<p>i always hear about how people who go to ivy league schools are rich (and snobby...). this is obviously a generalization but based on ur opinion/educated guess, what percent of ppl who go to cornell actually have a lot of money (and you can define yourself what "a lot of money" means)? do people actually wear expensive clothes, carry expensive bags, have expensive technology? do cornell students really segregate themselves based on class (rich people hang out with rich people)? but anyway it seems to make sense that cornell has a small middle class. the very rich can afford the price tag for the education at a private institution and the very poor get nice financial aid (for which i am very thankful for). so basically, is the line between the poor and the wealthy more prominent or more blurred at Cornell?</p>
<p>I am sure there are a lot of snobby people at cornell, but here is another generalization I have heard (sorry!): cornell is the most unpretentious Ivy League school.</p>
<p>first off, not all of the people who receive financial aid are “very poor.”
second, there are people who are technically in the middle class, perhaps even the upper- middle class, who struggle to pay the tuition</p>
<p>it’s ridiculous to think that there would be a rich majority@ cornell.</p>
<p>I feel that today’s colleges (speaking generally) make a conscious effort to recruit across a spectrum of socioeconomic backgrounds. That said, any meritocratic admissions process is statistically more likely to lead to a significant proportion of wealthy kids in the student body because more opportunities and guidance tends to be available to them in the pre-collegiate period. However, the percentage of ‘truly rich’ students would not be close to the majority (as googler12 mentioned); I’d expect the most heavily represented group at Cornell to be the broad middle class. </p>
<p>Some people will wear designer clothes, carry expensive accessories and own the latest gadgets, but: (a) the same is true of any other school (b) these trends will not be limited to the wealthy (c) not everyone who behaves in this manner does it in order to show off their wealth or even to consciously distinguish themselves from the crowds. </p>
<p>Some of the rich kids (and wannabes from other socioeconomic groups) will be snobby and pretentious but would you really regret not being able to be friends with them? Anyone who judges you based on whether you have a guy riding a horse embroidered onto your shirt or on the smartphone you own is probably not worth your time. The vast majority of kids at Cornell (rich or otherwise) are not likely to behave in this manner and even those who initially do may drop that attitude in favor of a more socially acceptable one as time goes by.</p>
<p>you probably shouldn’t answer threads like these if you haven’t even spent a semester here. </p>
<p>Anywhoo, </p>
<p>There are a good deal of rich kids here. It is not an infrequent occurrence that I am regaled with stories about ones sailing experiences in the Caribbean in ones fathers yacht. I consider people “rich” if they have not had the pleasure of doing a hard days work at a crappy job and I would say that probably 75% of the people here haven’t done that. You should get used to kids that are fairly prissy, and really don’t like to work hard.</p>
<p>@tboonepickens-
you consider people “rich” if they haven’t gone through a menial job?
i.e. those who aren’t poor are automatically rich?
well, by those standards, dayum i’m rich.</p>
<p>imagine if this thread were like “omg, are there poor people at Cornell?!” and then characterized them as an unpleasant stereotype. obviously all rich people are snobby and generally insufferable…
why not just take people as individuals, everyone on CC?</p>
<p>to the OP … onr thought … the very top schools (the IVYies and many other research schools and LACs) offer among the best financial aid (closest to need blind admission and meeting 100% of “need”) … which means among private schools they are among the most affortable … so for kids who get into an IVY league school it is likely to be at least as economically diverse as any other private school to which the applicant applied. Personally, I would be more wary of private schools a tier down that do not meet full need … and that they may have a much higher percentage of full-pay rich kids.</p>
<p>PS - FYI, I was an undergrad at Cornell and one of the advantages of Cornell being fairly large is that is is very easy to avoid whatever segment of the student population you want to … I came from a lower-middle class family and had friends from all sorts of backgrounds however we all lived like starving students. There were pockets of rich kids who acted that way … but they were a very very small minority. (This was a long time ago)</p>
<p>anyone who OFTEN spends their summer breaks and winter breaks outside of the country is rich IMHO…</p>
<p>and i’d say about 1/3 of every kid has stories of doing such.</p>
<p>The rich are obviously well represented at private colleges costing $50k per year. At those offering good need-based financial aid, the decidedly non-rich are also represented.</p>
