Cornell's Intellectual Environment.

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

Hello!

I’m a transfer student finishing up my 1st year at a small, mid-ranked LAC. I was blessed (or cursed?) with a rather unexpected letter of acceptance from Cornell’s college of arts and sciences. My other option right now is Reed College, to which I was accepted a bit earlier.

My eventual goal is to enter Academia as either a history or philosophy professor, and I’m wondering what the intellectual environment is like at Cornell. I’m aware that there are a few threads on this, but I would love to hear some new voices. Are there students who are genuinely interested in talking about ideas at Cornell? Does the pre-professional aspect of the school dominate the college to the extent that it’s difficult to find students who are generally passionate about the humanities? What is the social scene like for those who are not into frat parties, but are more on the coffee-house side of things?

And, if anyone knows, what opportunities are there for student-faculty interaction on the humanities side of things? Is there room for developing relationships with Professors? How difficult is it to do so?

Thank you in advance for any help!

2

In general, you will find all kinds of people at Cornell, and all types of minds. You will find people interested in politics, ethics or books, but don’t expect an atmosphere that is permeated by highbrow talk in the dining halls or other soirees. There are coffee houses, and lectures and other types of activities, but the Greek life has a very large presence since so many people are involved. There are lots of parties with alcohol, but no one will force you to go. There are live theatre performances, movies on campus or at the mall (by bus), and singing and dance groups abound. I think you have to work at finding non party stuff to do, but you can find it. The good thing about coming as a transfer is that you may get into the West Campus houses. These have grad students on the floor rather than undergrad RAs, and the house profs are supposed to have lecture series programs and other ways to interact. One of the house profs is in the philosophy department if I recall correctly. Years ago, history was a large major so it was not easy to really know the professors, but I think it has become less popular of late. Philosophy is not that large a major either. You can imagine that there are large majors in A&S which makes it hard to connect. Mostly expect that you will need to seek out profs whose specialties are of interest to you, and you may be able to connect. There perhaps are research opportunities which will give you a good idea of what a life in the ivory tower would be like.

I am a fairly active alum and I am on campus several times a year, and I meet with groups of students at home as well from time to time, so take my thoughts with that in mind. One thing that is nice about Cornell is that you can try many different activities to see where you fit. Good luck in your decision.

3

Thank you very much for the informative response, anothermom2. I had absolutely no idea about the West Campus houses. It’s good to know that Cornell has a lot of what I’m seeking - part of why I am attracted to the school in the first place is the tremendous resources that a research university has to offer, that even a liberal arts school as exceptional as Reed cannot truly match (of course, there are other advantages to a LAC). Hopefully if I take the initiative, I will be able to develop just as many relationships with Professors at Cornell as I would in a smaller, more intimate setting.

I would still love to hear other voices, especially from current or past Cornellians!

4

I’m probably not a “new voice”, but FWIW my D2 transferred to CAS from an LAC, and liked it there, She picked it over two good LACs. You should not expect the experience to be identical to an LAC though. It’s just a lot bigger.
She connected with Profs. via a few of her extracurricular involvements, in addition to some of the smaller academic classes. Just as many as at an LAC? Probably not. Though it likely depends on major. Certainly some though. I met two of them myself, at least.

For “the coffee-house side of things” you can go to an actual coffee house-.in Anabel Taylor Hall. But basically you make your own social scene. D2s revolved a good bit around her house, from what I could tell. It seemed to me like in different years different subsets of her friends lived together, and then they spent a lot of time inviting each other over to each other’s apartments , in different combinations. To dinner, or to hang out, or both. Then lots of times they all went out together. To movies, concerts, etc. I’m sure it’s a lot more complicated than that, but that’s what you get from a dad. The lesson to take away from this is: communicate with your father.

They also did some cool stuff together that I remember, eg camping trip,wine trail tour,but those were not routine events.

Cornell may have a lot of pre-professional students, but it is also among the most frequent baccalaureate origins of future Phds. Besides, it is not necessarily the case that a pre-professional student has no interest in “talking about ideas”. They’re pre-professional, not morons (necessarily). Some people do, some don’t. The key is to find the people you like, via pursuing common interests; courses, extracurriculars, lectures, possibly hangouts. possibly even housing.

5

For one view on what can happen, read #40 here, posted by a Cornell alum who was an English major and became a Professor
.http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/10664877#Comment_10664877
I think the thesis advisor fight is a funny story.

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Thanks for the information about the coffeehouse, monydad. I’ll make sure to check it out on my visit!

I’m sorry if I made it seem like pre-professional people were somehow inherently un or anti-intellectual. Some of the most intellectual people that I know are doctors, lawyers, and other people employed in the professions. I just suppose that there is a certain idea of a “Work-hard, play-hard” atmosphere, where pre-professional students work very hard at their academics but generally are uninterested in academic pursuits outside of class. I suppose I am wondering if Cornell mostly falls in line with that stereotype.

7

The kinds of interactions and discussions 14,000 different people prefer to have outside of class varies, nobody can speak for them all. Or even most of them. Nobody knows most of them.

Offhand though, I’m not personally familiar with anyplace that doesn’t “mostly fall in line with that stereotype”.The MIT guys I knew seemed to throw plenty of parties, and apparently did some studying up on Welllesley, not just differential equations.
My D1 was attracted to Oberlin because of the deep intellectual discussions she encountered there, in the dorms, But they weren’t about academics.

As a transfer student you would likely miss those late-night BS sessions in the hallways in the dorms, where people discuss deep thoughts and debate philosophies. That certainly happened at Cornell , when I attended. But it was a freshman dorm thing. And the topics were generally not academics.

Groups of people I knew that socialized together were often not studying in the same fields. They likely had nearly no courses in common, to talk about. One such group I’m thinking of right now, all CAS, two future PhDs, a future MBA and a future lawyer. Though they didn’t all know that, exactly, at the time. Each of them studied in a completely different area. I wouldn’t say that they never talked about academics, but from what I observed mostly they played bridge together.

When I hung out with people who were in my own field, sometimes we did talk about academics. I have to say though, all these years later, those occasions are not the outside of class pursuits I recall most vividly, or most fondly.

But that’s just me. I don’t speak for Cornell as a whole, then, or now.

But one point is, it doesn’t matter whether 14,000 people like to do the same exact thing that you do. I guarantee they all won’t. You just need to find a comptatible small subset and hang mostly with them.

8

Upon reflection I did, however, witness Philosophy students engage in academic discussions outside of class. At that coffee house, actually. I shared a Collegetown hovel with a Philosophy grad student, and occasionally we’d both wind up at that coffeeehouse in between classes. Then one or another of his fellow Philosophy students would show up (another grad student and an undergrad), at which point they would get into it and I was completely ignored. It was actually pretty funny to see them go at it. They were pretty passionate about it.

I couldn’t tell you what proportion of their out of class time was spent on such discussions though. That’s not what he discussed with me.

The other point is, virtually all Cornell students spend a great deal of time on academics outside of class, discussing and otherwise. Because they have a lot of homework and studying to do outside of class. So what we’re really talking about is free time after all that is done. Which, after extracurricular activities, maybe a part-time job, isn’t necessarily all that much time for many people.

9

Cornell’s In the lecture hall environment?