<p>does cornell's college of arts and sciences have intellectual students ? do they generally discuss academics outside of class ?</p>
<p>Some yes. Some no. Depends on what crowd you hang out with.</p>
<p>Well, obviously it depends on who i hang out out with. What do YOU feel ?</p>
<p>Short answer: no.</p>
<p>Long answer: Like in any college, there are groups of people that constantly talk about nothing but the latest homework assignment, or how easy/difficult that last test was, and there are those who just want to go out and party all night three days a week. Now, if you took just the Engineers, Architects, and certain majors in CAS, it would lean towards the former group of people. However, taking into consideration all seven of Cornell’s colleges, some of which don’t have as rigorous coursework, the general population leans more towards the second group I described.</p>
<p>i get what you mean but why cant you have both ? when i say intellectual I dont mean geeks/nerds i’m talking about people who you can have intersting conversations/discussions with about politics/film/art etc. I like to party but I want to go to a place which has a stimulating student body with whom one can have thought provoking conversations. </p>
<p>so, is cornell such a school ?</p>
<p>“people who you can have intersting conversations/discussions with about politics/film/art etc.”</p>
<p>“a place which has a stimulating student body with whom one can have thought provoking conversations”</p>
<p>Any top 50 college is such a school. So the answer is yes.</p>
<p>^ * raises eyebrows *</p>
<p>On the other hand, one of my former friends who originally wanted to go to a school like Columbia or UChicago that is more renowned for its intellectual vitality, but ended up at Cornell, is just plain miserable and disenchanted here. So if you’re one of those people, I suggest you think twice, because all BS aside, most people here are very career motivated.</p>
<p>I’ve had plenty of spontaneous intellectual conversations ranging from Art History to the Economics of third world countries.</p>
<p>The difference between Cornell and Columbia, is that here, we don’t start those conversations unprovoked, simply to prove to everyone how intellectual we are.
Because honestly, anyone who doesn’t know you and begins talking about Proust is only looking for an ego boost.</p>
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<p>But think of it in terms of absolute number and not percentages – Cornell has twice the number of students than Columbia or Chicago. So in absolute numbers, I would say that they are about the same – about 3,000 or so ‘intellectual’ students at each school.</p>
<p>If you hang out at Risley, Stellas, Temple of Zeus, or Telluride, Cornell is very intellectual. If you hang out at Trillium and Fiji, Cornell is not.</p>
<p>I also agree with Chendrix – Cornellians are much less likely to wear our academic credentials on our sleeve. Cornell isn’t Swarthmore.</p>
<p>like Chendrix I have had some great conversations here. people here tend to be relatively informed, at least compared to people I went to high school with, so they don’t immediately start diverting the topic the second it moves toward something requiring a bit of thought. I haven’t really felt like most people are trying to show off either. people also don’t seem to think they know everything about everything, they realize their knowledge is a bit specialized, because the school has so many different areas of study. </p>
<p>and like CayugaRed mentioned…just to go Trillium if you want to hear some inane conversation. (last time I was there I heard people talking about college confidential, interestingly enough…)</p>
<p>My intellectual side really emerged at Cornell in part because of in-class analytical discussions and many late night discussions with friends or going to see indie movies, local theater, and guest speakers together, then discussing the larger philosophical impact of the events afterwards.</p>
<p>Problem with asking anything about what Cornell students are like is that you will never get a consistent answer because there really is no consistent answer. I disagree with the above poster that it breaks down by which college one attends (some of the most intellectual people I knew were in CALS and many of the least were in CAS and Engineering). But, that’s just my experience. Rest assured that if you want to be an intellectual with a balanced life or a nerd immersed in books 24-7 UChicago-style, it is most certainly there for you.</p>
<p>i’m a freshman and i’ve had some very interesting discussions ranging from philosophy of the brain to discussing issues raised in different books in addition to doing physics problems for fun with friends. I don’t think it’s considered intellectual just to discuss hw assignments and tests; that’s kind of boring and unoriginal. So yes, it’s intellectual if you want it to be.
If you know it depends on whom you hang out with, then why ask? You asked for he/she to discuss how intellectual it is, but do you know their disposition enough to trust the response? It’s kind of pointless to ask considering it’s all relative. If you feel that the caliber of students who go to cornell are more likely to spark intellectual conversations, then there’s your answer.</p>
<p>so are you saying cornell isn’t as snobby as other schools?</p>
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<p>Relative to what? Princeton or Duke? Yes. Carleton or Penn State? Probably not.</p>
<p>yea relative to ivy league schools and schools like georgetown duke etc;</p>
<p>The point is: basically every Cornell student has the ability to have an intellectual conversation, and does, at least sometimes. Don’t worry about this being a problem: if you want to, you won’t have trouble, and if you don’t want to, people like other stuff too.</p>
<p>I think Cornell is a bit different as there are many intellectuals who just simply prefer to do other things than talk about intellectual topics. For instance, I have friends who have 4.0s and they barely ever talk about intellectual topics. Yet, I know a bunch of people with lower grades that always do. Of course there are combination of both and it’s overall a big mix.</p>
<p>basically, we’re less snobby than the rest of the ivies</p>
<p>i know i posted a question in response to this topic, but is it really possible to answer questions like this? i mean how can you get a feel for something like this in a school as big as cornell?i just don’t see how colleges can have different personalities if they’re all made up of thousands of very different people. can the type of kid more likely to go to cornell really be different than a dartmouth student or a Penn student?</p>