<p>It is a mistake to label an entire study body, especially one as large as Cornell, as one thing or another. The attractive thing about a larger student body is that there is a mix of different types of students and anyone can find his or her like-minded friends/class-mates. So while there are competitive kids at Cornell (as well as Stanford, Princeton, Darmouth, Harvard, MIT, etc. -- I know some who are currently at Harvard and MIT) there are many many that are not. </p>
<p>For what it is worth, Cornell also has many more undergraduates than graduates (about twice as many).</p>