Some questions about Cornell

<p>First of all, I want to congratulate everyone who got in Early Decision! Great job, you deserve it!</p>

<p>I am applying regular and just have a couple of questions about Cornell. You don't have to answer all of them. If you can answer some, that would be great!!</p>

<p>1) Does Cornell prefer New York students? Do they prefer students from the South (I am from Texas)?</p>

<p>2) I am doing the Primary/ Alternate plan with Engineering (primary) and Asian studies (alternate). For Asian studies, I really just want to learn Japanese culture and language, so can I just do that, or do I have to do the whole Asian Studies Course?</p>

<p>3) Can I do both as in a double major? Also, what if I get selected into Asian Studies and not Engineering (because that's what I really want to do). Can I change my major to engineering later?</p>

<p>4) My parents income range is 150,000-200,000, but they can't pay the whole 60K+ fees. How much aid can I expect to receive?</p>

<p>5) How's the weather at Cornell? I really don't want to see depressing cold 365 days a year! And what can you do at Ithaca? It seems like a small town. I am from Houston, so will it be a huge culture shock?</p>

<p>Thank you & good luck to all RD applicants! :D</p>

<p>1)
No preference. Even the contract colleges, I believe, have no preference for entering freshman.</p>

<p>2)
No idea. But just fyi, alternate admissions VERY RARELY admits a student after they’re rejected from their primary admission. I don’t think it’s worth the time to write another essay, but that’s totally your choice. </p>

<p>3)
Again, not sure. However, yes - you can try to transfer between the individual colleges after you start attending Cornell. But again, there isn’t a big chance that you’ll be rejected from CoE and accepted at CAS (or any other college for that matter).</p>

<p>4)
Run Cornell’s calculator. It’ll give you a good estimate.</p>

<p>5)
No idea, I don’t go there haha (just got deferred!)</p>

<p>1) Cornell would have no reason to prefer New York residents over out-of-state applicants, so no, New York students are not preferred. However, because New York students get their tuitions partially funded if they attend one of the contract colleges, Cornell has a rather large number of New York students (about 30% I believe).</p>

<p>2 & 3) If you just want to major in Engineering but learn Japanese Language and Culture, then just major in Engineering while taking Japanese language and Japanese culture classes. Your engineering schedule will give you enough time for it. There’s no reason to pursue the entire Asian Studies major if that’s not what you’re interested in. That would mean double majoring across colleges, which means not graduating in four years (so don’t do it).</p>

<p>4) If you go through the whole financial aid process, I’m sure you will get a decent package that your family could afford.</p>

<p>5) Upstate New York winters are cold. Some days you can count the number of degrees on your hands (and sometimes, hand). The days get pretty short. However, all this also comes with snow, which brings snowball fights and snowmen (which are especially fun if you haven’t experienced much snow before).
Ithaca is awesome. There are tons of fun little shops and places to explore. A culture shock? Probably not… most likely you wouldn’t be in the actual city of Ithaca much of the time anyway (it’s a 20 minute bus ride to get to Commons).</p>

<ol>
<li>Agreed with what Peppino said. But yes, you will find a lot of NYS students in the state-subsidized colleges.</li>
</ol>

<p>2/3. This could be helpful: [Minors</a> - Department of Asian Studies](<a href=“http://lrc.cornell.edu/asian/undergrad/minors#east]Minors”>http://lrc.cornell.edu/asian/undergrad/minors#east). You might decide you want to do a minor instead. You can go through internal transfer from Engineering to Arts & Sciences, but I wouldn’t recommend trying to do it the other way around (because the Engineering curriculum is so rigid)</p>

<ol>
<li><p>The calculator is pretty accurate. Just saying, I was in the same range and I didn’t get very much. Everyone has different circumstances though.</p></li>
<li><p>The weather is really variable. For the first couple of months it’s actually really nice. Then it starts raining, hailing, and snowing. Some days it could be 40something degrees and some days it could be 18 degrees. Once you get to December it’s pretty much 32 or below. Snow is fun though - sledding down the slope is awesome!
There are also a lot of state parks, farmer’s market, shopping centers, collegetown, and the commons to explore. I’m from New York City and I actually don’t mind being in a kind of remote area - it grows on you and becomes nice. Plus, you’ll be pretty busy with school-related things so it’s not like you need a plethora of outside entertainment.</p></li>
</ol>