Did I really get the true picture of Cornell?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
21

<p>I, for one, like the competitiveness of Cornell. The students are smart but, more importantly, studious. The academics is serious and challenging, pushing you out of your comfort zone. No one's going to be stealing notes or sabatoging experiments but, at the same time, no one's going to go out of their way to help you unless you ask for help. Cornell isn't a warm and cozy place where everyone's holding hands and dancing in a circle. But it is a place where you can feel challenged and receive a great education and receive help if you go out and seek it. </p>

<p>I dunno where people come up w/ the notion that median grades are listed on the transcript. They're not. At least not the "official" transcripts I obtained from the registrar. Heck, the transcripts don't even have your GPA on them. They just have individual letter grades and whether you made the dean's list.</p>

22

<p>Some people thrive in the environment and some find it distasteful....The bottom line is that the competetion exists and before deciding on which school to attend it is nice to hear it all!</p>

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<p>Wow, there are a lot of issues being tossed around here that don't fit into a nice neat package. I was an undergrad there a long time ago and have touched based with more recent students. Also was on campus last spring for a campus visit with my daughter and was able to bring my perceptions up to date and also see the place through her eyes. Cornell IS challenging, and it is hard to get good grades. I think the students who succeed there and are happiest are those who are self-starters. No one will hold your hand - although I think this has improved a bit since I was a student - but if you take initiative, there are a lot of options for help, interesting programs, and diverse opportunities for studying topics that really suit your interests. The students who had chips on their shoulders after being rejected by other Ivies weren't necessarily those who really took advantage of what the university had to offer. Cornell is particularly good at providing opportunities for students with unusual sets of interests and probably has the most diverse set of course offerings of any Ivy.</p>

<p>One of my favorite questions to ask student ambassadors in college information sessions was something along the lines of: "You kids really seem to be busy. How do you organize your time?" Somehow this always seemed to catch them off-guard and result in a good window into what their lives were like. The Cornell answer: "You do have time to do activities like clubs, varsity sports, or music, but you really have to keep up with your classwork, if this is all going to work. But why would you want this any other way if you came to a place like Cornell? The quality of the academics is so good, why wouldn't you want to work hard to take advantage of it?" Compare this to the answer at an extremely selective, small liberal arts college: "I fit my studying in when I have time. I'm really busy here with my activities, but I didn't want to be Phi Beta Kappa anyway." Guess which school my daughter marked off her list.</p>

<p>It was interesting to get her impressions when we were there last spring. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and walked into Uris Library. The place was packed. Yet, when we walked out onto the Arts Quad, there were a couple of girls throwing a softball around, and some other kids careening around on their skateboards. We found dance classes going on in Lincoln Hall and the Straight, there was a chamber music concert scheduled at Barnes Hall, and there was a Greenday concert in Barton Hall that night with a long line of students waiting to get in. Her impressions: "The kids here seem to work really hard, but they also seem to know how to have fun." We saw a lot of relaxed, smiling kids, but I think that may have had something to do with the beautiful, cloudless day with temps in the 70's in April.</p>

<p>In the end, Cornell is what you make of it. Superficially, it isn't a warm and fuzzy place. Strangers didn't typically greet you, and that hasn't changed. (When I was at grad school at Michigan, it was initially a surprise when random strangers passing you on campus would say hello out of the blue. I wasn't used to this.) However, if you make a little effort in classes, in your dorms, in your activities, to get to know your fellow students, you will make some lifelong friends. I learned as much from this stimulating bunch of students as I did from my professors and am forever grateful for the experience.</p>

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<p>I am going to bet that the girl you stayed with is Rachel, and her roommate is Anna.</p>

<p>I am good at guessing...</p>

25

<p>the larson - seems like you just ran into a bunch of disgruntled freshmen who havn't adjusted yet to college life. </p>

<p>collgesifun - i'm a junior. And i still disagree about your comments about competition. For every single assignment for my law class (72 total so far) i've done it with the cooperation of a voluntary group effort. If Cornell was competitive, I wouldn't be doing this since I often have most of the answers right (i just have a knack for interpreting law cases). But we often collaborate in teams to ensure we all do a good job on an assignment. Nobody is stealing anybody's notes or giving out wrong answers on purpose. Is the work hard? You bet, it takes alot of time to research and read cases. The only competition is between myself and the current assignment. Please dont confuse 'competitive' with 'difficult.' </p>

