<p>Cornnell is such a large school both student and land wise so i was wondering hows the student community like. is it like walking around the streets of a local state school or do you know a lot of people by face by the end of your 2nd year?</p>
<p>also how do you get around to ithica and around campus wiothout a car? is a car a MUST have?</p>
<p>Even after a couple years, probably about 95% of the faces you'll see while walking around campus will be unrecognizable.</p>
<p>As a whole, Cornell doesn't seem (to me) to have a sense of real community. We get emails a few times a semester reminding us to enroll in courses and prompting us about other stuff, and that's basically it as far as the administration's contact with us. (That "Welcome to the Cornell Family" sign they hang on the Balch arch every year during Orientation is as warm and fuzzy as the administration ever really gets). As far as a sense of community among students goes... it's a matter of personal perspective. A lot of it depends on you- if you get involved in a few clubs, you'll obviously feel like you're a more important part of the university. Most students are involved in at least one activity. But there are a huge number of students. It never really stops feeling huge, at least for me.</p>
<p>I went to a pretty small high school and just wanted room to breathe when I went to college. I'm involved in a couple clubs, but for the most part I love the sense of independence and autonomy I get from being a small part of something so huge. It's very freeing. But then again, that's just me. You can definitely feel part of a large community here if you want to. There's a fair amount of school spirit.</p>
<p>And no, a car is not a must have, thanks to the great TCAT bus system.</p>
<p>I feel like there is a large sense of community and pride at Cornell. Every goes through the same thing freshman year and most people know about all the traditions and places around campus.</p>
<p>What lianri says seems very reasonable. However, I've heard that it also depends which college you're in. There's probably not much anyone can do about the entire school-wide population having a communal bond, but I've heard Hotel and ILR are pretty close knit.</p>
<p>I'm in ILR and definitely feel the sense of community and recognize many many people walking around Ives.</p>
<p>the campus isnt very large if you venture out onto it. the same people sit at the same seat in olin every day, the same people order large sugar free vanilla lattes with skim milk at olin cafe at 7PM, the same people go out to frat parties on thursday nights (a much more exclusive group than the lame fri/sat crowd), and the same people are doing group therapy at dunbars on wednesday, or trivia at dinos or ruloffs on sunday. im pretty sure there hasnt been a time save the beginning of freshmen year where ive been able to walk across campus without seeing at least one person i know. and people know all about the different social circles (mainly talking greek but thats a big part of the campus) through hearsay, mutual friends, facebook stalking. but in contrast you can easily meet a new person every day and will definately see many fresh faces, but thats what makes cornell so good i think in that it can feel both small and huge at the same time.</p>
<p>here you go:</p>
<p>oh</a> no she didn’t » Collegetown Love in the Time of… Iciness.</p>