Cornell's Diversity Hosting Weekend

<p>What's the diversity hosting weekend? I got in but didn't get an email inviting me to this.</p>

<p>you get split up by college/major at DHW...</p>

<p>i think maybe only 1/2 of the people i met at DHW actually enrolled in the fall...</p>

<p>I got an e-mail for an invite but can’t go!!! I’m a tad upset (I’m happy I got in, But I was really hoping to visit and this looks like it may be my only chance that’s within budget). I have a trip somewhere that I’ll be coming back from on the 17th.</p>

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<p>you cant cut that trip short? this will really be very helpful. esp if you’re having 2nd doubts about cornell…</p>

<p>I really can’t, tickets are paid for and its with my school. I don’t really have too many doubts, I was just hoping to actually visit prior to enrolling/ attending.</p>

<p>Much thanks for the reply, btw.</p>

<p>you’re welcome mingus…what major/school did you get accepted into?</p>

<p>The College of Engineering, Hopefully majoring in Mechanical Engineering (Maybe a focus in Aerospace).</p>

<p>heyy im going! so are they only giving us housing for one night? even though the program is for two nights?</p>

<p>They definitely provide two nights of hosting.</p>

<p>how does someone get invited to DHW or even get an invitation?</p>

<p>You get lucky enough to be selected. You must be a URM and you are unofficially accepted to Cornell if you get invited.</p>

<p>Anybody htere who has actually GONE to diversity weekend and can talk about what happens there? (more specifically things that are not on the schedlue…in dorms after schedule is done for the day, etc.)</p>

<p>I did the one in the Fall and it was pretty good!</p>

<p>After the crappy bus ride (I’m from New Jersey) I was picked up and brought to Hollister Hall in the Engineering Quad. There was a reception, I saw a couple friends I had made at the MIT Junior Fly-In of Spring 2009. We talked, got to know eachother, had some ice breakers, got to meet the hosts, and then went back to the reception area in Hollister for dinner with our hosts.</p>

<p>FOR THE RECORD: I am going to call myself and the rest of us who spent the weekend what they called us : HOSTEES. </p>

<p>We then walked with our hosts to one of the student centers in the middle of north campus to pick up our luggage. Both my host and his roommate were hosts, as were all their friends that lived by the townhouses (All Freshman), so I was with a buddy of mine in my host’s room. After showering and stuff, we were told by our hosts “I hope you’re the party type”. >:D</p>

<p>So we went to one of their friends’ townhouses where they were getting a birthday party together for a friend. The living room was full of people playing Super Smash Bros (All my Host’s friends) and all of these said friends had Hostees. </p>

<p>Yes, there were an even amount of guys and girls, and female Cornellians hosted females, male Cornellians hosted males, etc.</p>

<p>The people were extremely friendly, and let me and the other Hostees (by now we mostly knew eachother and were pals) play WII. </p>

<p>Then the birthday guy came in and the lights went out as a cake was brought out from the kitchen. He was surprised as all his buds (+Hostees+me) sang him happy birthday. The cake was HUGE and awesomely done, with twizzlers and all kinds of crazy stuff. There were at least 20 people packed into the single townhouse, half of them Cornellians, half of them Hostees. And there was a lot of cake left over lol.</p>

<p>And this was my experience of the friendship between Cornellians. These were ALL FRESHMEN! It was OCTOBER! Some met over the summer session (which they recommended!) but many others just met during the regular school year. I asked a lot of them wether they knew eachother before attending Cornell, and as far as I remember they did not. </p>

<p>After that, we all went for a walk to find a frat party that wasn’t yet full (it was between 9 and 11 ish, ). It was cold, but my polo and zip up sweater kept me just fine. </p>

<p>We migrated to Collegetown, where Ithaca was everything but a boring town in the middle of nowhere. </p>

<p>Let me leave it at this: the parties in Collegetown were all full. So we settled for the Rockledge Fraternity back on campus. </p>

<p>It was a great night lol. </p>

<p>The following morning we (host, his roommate, their friends, and ALLL of their Hostees) went to Appel dining hall to eat some breakfast. The dairy products at Cornell are AWESOME! The night before, at Hollister, after dinner, we all had Cornell Ice cream which is probably the best Ice Cream IVE EVER HAD!</p>

<p>The hosts dropped us off at Hollister and went off to do their thing. </p>

<p>Anyway, that day we went on tours of the labs and Engineering Quad in general, then the campus in general. I visited the Computer Vision research team, and was seriously impressed. They were working on how to get an AI to understand what it sees. For example, if a car crashes, an android should know it’s distress based on the jagged edges, cried for help, sudden, violent change in the motion of a massive object, etc.
So far, they have a fully functional system to detect foreground objects and background objects from images quickly, and possibly even from video. </p>

<p>Flippin sweet =]. Cornell also is in the 100MPG vehicle competition, the Unmanned GPS vehicle competition, and many other things robotics-related.</p>

<p>Based on this technology, one of the researchers (an undergrad) put together a plugin for Photoshop, which allows a user to select either the background only or the foreground only, by marking the foreground and background with different colors. </p>

<p>The girl leading us along our tour was one of my host’s friends. I partied with her just the night before. lulz =].</p>

<p>We had lunch with some Professors. My friends happened to all be into Biomed E, and the professor of Mechanical Engineering was at a table that was full, so I stuck around and had lunch with the Professor of Biomed. He was researching something about helping some blind people see by working on mice who had the same condition and genetics and alleles and testing protein after protein on mice and idk. </p>

<p>I like robots and airplanes and cars and computers. I’ll leave the disease-fighting to the Bio pros =]</p>

<p>I forgot what else we did that day…</p>

<p>But at night, my host was working at Appel as a cook/food handler/etc (HE GETS FREE MEALS! =D He says he loves his job very much), his friends went to the movies to see…something. (There’s a theater on campus, close to Collegetown).</p>

<p>So the hostees took matters into their own hands =] And we walked around campus, looking for parties.
Security was tight, and we all had to have Cornell IDs. I forgot how we eventually got in, but we did and it was fun. </p>

<p>And the next morning we had a bite at Appel, I lugged my suitcase all the way back to the Engineering Quad, and was driven to the bus station, where I would be driven home. </p>

<p>The next day, I got a 45 on my AP Calculus exam on differentiation. I wonder why ;).</p>

<p>Oh Crusader, how you make me wish I was a URM instead of an ORM T_T</p>

<p>Ah you’ll get to hav ur fun soon enough =]</p>

<p>Oh, and they had this hosting thing too at the same time with Woman Engineers. I guess female engineers are an URM.</p>

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Sounds like an awesome party.</p>

<p>I know asians don’t count as URM but would they be invited to DWH?</p>

<p>Sarcasm? if so:
They were SETTING UP for their friend’s bday. We celebrated it n then peaced, went to Collegetown. </p>

<p>If not:
Yeah, it was the first time I played Brawl, It was pretty fun. Im more of an XBOX/PC guy</p>

<p>has anyone received their itineraries yet? I’m anxious to get mine! (Flying in from Cali)</p>

<p>Nope, not yet. I’m from Cali too! Every time I check my email I expect my itinerary to be there and falter when it’s not, I can not wait anymore!</p>