<p>Hi, </p>
<p>I'm currently a junior and I am strongly considering Cornell for graduate school (Electrical Engineering PhD). I was wondering if anyone could give me any advice on how Cornell is for grad students.</p>
<p>I went to Cornell for grad school and thought it was great! </p>
<p>You’ll probably want to check with the professors you plan to work with ahead of time, though. Some feel quite strongly that you shouldn’t get your bachelor’s and PhD degrees at the same school. (That’s because they want to ensure that you’re exposed to a variety of theoretical perspectives and research approaches.)</p>
<p>In such a case, it’s often possible to get your master’s elsewhere and then come back to your undergraduate school for your PhD.</p>
<p>Oh, sorry, I assumed you were currently a junior at Cornell, but now I see that you didn’t actually say that. </p>
<p>Oh well, if you want to apply to grad school at your current institution, the advice still applies :-)</p>
<p>haha, yeah, I actually go to Purdue right now. And thanks for the help, kdmom.
Btw if you don’t mind me asking, what exactly did you like about being a grad student at Cornell? How’s life like for a grad student there (social life, campus, city, weather, professors, diversity,…)?</p>
<p>Also, if you don’t mind me asking, what did you major in when you did your PhD?</p>
<p>My PhD is in a rather obscure field, so it would be a little too revealing to say what it was. But I did have quite a few friends who were engineering grad students. They seemed to be having good experiences overall. (It really depends on the advisor, though, and how supportive he/she is. As an engineering grad student, your educational opportunties and your livlihood are going to stem from your advisor’s research projects. Every once in a while there’s a prof who views his/her grad students as nothing more than cheap labor. You’ll want to talk to current students before signing on with anyone.)</p>
<p>I’m not sure you can generalize the graduate school academic experience across departments, but I will say that I was very pleased with the research facilities and faculty support when I was there. My department really went out of its way to make sure that all their students had financial support – they even had a committee of professors that would provide helpful feedback on students’ fellowship applications, conference submissions, and the like. My department was about half Americans and half foreign students (Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, Australia – the whole gamut) and that wasn’t unusual, so I’d say the grad school was pretty diverse.</p>
<p>The campus is beautiful! There’s at least one dorm for grad students and there’s married student housing, but the vast majority of grad students live off campus. Grad students tend to live either on the outskirts of Collegetown or downtown in the Fall Creek area. The most popular bar for grad students is the Chapter House – popcorn, pool tables, and lots of fun! If you like hiking, there’s lots of that too. There are also plenty of clubs and charitable organizations to get involved with. And of course, much of your time will be spent in the lab and at potluck dinner parties with friends. </p>
<p>The weather consists of your basic four seasons. Some people complain about the winters, but since grad students are there year-round, there’s plenty of weather variety. The worst thing about Cornell if you ask me, is getting in and out of Ithaca. They aren’t kidding when they say it’s “centrally isolated” 
However, you can get a bus to NYC pretty easily if you find yourself going stir-crazy. </p>
<p>Overall, my memories are of a very close-knit, supportive group of lab-mates, helpful professors, wide-ranging academic opportunities, good lab facilities, an excellent library system, renowned invited speakers, and gorgeous surroundings.</p>