<p>I got a packet from ILR the other day and it seems really cool! I applied ED to Wharton, but got deferred so Cornell is another school that i'm interested in applying to for RD. I was poking around the forum and saw that people said leadership was huge in this. I have a lot of E.C.s revolving around leadership ( which is probably the reason i was deferred at Wharton). But i had some questions:</p>
<p>1) How much does international relations/languages come into play?<br>
My life goal is to work for Fifa, trading players from club to club, so this really would fit this perfectly.</p>
<p>2) What is the student life like? I hear Cornell is really stressful, but how true is this?</p>
<p>3) What are the students like? Nerdy, global minded, down to earth? </p>
<p>and if current ILR students could just shed some light on what their life is like, hw, friends, anything really, that'd be great!!</p>
<p>IR/languages come in to play probably more as electives. go on the ILR website and take a look at graduation requirements and look at the classes that you have to take. </p>
<p>your life goal is definitely interesting and might give you an edge if the rest of your essay(s) are really strong. i know someone who was admitted to ILR because instead of saying he wanted to go to law school (which most ILRies do), he said he wanted to work behind the scenes on broadway and do some HR there. cornell is stressful because they really push you to do well, but if you have good time management, you’ll be alright. i’m not in ILR, but my boyfriend is, and he says he averages about 500 pages of reading a week and he’s always doing essays and studying. students at cornell are all types of people. they’re all really smart, but you’ll find all types of kids there. everyone is really nice.</p>
<p>That’s not normally a focus, but that’s a great opportunity for you.</p>
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<p>Imagine the most hard-working, ambitious, and stressed-out kids on the planet all crammed into one place, trying to get ahead of one another. Then throw in lots of snow.</p>
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<p>Nerdy is an absolute given. You’re talking about New York Staters, if that means anything to you.</p>
<p>Here are answers to some of your questions, along with some other things you might be wondering about: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>The types of students will extremely vary. I know some students who like to read and study all day long. I know some students who party 3x a week. I know some students who are completely involved in extracurriculars. I know some students who just like hanging out with their friends all day long. It really just depends. If you don’t have to/want to be stressed, you won’t be. Obviously, most students get a little stressed around now (finals week), but what college student isn’t stressed out during finals? </p></li>
<li><p>Just because we have a lot of reading to do doesn’t mean you have to do it. My OB teacher specifically says he assigns more reading than he knows we can handle so that we either acquire the skill of skimming quickly to get a summarized idea, or learn to develop group strategies to accomplish our goals faster. Or, you can just not do the readings (must students opt for this choice, based on the test curves in that class). </p></li>
</ul>
<p>-Many students at ILR are extremely outgoing and personable, and as a result acquire a multiplicity of leadership positions all over campus. Take for example the Student Assembly (SA), Cornell Undergraduate ruling body of government: of the 23 members of the SA, only one HAS to be filled by an ILRie (the ILR representation spot). However, in reality 6 of of the 23 spots are filled by ILRies, representing 26% of the SA. Keep in mind that ILR makes up about 6% of the entire undergraduate population at Cornell. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Many students in ILR pursue and International Relations degree, and I forgot who (it might have been Cayuga, but I could be wrong) spoke of one of their friends who recently graduated from ILR pursuing and IR masters or Ph. D at a very prestigious school. A lot of freshman in ILR are currently taking Intro to International Relations, and despite it not being a requirement, many are also taking language classes. </p></li>
<li><p>You mentioned FIFA; although I think it is an interesting life goal, there is certainly room to pursue it hear at ILR. There is an ILR Sports Management Club, and I’ve heard (if you are passionate about it) they have been able to link students to very prestigious sports related internships. There is also a class ILRCB 4030: The Economics of Collective Bargaining in Sports, which is something you’d probably be interested in taking in a few years. As a senior, you can also take the “Sports Law” class at the Law School. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Hopefully that answered some of your questions.</p>
<p>I guess I do have a pretty unique life goal. Hopefully Cornell will like that and give me a second look.
What is the average ACT for these students?</p>
<p>The average ACT score for a Cornell admitted student in the 2007-2008 admission cycle (two years ago) was a 33. That’s the most recent statistic I remember. I believe I did see SAT scores from last year that were specific to ILR, but I don’t have the files on hand.</p>
<p>@ironicallyunsure, when you say that there are that many pages of reading a week, what kind of reading is it? just so i know what i’m getting myself into ( if i get in that is)</p>
<p>it’s textbook and packet reading. you can probably get by just skimming through it, but my boyfriend is relentlessly pursuing A+s lol. i hope he gets them, but you know. i think if you manage your time properly you should be okay.</p>
Some kids do an IR concentration. If you want to get into doing something like that, your main areas of focus should be labor law and collective bargaining. There is a popular class on collective bargaining in the sports industry which you’d probably be in interested in. As for languages, you can take them just like any other Cornell student and your success will ultimately depend on how much effort you put into it.</p>
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Freshman and sophomore years at ILR are comparatively very easy than they are for a typical pre-med or engineering major. I didn’t feel stressed out that much at all during the first two years, which helped me in my transition to the final two.</p>
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ILR is a small school so it’s pretty cliquey. You shouldn’t have much of a problem making friends. There are your super conservative and super liberal kids, but most kids are pretty normal. Some are nerdy, others couldn’t care less about what they’re learning. As for global minded, I don’t think that’s really characteristic of the ILR student body in general.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! Wow, i’m really happy I made this thread.</p>
<p>@ironicallyunsure, that sounds really close to what my high school life is like. There are a lot of textbook and packet readings, but that isn’t too bad. I’m used to reading probably 200+ pages a week now actually ( i never really did the numbers but yeah, i do, wow).</p>
<p>@tun, thank you! yes, i hopefully will take that class on sports and labor so that would be really cool! do you have any stories of anyone pursuing a job related to that class after graduation?</p>
<p>someone on this thread mentioned people getting internships with companies that do sports and stuff, but do you have any specific examples? thank you!!!</p>