Is it really miserable at Cornell?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

<p>Hi Current Cornelians,</p>

<p>I am a current rising senior in Honolulu, Hawaii. I have lived there all my life, and have never even seen snow... As you know, weather and city life is a huge concern for me. So questions I have are: 1) What was your overall social life at Cornell? 2) Was there always enough to do on campus? 3) Did you feel bogged down by snow and coldness?</p>

2

<p>In short:
1.) Great.
2.) Nearly.
3.) No.</p>

<p>1.) There’s something for everyone at Cornell. My friends and I enjoy hanging out in our dorm rooms/apartments or grabbing a drink from the Green Dragon and working on the crossword puzzles in the Cornell Daily Sun at night if we don’t have a lot of work to do. None of us really parties, but if that’s your scene, then you will be in good company, too. Cornell is such a big school that it’s pretty easy to find people with similar interests. However, with most majors at Cornell, you’ll probably be doing a lot of studying/projects, so it’s not all fun and games. You <em>probably</em> won’t be able to go to parties every weekend (although I’ve seen it done) and may even see a few sunrises as you struggle to meet some deadlines. </p>

<p>2.) Cornell has a lot of things to do. There are over 900 student clubs/organizations on campus and Cornell has a lot of concerts/events on the weekends, many of which are free and a lot of fun. There are also frat/collegetown parties, too. Ithaca has a small mall and movie theater and the buses run pretty late, so it isn’t difficult to go there if you don’t have a car. Also, there are buses that go to NYC several times a day for around $55 each way, so a weekend trip to the city is definitely doable (sometimes, you could even go for cheaper than that–I know the west campus house system sponsors several trips to NYC every year for as little as $10 round trip).</p>

<p>3.) I’m from Mississippi, so I’m not really used to a lot of cold weather either, but you learn to live with it, and you definitely learn to appreciate the sun on the days when there is nice weather!!</p>

3

<p>I’m a rising sophomore from Florida, so I understand where you’re coming from! After a while, the constant cold and snow got semi-annoying, but wasn’t nearly bad enough for me to resent attending Cornell. My social life is pretty active, and I often traveled from North Campus all the way to Collegetown (in the freezing cold) for events. It was worth it every time.</p>

<p>I hope the weather and rural setting of Cornell don’t deter you from applying/attending. Cornell is a fantastic school!</p>

4

<p>To be completely honest…

  1. Awesome. There’s so many students from a variety of different backgrounds and with many different interests it’s hard NOT to find a group of people that you just click with. And once you do find that group (or groups), your social life is whatever you guys decide to make of it. Greek life is big, and, in my opinion, a good way to integrate into the social scene but you can definitely still have fun while not going Greek.
  2. Too many! From my experience I felt like there was always something going on and at times it was hard to keep myself rooted in a library studying for exams! And like people mentioned before me, there are countless clubs that you can join and it’s hard to refrain from joining too many. They take up a lot of time!
  3. Yes. Sorry to say but I was never a big winter person. And I’m not even from a warm state. The weather absolutely stinks but I wouldn’t dream of going anywhere else but Cornell. It’s something you learn to deal with, and just makes you appreciate the sun more when it’s there.</p>
5

<p>As a Cornell alum…
1)Mine was mostly centered around the Greek life / bar scene, but like the other people said there is stuff for everyone to do. Besides the typical partying stuff, I’d do a lot of random cool stuff around Ithaca with my gf at the time (brunch, plays, etc), go swimming outside / hiking in the spring or summer, many good restaurants.</p>

<p>2)I guess I sort of answered this question in my previous answer, but like I said there was actually way too much stuff to do… looking back, my only real regret from my time there was that I was a bit too into the typical partying / drinking scene and should have taken advantage of more of the interesting stuff going on around me. </p>

<p>3)My breakdown of the weather is:
Fall - typical northeast fall weather, you wear a fleece or sweater</p>

<p>Winter - cold and snowy, but I think that’s pretty much standard for the northeast… I grew up in NJ and the winters there suck too. Cornell winter’s were slightly worse than what I was used to… overall the winter in the northeast is just generally long and cold</p>

<p>Spring and Summer - an awesome time to be in Ithaca, I managed to spend 2 summers at Cornell during undergrad and thoroughly enjoyed it… again, having grown up in the northeast the winter wasn’t that big of a deal for me and I loved the spring / summer enough to make it worthwhile.</p>