Duke v. Cornell

<p>Most people consider Ithaca to be a very isolated and boring area--upstate NY shocker right? Most people think the weather there sucks and is in fact worse than Boston. Most people would say that Cornell does not have the same school spirit in regards to sports that Duke has (most schools don't). Most people would state that Ithaca has one of the highest college suicide rates. Most people don't post unbiased information on this board. Finally, Most people will get flamed for posts like mine. </p>

<p>I missed you too Cayuga</p>

<p>OK, sorry to have brought out all this anti-Cornell animus. Jeez, it's one thing to stick up for your own school, but the amount of trashing of other people's schools that goes on here is ridiculous. But I guess it does confirm that my own stereotypes are the generally held stereotypes. Now to figure out a way to determine whether any of it is true. Considering the sources and the spirit in which the comments are offered, I'm dubious. Of course, I have my own stereotypes of Duke, too, but it's not high enough on our list of desirables to inquire.</p>

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Most people would say that Cornell does not have the same school spirit in regards to sports that Duke has (most schools don't).

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<p>Do we need more school spirit like that?</p>

<p>

Thank you for the compliment and yes, it is something to be proud of!! It's amazing that at a school like Duke, where you have incredibly high-quality students who are studying a myriad of different subjects, that the student body is still able to replicate the fan base of a "low-quality state school" by matching their intensity and dedication while cheering in a game. If that's not called being "well-rounded", then I don't know what it is.</p>

<p>

You obviously don't know very much about sports so I'm not going to lecture you. You should go to a hockey game or something and check out the atmosphere. Athletic competition is intense and many fans are VERY hardcore about it. In the end though, it's just a sporting competition and it's all in good fun. The rowdy atmosphere in the stands is part of what makes sports very exciting. What do test scores and grades have to do with being a dedicated fan? Just because I got a 35 on my ACT, I'm supposed to clap my hands softly and cheer for my team and the other team for their "effort" or something? No, thank you. Outside of the sporting arenas, I'm very passionate and committed to my coursework and extracurriculars so I don't see why you feel the need to insult me and my classmates.</p>

<p>

Too bad Duke graduates are too busy changing the world in positive ways through their dedication to service within their communities and around the world and by becoming leaders in law, medicine, engineering and business to really care what you think. I would like to see you lecture these amazing individuals about "class". LOL!</p>

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Fan involvement and interest in the game is extremely important because players feed off the energy of the crowd. If the fans are just chatting with each other and talking about their personal lives, then that doesn't help the team at all. I'm shocked that you would even think this was alright.

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<p>You're serious? It's not "alright" for fans in the stands to catch up with one another? Let's see - have you ever been to a Cubs game at Wrigley? Is it ok if people go there just to enjoy a pleasant spring afternoon in a lovely setting, chit chat with their friends or coworkers, and watch a nice game of baseball? Is it really critical that they take it all that seriously?</p>

<p>
[quote]
It's amazing that at a school like Duke, where you have incredibly high-quality students who are studying a myriad of different subjects, that the student body is still able to replicate the fan base of a "low-quality state school" by matching their intensity and dedication while cheering in a game. If that's not called being "well-rounded", then I don't know what it is.

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</p>

<p>Cheering on a team and having fun is great. Is cursing at the refs if you disagree with their call, giving opposing team fans abuse, and deliberately blocking the view of an opposing team fan who is in a wheelchair your idea of "well-rounded"? </p>

<p>
[quote]
Too bad Duke graduates are too busy changing the world in positive ways through their dedication to service within their communities and around the world and by becoming leaders in law, medicine, engineering and business to really care what you think. I would like to see you lecture these amazing individuals about "class". LOL!

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</p>

<p>Duke graduates are doing amazing things, of course, but no more and no less than any other equivalent top 20-ish or so school. BTW, it's interesting to me that you quoted four "money fields." There are a lot of other ways to change the world than through making money. And I say this as a consultant married to a physician. My NU friends who are now pastors, theater teachers, and SAHM's are just as valuable as those of us who become lawyers / doctors / engineers / businesspeople and made decent money in the process. </p>

<p>
[quote]
In the end though, it's just a sporting competition and it's all in good fun. The rowdy atmosphere in the stands is part of what makes sports very exciting. What do test scores and grades have to do with being a dedicated fan? Just because I got a 35 on my ACT, I'm supposed to clap my hands softly and cheer for my team and the other team for their "effort" or something? No, thank you.

