<p>UChicago is known as a very hardworking, number driven college while IUPUI is known as an experience based school.
How would you 'categorize' Cornell and why?
What do you really like about it?</p>
<p>I'm applying there and I'm anxious to know how it is over there! :)</p>
<p>I posted this a couple days ago on someone else’s thread, but it gives a brief overview of my opinions/previous worries about Cornell (TLDR; I love it here)</p>
<p>I love Cornell. I love Arts and Sciences. There were a few things I was worrying about coming in but the fears proved to be unsubstantial:</p>
<p>I was worried there were too many people. Cornell was the largest university I applied to; almost everywhere else was a small liberal arts college. But I am already recognizing faces in dining halls or on the way to classes. There are still a lot of opportunities to meet people individually. My dorm has dinners and desserts together once a week, along with other organized trips downtown or to NYC. Large lectures aren’t actually as terrifying as I thought they would be, and my class sizes really vary. One of my classes has only 5 people and one has over 900. So I get to experience both worlds and they both have their pros and cons.</p>
<p>I was also worried the campus would be too big and I would get lost. However, I had the advantage of living in Ithaca so I came on campus over the summer many times and my mom (who attended Cornell and still remembers how to get everywhere and what shortcuts to take) showed me how to get to all the quads and to all my classes. The campus also doesn’t feel huge because, for the most part, your classes are contained in one or two quads. You walk a ton every day but it keeps you in shape. I was worried I would never actually know my way around but by this point I can get practically everywhere on campus without a map.</p>
<p>I was worried it would be too competitive or that I would be the stupidest person in all my classes. There is a myth that colleges that are competitive to get into are also competitive once you get there. Personally, I haven’t seen this. Nobody sabotages other people’s notes or work or anything. People form study groups and try to help each other learn the material. I’m also not the stupidest person. Nobody here is stupid. There are people here who are extremely intelligent and perhaps see certain aspects of the world differently than I do, but likewise I see it differently from them. Everybody here has strengths and weaknesses. It isn’t like high school where you can point out the top and bottom of the class. I am good at certain subjects and bad at others, and so is everybody here.</p>
<p>Overall, I could not possibly picture myself at another college. Cornell is by far where I belong and where I feel I was destined to go all my life. That doesn’t mean it’s the right college for everybody. It doesn’t mean it’ll be the best choice for me for grad school. But for where I am in life right now, it is perfect.</p>