<p>~monydad: Oh. I think that trend applies for all colleges nowadays, though. The colleges are certainly not getting bigger while the number of applicants has skyrocketed (supply-demand relationship?).</p>
<p>~faustarp: I can’t explain it too well, but I’ve never had a single night of sound sleep on any of my stays at the countryside. I don’t recall ever sleeping more than 4 hours a night when I’m not in the city.</p>
<p>What are the dorms like? Do you always get a roommate?</p>
<p>hmmm. if you will truly have trouble outside a major metropolitan area (and you don’t think you’d adapt after a while) you probably shouldn’t try it. I think you might find that after a few weeks you get used to the more open spaces.</p>
<p>dorms: all freshman live together on north campus. you do NOT always get a roommate. there are many singles in the freshman dorms, and it’s very likely that if you request one you’ll get it. you won’t be some lonely weird person, either (which is what some of my HS friends at other schools imagined) because there will be lots of people living near you in the same type of room.</p>
<p>The trend is there, but it does not apply equally to all colleges. Some schools have materally changed their ordinal relative ranking among colleges with respect to selectivity, between then and now. Cornell’s ordinal ranking is about the same as before. The ordinal selectivity rankings of Wash U and NYU have changed significantly.</p>
<p>So, for example these schools may have been 91st & 92nd in selectivity in 1971 but were # 18 & #34 in 2003, based on some numbers I put together at the time.</p>
<p>Would you guys recommend getting a roommate or getting a single?</p>
<p>NYU do it!</p>
<p>It is such a personal reaction. You really have to go and visit.</p>
<p>We are NYers…I was raised in Bklyn, husband on Long Island. Husband has worked in Manhattan all his adult life and I did for many years. D’s raised on LI.</p>
<p>Our reaction to Ithaca…get us out of here! D didn’t even apply even though guidance counselor felt she had a real shot. Just too, too remote. To the point that it made us feel anxious. (I don’t get that feeling on Long Island at all.)</p>
<p>D is thrilled to be at NYU. Loves the school, her program and most of all living downtown. But obviously that is just our reaction. Many people love it! But then again we may be buying an apt in NYC soon. (Our dream.)</p>
<p>Cornell is a good enough school that it is worth the trip to see your own reaction.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
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<p>The birds are going to come and peck your eyes out!</p>
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<p>It’s not so much about how many people live in the immediate vicinity–but rather how far you must travel to get to a city of repute (New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Montreal, etc.). From Ithica, it’s pretty far…</p>
<p>people be jumping off bridges</p>
<p>or Empire State buildings (Yale)</p>
<p>or housing/libraries (NYU multiple times this year)</p>
<p>I’ve lived in NYC my whole life…and yes, I do miss the big city sometimes, but I don’t regret coming to Cornell and giving Ithaca a chance. I am constantly amazed by the beauty of the campus…my friends are always jealous when I tell them there’s a waterfall right by my dorm! I’d definitely suggest doing an overnight visit and exploring before you settle for NYU just because you’re not used to a non-city setting. </p>
<p>About roommates…I highly suggest requesting a single. You’ll have all the privacy you want and won’t have to share your space with anyone else, but all you have to do to make friends is simply leave your room. People like to say that you should have a roommate because it’s easier to make friends, but I never really understood the logic in that. Most people I knew with roommates this year were determined to get singles for next year.</p>
<p>How do you deal with homesickness? (especially those who went to Cornell from a large city)</p>
<p>I did not have home sickness. I rarely came home, by choice, because I preferred ithaca.</p>
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<p>How do you define a large city? I come from an area with over a million people, and there’s over six million people within an hour’s drive, and you couldn’t get me back to Ithaca quick enough. I stayed after exams, before exams, over the summers, during winter break, and after I graduated.</p>
<p>If you are looking for a dynamic urban environment every day, Ithaca is obviously not going to offer that. But very few schools will.</p>
<p>I said ‘large cities’ because it signifies a change of environment similar to mine if I do enroll in Cornell. But basically, the core question is how to deal with homesickness when you’re far from home.</p>
<p>you adapt and adjust. 3,500 other freshmen will be doing it too.</p>
<p>Is this a joke? I got into stern and I am most definitely not going</p>