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<p>You don't seem to understand the difference between being a fan / booster for your own school (go team go!) and being the kind of person who has to tear down the opposing team and their fans. If I'm at a Big 10 football game, I'm totally all about "go Wildcats go," fight song and all. I don't need to curse at the opposing team fans. That's not "spirit," that's nastiness.</p>

<p>At Cornell, lessons and lectures are contained within individual schools right? Does that limit the interaction of students between the different schools?</p>

<p>
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my impression is that people tend either to love Ithaca or to hate it, maybe more of the former but a distinct subgroup of the latter. Is that true? My information sources are limited here, mostly faculty gossip networks. But my impressions (or stereotypes?) are, on the plus side, it's an absolutely gorgeous location, easy access to outdoor activities, and a lively, progressive, hip (OK, I'm dating myself, D says it's not longer cool to use words like "hip") college town, big enough to give you lots of shops, bookstores, coffeeshops, decent food for a community its size, etc. Also a fairly diverse but relatively close-knit community.</p>

<p>On the downside: it's kind of far from anything bigger/more interesting, some people find it isolating and/or stifling, it's not so easy to get in & out by air (maybe more an issue for faculty than for students who don't travel as much, but I do want to see D on holidays), and the weather is, in a word, rotten.

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<p>You're pretty accurate about Ithaca. I think you'll find people who have been indoctrinated to a lifestyle consumed by massive malls and / or skyscrapers scoff at the notion that Ithaca could possibly offer anything of value to their lives. </p>

<p>If you're willing to dig a little deeper and see that life does not begin and end with the latest Hollister line, Ithaca offers a really unique exposure to a different mindset that most college grads headed off to big cities will probably never experience again. Ithaca was on the forefront of the organic food movement long before Whole Foods. It created its own monetary system and other very progressive and risky policies that have been emulated around the world. People who say it's in "the middle of nowhere" and leave it at that tend to need the reassurance of mainstream society's flow to validate their sense of self. Ithacans tend to live a step away from that. I can say that because I was one of the Cornellians who engaged with the city, not just the university.</p>

<p>That said, I would personally find it difficult to live in Ithaca long term. It's a great place to retire and go to college, but it can get rather small after a while. There's plenty enough to entertain and enthrall for 4 years, though. For example, it was where I first got interested in independent film and theatre, which usually takes living in a major city to do.</p>

<p>As for the weather - a professor put a map of North America up one class and said, "This is what they don't show you in the viewbook". Every major weather pattern crosses right over Ithaca. I, personally, don't remember the weather being an issue. I do like winter, but I remember co-ed tackle football games in the snow or swimming in the gorges rather than sitting in misery waiting for the clouds to go away. In the spring and fall, we played basketball outside. In the winter, inside. Not a big deal. No one ever mentions the weather when they think back on Cornell, not even sunshine staters. </p>

<p>I do remember Floridians being amazed at the first day of spring and the energy it creates. I do remember my neighbors piling snow from top to bottom against our door after the first real snow fall so that when my roommate from Southern California, who had never seen snow, opened the door he would freak out thinking we were completely snowed in (he almost had a heart attack - a wall of snow staring him in the face).</p>

<p>Based on the number of people I saw crying the day they were leaving after graduating, I think it's safe to say there's something about Ithaca and Cornell that transitions it from being "the middle of nowhere" to the middle of somewhere very meaningful for a lot of people from all different backgrounds.</p>

<p>I think I'm going to cry.</p>

<p>girls.....</p>

<p>It's interesting that you want a school that doesn't have grade deflation. </p>

<p>Little tip: Graduate schools look down at Duke because it is one of the MOST mediocre institutions in terms of grade distribution. Really, the grades are rounded up so much at Duke that graduate schools take that into affect: (example, an A at Duke is really considered a B at another institution).</p>

<p>But hey! That's just my 0.02. I don't know how it is at Cornell.</p>

<p>I was not aware that Graduate schools look down at Duke because of their grade inflation. Where did you hear this?</p>

<p>lol, I highly doubt that graduate schools look down on Duke.</p>

<p>Yeah, thats why Duke has such (<em>low</em>) placement numbers at top Law/Bix/Med schools according to WSJ</p>

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I was not aware that Graduate schools look down at Duke because of their grade inflation.