<p>going along with what Norcalguy said, nobody is going to just go out and shout out all of the answers, but if you ask somebody for help, 99% of the time they will be happy to help you. </p>

<p>...i have to run to class, but there's still alot i wanna say in this thread, hold tight!...</p>

26

<p>Like any large school, you will find students who are disgruntled as well as extremely happy. My son, an engineering freshman, is very very happy there. He participates in many activities that he loves, he is a conscientious student, and does well academically. He has found a nice balance between work and fun so that he can enjoy all that the school has to offer and still do well academically. And he hasn't found any of the cutthroat competition that repeatedly comes up in discussions about Cornell. He has helped other students and others have helped him. </p>

<p>I think there probably is a population of students who attend Cornell because they didn't get into HYP, and these students are more likely to be unhappy. But there is a whole population of kids who love the school, enjoy all of the things it has to offer (much to much to enunerate), and wouldn't change their undergraduate experience for anything. </p>

<p>Granted, it is cold -- although I don't think it snows as much as Buffalo and Syracuse-- but I don't see any students rejecting Harvard just because it is very cold and snowy there. Besides, at Cornell, you can learn how to snowboard or ski for your PE class, so snow will be something to celebrate rather than dread. </p>

<p>It is a large school, with kids with many diverse interests and an amazing variety of activities and groups. So any student can find a compatible group and the right niche there.</p>

27

<p>at the risk of making some dangerous generalizations...</p>

<p>If you are considering Cornell for Pre-Med or Engineering than you may need to worry about the academics being over-challenging. These programs are very rigorous but I would maintain are well worth the effort. Pre-med and engineering are competitive at any highly selective school...</p>

<p>As for all other programs - Arts & Sciences, ILR, Hotel, Human Ecology, Ag & Life Sciences - there is perhaps a healthier balance between academics and "other" activities. Nevertheless all of these programs are top notch and purposefully challenging. Architects and Fine Arts students spend a lot of time on projects, but I'd maintain they generally do it with a smile on their face, becuase they're passionate about what they do....come to think about it, so do the English majors, History majors, etc...</p>

<p>There are plenty of pre-meds and engineers having fun on the weekends as well...</p>

<p>Do people reject MIT and Cal Tech because they're too hard...seems like a contradiction...</p>

<p>Like I said before, if you are accepted you are plenty smart and motivated to do the work...this is not summer camp...after all summer camp doesn't cost 40k either...LOL</p>

28

<p>I visited cornell during the Orientation Week and everyone was happy as hell. Of course that was Orientation Week and the weather was bright and sunny, but it's just interesting to note such a change in impression from your (the OP's) visit and mine.</p>

29

<p>the weather thing is way overblown...if you go to any school in New England - Harvard, Brown, MIT, Yale...you get the same weather...use weather.com to check out avg termperatures and you'll see what I mean...</p>

<p>One issue that is real is the campus size...Cornell is big...one is often spending 20 minutes or so walking from one place to another...if the weather is nice, this is a delightful experience...if the weather is nasty, then you NOTICE the weather...</p>

<p>as people on this form have already suggested, make sure you get some proper shoes and a good coat before heading off to Ithaca...with the proper gear the weather is NO PROBLEM!</p>

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<p>"Do people reject MIT and Cal Tech because they're too hard...seems like a contradiction..."</p>

<p>I agree w Wharf Rat. I never understood this argument or reputation that Cornell is too hard academically. I hear it over and over again. If you went to Harvard, Princeton, MIT, etc. (regardless of what grade you get -- which is a different story) the actual work would not be easier, trust me. For academics and research Cornell's reputation is high. It's like the one thing the USNews report gets right (the peer evaluation score). This is a GOOD thing, not a bad thing. </p>

<p>My impression is that Cornell gets this reputation because it is hard for some of the kids who go there. (They liked to talk about it when I was there, too, for some reason.) It is not harder than the other top schools intrinisically. </p>

