I soon plan to commit to Cornell, my dream school. I’ve been researching many aspects about Cornell, including its social life, by looking through this site, Cornell’s website and several virtual tours. Because I am an international student and cannot visit, I would appreciate it if anyone could inform me in better detail how life is there; the general type of people, dorm life, the party scene, daily life, atmosphere, difficulty of classes, the job connections, etc.
I would really appreciate if anyone could help, thanks!
This is a very vague question! I understand you want a general overview of everything, but I personally wouldn’t know where to start answering this. I love it here! If you ask specific questions, I would love to answer them in detail!
@ranza123 How is life in the dorms, like what typically goes on? What type of people are at Cornell (are they nerdy, jocks, etc)? Also how difficult are classes (specifically AEM or Cals?) And what is the atmosphere like there?
Sorry for all the questions, I’m just really curious about my home for the next four years…
No need to apologize! I’ll give you a brief rundown of my experience regarding your questions and you can feel free to ask me to expand/ask any further questions!
Life in the dorms is pretty nice. It’s not like being at home; I certainly miss having my own bathroom and not having to wear flip flops every time I shower. But I live with my best friend in a double in Balch, and things between us are great, we have a friendly environment in our room, and it’s never too loud. Our room is large and the community in Balch is very open and friendly. I posted a long thread a week ago about life in Balch; you can check it out here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cornell-university/1761198-housing-why-you-should-consider-balch.html#latest
I definitely would not say there is one “type” of person at Cornell. I’m generally a more introverted person, but there are plenty of extroverts here too. There’s a big party scene, but you definitely don’t have to participate if you don’t want to. As long as you join clubs and do things you’re interested in, you’ll make plenty of friends and meet a ton of like-minded people. In fact, I’d encourage you to even try stepping out of your comfort zone a bit and trying something new. I went through recruitment for an honor’s fraternity, which is definitely not something I would normally do. I’ve made dozens of amazing friends through joining!
I’m not in AEM or CALS (I’m in Arts and Sciences), so I can’t speak to the specifics of those classes. My roommate is in CALS (Agricultural science) and she handles her work really well. I haven’t found time management to be an issue; I’m honestly in bed by 11 every night (mostly because I can’t stay up any later no matter how hard I try!) As long as you work hard and apply yourself, everything is very manageable.
The atmosphere is generally very friendly. I think people tend to be supportive of each other when we do good work. Life can get stressful when a bunch of people have prelims, and so sometimes the atmosphere can be negative. But the sun came out today and everyone was eating outside and studying on the arts quad and taking walks and everyone was super happy, and I think everyone remembered that no matter how stressful it gets, we all love it here.
Wow @Ranza123 that was really helpful, thanks so much! I really want to attend now!!! Thanks again
Wow @Ranza123 that was really helpful, thanks so much! I really want to attend now!!! Thanks again