three of your concerns.</p>
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<p>I’m not sure that a notorious suicide is any worse than one that is kept quiet. I’ll accept CayugaRed2005’s statement that Cornell suicide rate is the same as anywhere else, for whatever reason the ones at Cornell get more publicity.</p>
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<p>all that means is that Harvard and Yale at least have ridiculous grade inflation and it is almost impossible to flunk out of either one. Apparently Cornell holds its admitted students to some sort of standards to graduate.</p>
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<p>I’ve got to agree with the freezing winters. I’ve heard the wind off the lake is really cold.</p>
<p>Applejack–I visited last spring during their break, so i really didnt get a good read on the atmosphere, but i’ll take your word!
Pea—I come from below the mason-Dixon line, so i’m pretty nervous about this northern weather thing lol.</p>
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<p>I’m deathly afraid of heat over 77 degrees Faranheit, so that makes two of us.</p>
<p>Pea - just curious why you say that you agree with the freezing winters concern, but then say you’ve “heard the wind off the lake is really cold”. </p>
<p>I can only assume you haven’t experienced an Ithaca winter. It only gets about 66" of snow a year, which is notably less than the 119" in Syracuse an hour away and pretty darn average for a winter city. So are the temperatures. A southernern will need to adjust, but everybody does. I had friends from California and Florida and they enjoyed it. </p>
<p>If the “lake” to which you are referring is a Great Lake, then yes, they dump a lot of snow on the eastern ends. But Ithaca does not receive that snow as it is really not nearby. If you’re referring to Cayuga, then Cornell’s far enough up the hill that it’s not really an issue.</p>
<p>In the end - no one’s ever told me their college experience was ruined because of winter. In fact, some of the best experiences are had because of the snow - be it sledding down streets on trays or playing football or having snowball fights or weekend ski trips or whatever.</p>
<p>“66” inches of snow…dear god. My school gets canceled for a dusting. I guess i’ll be buying some more winter clothes.</p>
<p>haha - yeah, you’ll have to decide for yourself if you want to adjust to 4 seasons. Consider that billions of people around the world do it just fine. It’ll be different, but then isn’t that what college should be?</p>
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<p>Sounds like a plan. Let us know if we can recommend anything. I’m a big fan of wool socks, overcoats, and polypro long underwater.</p>
<p>And it’s not like snow is restricted to Upstate New York. Washington D.C. had over 70 inches this year.</p>
<p>the reason I originally responded negatively to this thread was because we have a similar discussion going on here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cornell-university/901771-cornell-negative-aspects.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cornell-university/901771-cornell-negative-aspects.html</a>
now that I see you really do care about these things, I recommend you take a look over there for more. :)</p>
<p>edit: never mind, avoiceof, because I see you found your way over there. others reading this thread might be interested in seeing the other one though, so I’ll leave the link.</p>
<p>Is it true that there isn’t a lot of race mingling at the school?</p>
<p>your question suggests whites only wanting to hang out with whites, black with blacks, etc. This isn’t the case, at least in my group of friends.</p>
<p>There are, however, sub groups that tend to stay with like individuals. Hence the term “herding Asians”, and I never really liked this idea of self seggregation. A part of me feels that some program houses tend to worsen issues like this. </p>
<p>And some groups are just plain odd. My GF decided to room with a good friend of hers of a different race, but they became distant after this friend’s other same-race group panned her for becoming “too white wash” from being around my GF. Sad.</p>
<p>Fortunately, these groups are the exception and not the norm.</p>
<p>i have to say, the ONE thing that disturbed me on my visit to Cornell were the crowds of people of one race (notably Asians) walking around together around campus and in Collegetown. very odd and a little scary. gomestar’s anecdote even adds on to that. that kind of thing isn’t normal and suggests a lot of underlying racial issues on campus that aren’t being addressed.
Uh, yeah. The “all-black” house, Ujamma, feels very Jim Crow. Do not want. Plus, aren’t there Greek organizations that are just “for the Asians”? I don’t get it. Why would you choose segregation when so many fought so hard to abolish it? Is it that the racial tension on campus is so bad that these groups NEED to be separate? Either way, it’s pretty bad.</p>
<p>there are groups of Asians who walk around together but whatever I think of it, I don’t find it at all odd or scary. like, I don’t think they’re going to hurt me…
the debate about program houses and the whole concept of self-segregation seems never-ending to me. I guess I am a bit pragmatic about it in the end, do whatever makes people mostly happy and don’t impose your preferences on others.</p>
<p>Obviously they’re not going to hurt you. But images of people of one race separating themselves belong on reels of footage from the 50s, not modern-day college campuses.</p>
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<p>News flash: Every college campus engages in self-segregation, especially colleges with lots of international students or first-generation students. Simply put: college is a challenging time for a lot of students, and they like to surround themselves with people that they are going to feel most comfortable around.</p>
<p>And by far the most self-segregating group on Cornell’s campus are the white fraternity/sorority members. Ujjuma might only house 10 percent of the black student population on campus, but the Greek system houses close to half of all white students.</p>
<p>Just to add to what Cayuga said above-- in the 1950’s there would have been 1.5 percent Asians students rather than today’s 16.5 percent. Also, just because various groups, clubs, classes, program house folks, etc., get together off-and-on does not mean that they don’t spend a substantial portion of their time in other groups with all sorts of people. You see Asians and Caucasians socializing, working, and playing with each other all the time on Cornell’s campus. In my opinion this is much ado about a near non-existent problem.</p>
<p>So maybe it’s just an issue with young people in general. That’s a shame. I don’t see it because, admittedly, most of the people at my high school are white :-</p>
<p>asian and jewish segregation is the most common…</p>
<p>I was just on campus for 4 days and I was very impressed with how people of all races got along well at Cornell. I saw white and black students talking, walking and having fun together. I saw asians with other races too. The campus is very diverse but it looked and seemed like everyone got along well with each other. Everyone was super friendly and helpful. In the town of Ithaca you have a very diverse racial population and again everyone got along together. You had all different races living together, working together and spending time together. I was very impressed with the racial diversity and everyone getting along.</p>
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<p>check out rants and raves on ithaca craigslist XD</p>