ILR Questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

<p>“The School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) will provide you with a strong, liberal arts-based education built on a foundation of study in economics, sociology, psychology, history, law, and statistics.”</p>

<li><p>What kind of history is studied in ILR?</p></li>
<li><p>What were ILR students interested in during high school? Subjects, ECs, etc.</p></li>
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<p>Basically I’m trying to find out if ILR is right for me. I’m planning a visit soon, but I want to know if the school is similar in line with my interests.</p>

2

<p>1) The core 'history' class for ILR is Labor History - but it's so much more than just the history of organized labor and unions. My professor tied in so much political, economic, and social history that it was much broader than the title implies. Several other courses delve into more specific outlets of history; I would browse the course catalog to get a better idea (<a href="http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/studentservices/curriculum/courses.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/studentservices/curriculum/courses.html&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p>

<p>2) The best question I was ever asked by my suitemate was "How did you know that you wanted to study labor in HS? Seems like such a weird interest to have at 17." ILR is much more than labor - it really is a medley of different subjects, and can take you to so many fields. I simply like the versatility of the major; nothing I did in HS could accurately pinpoint me as someone destined to go to the ILR school.</p>

<p>I'm sure the many, many ILRies on CC can also contribute to this.</p>

3

<p>Yeah I agree with everything said above by ceruleanyankee. The history taught in ILR is really diverse. Everyone takes "US Labor History" where you learn about the history of labor unions and Samuel Gompers But theres a lot of other history courses as well, for instance I took "The Political and Economic History of Mexico" this past semester which was great. Also, I think a wide range of subjects from high school would help you get into ILR.</p>

4

<p>Ok, so another question: Before you couldn't apply to two schools in Cornell, so why did you apply to ILR? </p>

<p>ILR is a diverse major, yah, but so are a lot of majors.</p>

5

<p>Basically - It's a good way to do pre-law, pre-government, or pre-business without going in to the arts school, (nice for NYS and people who would be on the borderline for arts, which is normally harder to get into)</p>

6

<p>I took Bc calc and a load of science and business courses, almost failed chem though (hahaha).</p>

7

<p>bump 10 char</p>

8

<p>thank goodness i'm taking labor history (cb100) right now over the summer, so when i enter cornell as a freshmen in august that requirement will be out of the way.</p>

9

<p>but you wont be with all of your friends in the same class then</p>

10

<p>They'll still be in the same OB class. Labor history isn't a big deal anyway.</p>

11

<p>yeah, you can branch out into different types of history. I took the Political Economy of Mexico and "Unfree" Labor: Slaves, Servants and Wives last semester. </p>

<ol>
<li>I'd probably be an English major if ILR weren't so cheap for New Yorkers (I was interested in English in high school)...and I want to be a lawyer, so ILR makes sense. There's also a great deal of reading/writing in ILR.</li>
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