<p>Cornell differs somewhat from the rest due to its NYS contract colleges. One-fifth of its students are NY State residents attending one of the contract colleges, thereby benefitting from annual $10 tuition reduction. Many of these people may have the same demographic as the others, however my perception has been that the true “vanishing midddle class” has higher representation there as a result.</p>
<p>very interesting… thanks for all ur responses…</p>
<p>well, googler12, i never claimed there was a rich majority at cornell and i never said all people who receive financial aid are very poor… however, the very poor receive very good financial aid that allows them to pay approx the same as their state school (or even less). the middle class however, will have to pay more than they would if they chose to go to a public school (so they often choose their state school over an out of state private school, especially if their state school is pretty good). the very rich people don’t mind the extra money AS MUCH.</p>
<p>srrinath, i agree with your points. indeed, it is not worth my time to make friends with snobby and pretentious people of any kind. although, if i’m not mistaken, many colleges would rather claim that they do not consider financial status when accepting/declining applicants.</p>
<p>faustorp, i know very well that not all rich people are snobby but it’s a stereotype tagged onto them frequently and as we all know, stereotypes have some roots in truth. at least at my high school, there was this group of rich people who hung out with each other and didn’t let anyone who didn’t wear expensive clothes into their circle of friends.</p>
<p>3togo, that is one thing i am very excited about - the fact that cornell is a huge school and a large student population. i’m sure to meet all kinds of people!</p>
<p>judging by what Tboonepickens and campuscsi have said, i would say that if there isn’t a rich majority at cornell, there at least is a much-higher-than-average percentage of wealthy students than at most other public/private institutions.</p>
<p>anyway, i made this thread out of curiosity due to some things i saw and heard recently. just an example: whenever i watch movies about harvard, yale, princeton, etc…, the students look very well-off (i don’t mean just SOME movies… practically ALL of them). they somehow are always wearing suits or preppy clothes to school. i know it’s just a hollywood rendition, but still. who knows…</p>
<p>It is a hollywood rendition. And also one that doesn’t accurately portray Cornell.</p>
<p>I know a good portion of well-off students here, but I have NEVER met someone who was snobby based on their personal wealth. This isn’t high-school, and the kids here aren’t mean-girls.</p>
<p>You are much more likely to be shunned because you are stupid or have a terrible attitude or work ethic, than you are if you don’t have the latest gadget.</p>
<p>@Tboonepickens: I did consider adding a disclaimer saying I was an entering freshman but I saw no reason to discredit my own claims especially since none of my points were particularly outrageous.</p>
<p>@ campuscsi:</p>
<p>i am an international student so i actually travel out of the country every summer/winter. boy i must be rich! but don’t mention the 30k$/year loan i take! =( i am so rich, lucky me!</p>
<p>@ srrinath: </p>
<p>i love your argument: “my points weren’t particularly outrageous, so therefore they must be true” =)</p>
<p>
Very good point. Most top private colleges cost $50K plus, drawing in the “rich”, and at the same time give out good financial aid packages, drawing in the “poor” and “middle class”. The kids who make, say, $120K-ish/year families don’t get significant financial aid packages from these schools and end up either going to privates that give them merit scholarships or state schools. The reduced tuition at the contract colleges brings in these “upper middle class” kids that wouldn’t be able to swing the endowed college tuition. It seems like it’s a trade-off between socioeconomic and geographic diversity (all of these kids come from NY, probably contributing to the Long Island stereotype). It was a minor plus in the Cornell column for me.</p>
<p>reptil, i think campuscsi is referring to the non-int’ls, who don’t have family back home and just travel out of the country for vacation.</p>
<p>good to know that wealth doesn’t play as much of a role in social life at cornell as i had previously thought, chendrix.</p>
<p>you’re right galerie. </p>
<p>i meant those kids who tour european countries like it’s just in their backyard.</p>
<p>There’s a large contingent of wealthy students, mainly from New England boarding schools. They appear more represented than they actually are because most normal middle/upper-middle class kids are upwardly moblie and emulate their manner of dress and behavior.</p>
<p>I always find it a little funny when someone tells me they went to “The ______ Academy” or “______ Country Day School.” I’m like, dude I went to [Name of town] East High School.</p>
<p>I went to a The ____ Academy, and it was a public school.</p>
<p>@reptil: No, that wasn’t my argument. I was saying that there’s no reason to instantly discredit my own points by saying that I’m an entering freshman, especially when I feel that most of my points in #4 were moderately sensible at the very least. Whether or not I’m actually right, I don’t think my points should be dismissed immediately simply because I haven’t spent any time at Cornell yet. That’s all I was saying in #13.</p>