<p>Cornell is like Berkeley in that there is an odd disconnect between the research reputation and rigor of the faculty and the quality of the students (as measured by mean SATs). It probably has to do with the size of the undergrad class. Huge class size reduces the prestige somewhat, and so the prestige/work ratio is lower than at other top schools. But believe me, the work part is roughly the same, not harder. But being an optimist for a second: this is great. It means that you can matriculate in one the most rigorous academic programs on the planet even if your parents didn't donate a library to Harvard or you don't have 99 %ile SATs. If you didn't get into the "prestige whore" schools (If you did then by all means go there, seriously.), then Cornell and Berkeley are opportunities, not obstacles to be avoided. In fact this very idea is in the Cornell motto, and was intended by its founder. ("..any person... any study..") Cornell was historically kind of a rebel school to get away from the elite European upper-class college tradition of studying dead greek poets.</p>

<p>As for the grading system, I don't really feel that sorry for people who are that worried about grades. Grad schools and professional schools know about Cornell's rigor. They also understand about the grading.</p>

31

<p>OK, I went to Cornell for grad school as did my husband. My daughter is a junior at Cornell and my son will be a freshman there next year.</p>

<p>I found Cornell infinitely warmer, both temperature-wise and socially, than my undergraduate college, which was a small school in the Upper Midwest. East Coasters are WAY, WAY more outgoing than Midwestern Scandinavians. I recall being almost frightened at first because of how friendly people were!</p>

<p>I asked my daughter if she has run into people who are bitter that they didn't get into Harvard or such. She has told me no. A lot of her friends applied ED to Cornell.</p>

<p>The coursework at Cornell is challenging, and as a mom, I'm glad for that. The only caveat I have is for pre-meds. If you want to be a family doc or other kind of normal practitioner (as opposed to a medical researcher), you could save yourself a lot of difficulty by enrolling in a smaller, less competitive liberal arts college that has good med school acceptance. My D had pre-med thoughts when she entered Cornell, but the beginning Chem. course was like nothing she had ever experienced. And Cornell engineering, as I understand it, requires near-genius level intelligence.</p>

<p>The cloudiness is a factor for some. </p>

<p>There are tons of people to continue meeting during your four years at Cornell, and SO many activities to join.</p>

<p>Hope this helps. In the end, if your gut says no, believe it and enroll somewhere where you feel more comfortable.</p>

32

<p>does majoring in English involve a lot of competition? Obviously it requires a good amount of work, but does anyone know how rigorous it is? I love to learn and im up to work but im not up for pulling all nighters and going crazy. I want to have funnn! This thread is scaring me.</p>

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<p>I'm in English 364 (full of English majors). Seems alright in terms of the stress-level. Lots of reading but only 3 papers so far.</p>

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<p>I'm an English major but only a freshman, so I haven't taken that many English courses yet; but I can say that I'm definitely not swamped with work. About half of my friends are Engineers, and the other half are in CAS but are majoring in various sciences, and they all FREQUENTLY make fun of me for never having work to do (an exaggeration, of course; there is work, and there's lots of reading). </p>

<p>As far as competitiveness goes, no, I don't think there's much. English majors don't tend to be cutthroat...just pretentious sometimes, which can be annoying, but you know...</p>

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<p>yikes pretentious</p>

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<p>ceramo, what classes are u taking this semester?</p>

37

<p>most people I know really love Cornell...I think your impression was inaccurate.</p>

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<p>Ya well I agree with the thing about pre-med...if you go to a top school with other top pre-med students then there will be competativeness because everyone wants to get into the best med-schools. As for the cold...I come from Connecticut, so bring it on lol(and I LOVE skiing, and usually have to drive hours and hours to get to a mountain). And hey, when we go to Cornell we will bring the smile back by popular demand if its lacking anywhere! lol. You got me both nervous and excited about my visit to Cornell hah</p>

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<p>You would hear fewer complaints about the competitiveness at MIT or Caltech from students there because the majority of the students were well aware of the kind of environment they were getting into, and they were ready for it. At Cornell, I would suspect that some (albeit probably only a small portion) of the students were not ready and not willing to work as hard.</p>

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<p>goldtx...I disagree with you...I think most of the kids that get in to Cornell are aware (especially if they have read anything!) that Cornell is a pressure cooker!</p>