<p>I'm a grassroots Texan, though I'm pretty liberal (from a civil-rights/environmental standpoint), and have a pretty average household income (about $95,000); I just wanted to know if I would really feel comfortable at Cornell (from a social standpoint). I have a friend who went to Yale on a full-ride and feels like an outcast among the upper-crust elitists. I hope Cornell isn't like that, though asking on College Confidential seems...trivial (to complement the regulars).</p>
<p>Any advice/insight would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I'd say that Cornell is the more "Blue Collar" Ivy League school. That is, not every student's parents make over $XXXXXXXXX a year. I am from a single parent household (about $45k a year) and am applying to Cornell ED because I always feel welcomed when I visit the campus, and I feel that among the competition, there is also a comradery. And from my point of view, there are the snobs, but there are also MANY people who are down-to-earth.<br>
If I am wrong, please, someone at the school correct me, but this is what I feel and have witnessed during my experiences at Cornell.</p>
<p>um...trust me...there are ppl here who have big money, big money, "blue-collar" ivy, that is totally ridiculous. You have your rich, ur not so rich, and average, but the majority are in the upper levels near the rich level as in other elite schools.</p>
<p>I'm not doubting that (my cousin's friend married into a billion dollar family through a girl he met at Cornell--her father was the CEO of a very major sneaker company), but what I was saying is that there is still a cohesion and camaraderie, and less of a split among the social classes. If that is wrong, then I admit my mistake, but I didn't feel it while I was there. Thank you for the honesty though bball87.</p>
<p>i've been to other schools and cornell isn't like them. Granted, you do have the super rich, the majority of students aren't exactly WASPs to the extreme. There's a key difference between having money and being a tool about it. I have a nice core group of friends here, and none of them are pretentious at all. Some of them drive BMW's and Jaguar's, but i wouldn't have guessed until it came up in a random conversation. Of all the people i know there's only one kid whose a complete jerk about it. But, nobody likes him. What goes around comes around.</p>
<p>NY parent here. I was so excited when my d was accepted to Cornell. My kid getting into an Ivy League School- what a hoot. But one of my concerns was that she'd be in an atmosphere with a bunch of upper class pretentious snobs. Well- the more I got to know Cornell, the more I love Cornell. The kids are great- you don't know who is rich and who is not. No one seems to dress or act the part of the power elite. And we know, that you guys from Cornell will be apart of the power elite someday but the atmosphere is just like any other regular type of University. Now part of the reason the atmosphere at Cornell differs from the other Ivys may be due to the presence of a lot of "middle class" regular NY kids who are very smart but do take advantage of the reduced tuition at Cornell. My d who is in ILR has had great conversations with Ag kids about different type of farm equipment and sheep. Somehow I don't think they have the same conversations at the Eating Clubs at Princeton. What's Ezra's saying?? - Cornell is elite but not elitist. (or something like that). Matta- I think you'll like Cornell.</p>
<p>Cornell is not as pretentious as some other Ivy's, but there are MANY students from wealthy families here, there's no doubt about that. Students of any background can feel welcome here though, I am certain of that as well.</p>
<p>There are a few situations where the wealth can cause some awkwardness. For example, I went out to dinner a while ago and everyone ordered sushi and pricey drinks, and when the bill came, most people just threw in thirty dollars without thinking much about it. However, one of the people in the group, while far from poor, is certainly not rich and felt uncomfortable paying more than she felt she had spent that night. Similarly, we go out to eat once or twice a week without thinking much about the cost, but it certainly adds up after a while and its always awkward for someone to say that they can't go out because they can't afford it.</p>
<p>I know cornell and princeton both very well, and there is a distinct discrepancy in atmosphere. Cornell has a MUCH more down to earth feeling, even if (hypothetically, no fact or opinion here) the average student's family income were rather high. There are number of students who are blessed with coming from monetarily very comfortable families, but the differences you notice are things like the fact that they might drive a lexus, have two computers in their room, have a parking permit AND bus pass. Most don't flaunt it and are perfectly comfortable being friends with the underlings of society (joke, my sarcasm is meant to make those who aren't cool with it look stupid) The pretentious rich kids definitely look like outliers in the community. It's fine if they have these luxury items, but if they don't display them modestly, they will by default be looked "down" (ironic, no?) upon as somewhat snobby by the general student body. It's more about flagrantly rich people worrying about fitting in than poor people worrying. If you have enough money to act like a normal teenager, you'll be fine.</p>
<p>I am blessed with coming from a modest but financially comfortable family. 1 computer, no car heheh. I don't have to worry about tuition, but I get a reasonable (read: small) amount of spending money outside of my campus debit account and I still find that I have to budget it for off campus events. It's a life skill that's valuable--while my parents could just give me an endless line of credit, they instead are really doing me a service here.</p>
<p>Bascically, money will only help you be welcome with a select few. The average cornellian acts pretty average.</p>