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Apparently law schools aren't aware of this either. </p>

<p>


</p>

<p>If you're going to troll, at least bother to check your "tip" before posting.</p>

<p>No one's trolling anything. Don't pretend like Duke's grade inflation is not a serious matter. </p>

<p>Proof that it exists:</p>

<p>from a Duke professor himself--> The</a> Chronicle: Daily news: 01/30/2003 -- 07</p>

<p>Other sites:
COG</a> archives -- April 2002 (#1)</p>

<p>and in terms of explaining your numbers, in one specific quote concerning MBA program admissions: </p>

<p>"FACE VALUE. A soon-to-be-published new study shows how deeply embedded grade inflation already is throughout the entire system. A pair of researchers, Don A. Moore, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, and his partner, Samuel Swift, the director of the Tepper Behavioral Research Laboratory, studied grade evaluation by B-school admissions committees after controlling for institution quality using publicly available rankings. </p>

<p>They discovered that admissions staff, even at top B-schools, take grades at face value, thus MBA applicants are more likely to gain admission if they came from an undergraduate institution that inflated grades. Moore deduces that recruiters would have an even more difficult time understanding the difference between an A at a school with a traditional grading curve and one somewhere else."</p>

<p>FROM Grade</a> Inflation: Devaluing B-Schools' Currency</p>

<p>The tide is changing. Graduate programs are starting to understand the grading curve and the way schools are cheating out, take a look here, please: </p>

<p>National</a> CrossTalk -- Vol. 10 / No. 3 -- Summer 2002</p>

<p>Besides, 1) I don't think that ranking is current, and 2) Anyone can go ahead and get as many A's as they want and get into the graduate program of their dreams through grade inflation---it would be interesting to see how many of these students actually succeed in these programs.</p>

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Don't pretend like Duke's grade inflation is not a serious matter.

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As an unbiased poster (I'm not affiliated with either university), I don't think Duke is more grade inflated than other schools of its caliber. 77% of the grades at UNC-Chapel Hill, for example, are A's and B's, and the average GPA in some departments is as high as 3.77 (Romance Languages). No doubt you would consider your university "one of the MOST mediocre institutions in terms of grade distribution."</p>

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It's interesting that you want a school that doesn't have grade deflation.

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That's actually irrelevant for the OP, as neither Cornell nor Duke practices grade deflation.</p>

<p>"That's actually irrelevant for the OP, as neither Cornell nor Duke practices grade deflation."</p>

<p>Well, that's surely obvious. Thank you for pointing that out.</p>

<p>I think the grade inflation at UNC-Chapel Hill is ALSO actually irrevelant to the OP, for it is neither Cornell or Duke. How very clever of you to go through all my other posts! Props to you!</p>

<p>

If you consider trash talking and ref cursing to be "nastiness", then the vast majority of Americans in the country are nasty. Sorry we don't meet your standards of country club etiquette. By the way, going to Wrigley Field for a Cubs game is different than going to a Duke basketball game, an OSU football game or ANY hockey game(professional or collegiate).</p>

<p>Oh please, Duke fans are right in the sad zone between hardcore and casual. They can talk the talk but can't walk the walk. I've lived in places where people freakin' rioted after a bad loss and the proceed to literally beat down, if not kill, the "enemy". Now THAT is a hardcore sports fan. Call me when Duke starts stomping on the heads the ref they curse.</p>

<p>Haha word. Well, what can you do. We're too righteous in the end to do something about it because we're always just gonna think about the consequences and be like "Damn, I'm going to be in so much trouble if I do that".</p>