<p>So basically, this was the first class subjected to the new Greek rules, right? The one where they scan IDs and basically try and crush freshman nightlife? </p>
<p>How was your freshman year? How did you cope with the work load? The weather? How often did you have a chance to go to parties and meet people? How were the parties? Was there much of a club/bar scene? Did you go off campus a lot? Did not having a car affect you? If you came from a big city, did you find Cornell/Ithaca a bit stifling? </p>
<p>Overall, just tell us about your experience :p</p>
<p>Freshman year is great and I can’t believe it’s almost over. I have made a lot of great memories and friends. All of you Class of 2016’ers are in for a great time!</p>
<p>This is the perspective that I get from my daughter who is a freshman. Basically, it was about what she expected and she loves it for the most part. The food is pretty decent and plentiful. The weather has been pretty good for the most part - not a lot of snow this year but it does rain a lot. She has cut the walk from North Campus from about 20 minutes to 10 door to door by sprinting and finding short cuts. Classes are fine for the most part - a lot of work but time management affords some time off for fun. TA’s are accessible but not always “equal” in grading. Taking a lighter load first semester helped make the adjustment better. Students are friendly for the most part. Greek life is a bigger part of campus than she thought. All dorms are fine if you make the best of it and try to get along with who you live with. She has learned to relax more over time and to enjoy herself more because it goes way too fast.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Don’t believe what all those smiling freshmen tell you when they came back for Thanksgiving Break and had only the best things to say about their first two months at college (this doesn’t apply just to Cornell, but everywhere); adjusting is tough at first, often even for the most socially adept people who had no trouble at all doing new things/meeting new people/making new friends in high school</p></li>
<li><p>Do believe the positive things those same freshmen say when they come back for spring break (not summer, because finals suck, and that clouds the judgement of many a frosh). Your second semester will be far better than your first.</p></li>
<li><p>Join a fraternity or sorority. Regardless of the administration’s attempts to try to crack down on Greek life (short of banning all Greek organizations, they’ll never have any real effect), it will make your second semester, not to mention the rest of your college career, infinitely better, both socially (friends, parties) and academically (connections, networking).</p></li>
<li><p>Having said that, get off campus every now and then. Both first and second semester I went away for a weekend or two, and that was probably a big part of the reason why I am yet to get bored/tired of Ithaca. Whether you go to Syracuse, Rochester, Montreal, NYC, Boston, or wherever, and you have a good time visiting friends from home or anything else, when you get back you might even find you missed Ithaca.</p></li>
<li><p>Weather was ****ing fantastic, here’s to hoping that continues.</p></li>
<li><p>Pick a roommate online in advance. Or better yet, get a single. The widely held idea that having a roommate (or two!) freshman year is a necessary rite of passage is an absolute myth. I quite literally only know about one of my friends who became great friends with his roommate. I know far more than one friend who has a roommate horror story.</p></li>
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<p>Most of the kids from my school go to UT Austin and join SAE or KA, which are the two WASPy, rich kid houses with the best parties. The SAE hazing is notorious. I hear that financial hazing is becoming more popular. Basically, if you’re a pledge, you take the tab for everything. Does this sound similar to Cornell’s Greek organization? Also, what are these new rules about campus police cracking down and what not? Is alcohol prohibited in the houses?</p>
<p>While I would definitely say if you can bring a car up, do so, it’s definitely not absolutely essential. There are many other ways to get to those different cities that I mentioned. With Syracuse, there’s a cheap bus that leaves from downtown Ithaca twice a day that most people don’t know about. </p>
<p>For anywhere else you want to go, take advantage of the many campus organizations at Cornell that take trips to places to compete in competitions. Debate, Mock Trial, Model UN, and Model Congress are ones I can think of off the top of my head. All of those organizations have opportunities for members at least a couple times a semester to get off campus for competitions, and most likely have some fun when you’re not competing.</p>
<p>@cornelliot</p>
<p>This “financial hazing” you describe is definitely news to me, and is definitely not something I’ve encountered. I won’t say you don’t spend money during pledging, but those expenses are almost always covered under the umbrella of different fraternity dues. In my opinion, it would be ridiculously stupid for a Greek organization to nickel and dime their pledges to the point that they become disenchanted with the organization as whole, because then they might be less inclined to donate a part of their future earnings to their fraternity. At a school like Cornell, one would assume that the fraternity members are smart enough to understand this concept.</p>
<p>@Cornelliot, it is almost the exact opposite situation at Cornell. I’m not into the greek system but I hear from pledgers that the system here is very nice. Only complaints are the pledging sequence and the crazy stuff that sometimes happen in parties. Once you get in you are pretty much set for life.</p>
<p>Also, with regards to the other part of your question, see my previous post. I’ll say it again, but basically, the Cornell administration has not been, and most likely will never be, successful in changing the “drinking culture,” as they define it, at Cornell.</p>
<p>That being said, there have been significant changes to the way that first semester freshman experience fraternities and their parties. The vast majority of fraternities now have all their parties at their annexes first semester (where older members live) in Collegetown, instead of at the actual houses. All this does is make you walk longer to get drunk, parties still happen though.</p>
<p>Second semester, there’s really not many differences at all with the new rules as I experienced them. Drinking still goes on in houses, however there are fewer open parties and more mixers, which I guess the IFC feels more comfortable with letting happen.</p>