<p>So I was just admitted into Cornell's class of 2013, and I applied as a student to ILR.</p>
<p>I'm planning on going into business and hitting the workforce after my undergrad years, so how do you guys that are in ILR right now feel about the school and the opportunities it presents to people who want to go into business?</p>
<p>Next, which of the three programs (ILR, AEM at CALS, or CAS Econ) do you feel will give me the most competitive advantage when applying for jobs, and which ones do you feel are the most interesting to take? What are the pros/cons of each program?</p>
<p>Finally, if I were to wish to transfer into either AEM or CAS Econ from ILR, what are my transfer chances? How difficult is the internal transfer process? Around how many people attempt to move from ILR into one of the other business programs on a yearly basis, and if possible do you know how many of these are successful? Other than grades, what can I do to bolster my transfer chances?</p>
<p>Sorry, I know there are a lot of questions, but thanks so much in advance to anyone who does provide help/insight/advice.</p>
<p>Most ILR students go to law school or into human resources. If you want to go into business, switch to AEM or Econ – ILR might not be the best fit for you. All three programs you mentioned are considered relatively easy programs, with some amount of course overlap so you can’t go wrong choosing either AEM or Econ if you want to go into business.</p>
<p>Doing an internal transfer is pretty easy if you get good grades (this won’t be a problem, you’re in ILR). I think this is pretty much all they consider when they let you do an internal transfer. You need to apply for an internal transfer at the end of your first semester. Plenty of people do it.</p>
<p>Hmm its interesting that you should mention the law side of it though because I do actually want to go into corporate law, or some synthesis of business and law, so I’m considering either getting a JD right after undergrad or working for a few years and then applying for a JD/MBA. </p>
<p>So then as long as I keep up above a 3.8, the transfer to either other program should be fine right? Someone told me they only took 2-3 students a year for internal transfers from ILR to the business program so I got a little scared haha.
In that case, which program do you think you would be better for me? A good note is that in either field I plan an applying for a double major in either poly sci, philosophy, or history, so yeah you might want to keep that in mind.</p>
<p>to ResurgamBell:
I know that you cant double major in a liberal arts field unless you go to CAS, and that if I did AEM in CALS I could only double major in one of their offered majors.</p>
<p>Hence the reason I’m asking whether it would be more useful to go for the double major in CAS or the pure business degree with the AEM program.</p>
<p>Please don’t assume that I haven’t done my research. The only reason I’m asking for advice on this website is I was looking for some personal, unbiased, first perspective insight rather than something I read in an article or on a website. </p>
<p>I also did not apply to Cornell with the intent of transferring, the option only occurred to me after I sent in my application, actually not after I got into the school which was about a month ago.</p>
<p>well the econ major in cas requires few courses and is ample enough for students to double major in fields such as “poly sci, philosophy, or history” </p>
<p>sorry if i offended you but it seems to me that you just arent even considering the pros of an ILR education right now…what other schools did you get into?</p>
<p>If you noticed, in my original message I asked,
"I’m planning on going into business and hitting the workforce after my undergrad years, so how do you guys that are in ILR right now feel about the school and the opportunities it presents to people who want to go into business?</p>
<p>Next, which of the three programs (ILR, AEM at CALS, or CAS Econ) do you feel will give me the most competitive advantage when applying for jobs, and which ones do you feel are the most interesting to take? What are the pros/cons of each program?"</p>
<p>I did not just apply to ILR to transfer out, and I still have not decided to transfer, I’m just trying to gather information on the other programs at the school, including ILR, which is why I asked about all 3.</p>
<p>It seems as though you are in the ILR program, so do you think you could let me know about some of the personal pros and cons you have experienced over the years, and if you do not mind me asking what are you planning to do after you receive your undergraduate degree?</p>
<p>Out of my top choices I got into Harvard, UPenn (Wharton), Notre Dame, UC Berkeley, and MIT (Sloan). However Cornell gave me a full ride (with work study) and I’d have to pay about 15k/year to go to Harvard and 30k/year to go to Wharton, and 35 for MIT, so those aren’t high on the list. I don’t really care for UC’s either (Cal was a backup), so its pretty much b/w Cornell and ND, both which gave me full rides.</p>
<p>notre dame is definitely very catholic heavy and has a slightly different culture than cornell…i cant say about ND but people here are definitely all about wall street (given that we’re in NY) </p>
<p>as an ILR student i find that the curriculum gives me plenty of room to mold the major to what i want to study. like you i started out wanting to be all about business so i took some business courses (using the general electives i had)…and you can do the same and basically get a business minor (unofficial)…</p>
<p>but now with the economy the way it is…and learning more about how business works, i have become turned off by it…and now i am using the ILR major to prepare for a dual JD/MA(history)…i’m still not set on this but i’m definitely anti-corporate…although i’m not 100% pro-union…</p>
<p>i have room to do this with the ILR major (unlike aem) because upper level ILR electives dwell in the social sciences (esp. CB dept) and arent tailored specifically to business…</p>
<p>AEM will be somewhat limited…although by how much i dont know…try to ask someone how many classes/electives you can take outside of CALS and maybe find out what some of those courses within CALS you can take are…</p>
<p>CAS has plenty of courses available…my only problem with them is that you must take 100/120 credits in CAS which restricts you from taking full advantage of the university (hotel, ilr, cals, etc which might have courses/electives that might interest you). although some of these are cross-listed, not all are!</p>
<p>You can go into business after school without doing a “business undergrad”. </p>
<p>Case in point: Cornell Engineers get recruited heavily into all business sectors (including non-ORIE students)</p>
<p>ILR will give you a different perspective on labor, human resources, economics, collective bargaining, etc. That way you won’t have been inculcated with the same “Intro to Business Management” way of thinking that every person who wants to be in undergrad business has. ILR will distinguish you in interviews and applications from the rest of the pack; instead of being the Econ major or the Business major, you are something with a distinct name and a distinct set of knowledge and skills.</p>
<p>If you really are set on business, stay in ILR, just take the “business-y” courses on the side.</p>
<p>First of all, if you want to get a JD, just stay in ILR. A large number of ILR grads go to law school each year, and they do very well in admissions.</p>
<p>Also, in years past (who knows how it is now with the economy the way it is), ILR has put a number of graduates into finance. There is no reason you can’t go into finance out of ILR the same way you could out of AEM. ILR is a great program and it will give you many options…the graduates go into a large number of fields, and like I said, finance was one of the largest. You won’t be graduating for 4 years, so the economy should be in better shape (hopefully) when you are graduating.</p>
<p>ResurgameBell, just wondering what part of the workforce are you planning on going into? Also if you don’t mind me asking, what are some realisitc goals you have for law school, as far as your JD goes? I’m just trying to get a scope for what options people in ILR normally have. </p>
<p>Thanks to everyone for all the advice. I’ve been doing a lot of research on the different programs, and I like the flexibility that ILR offers me as far as classes go (although I’m not too keen on the required Cultural Perspective classes). Yeah CAS looked really good until I realized I only had 20 credits to take in ILR and CALS, which kinda sucks. </p>
<p>I’m still debating the three programs, but I probably wont make a decision until I’ve been in ILR for at least a semester and decide whether I like it or not. Honestly the thing I’m most worried about is finding a job in business after I graduate, especially if it becomes an issue of why didn’t I go to business school at Cornell if I knew I wanted to do business. If i go the JD route I think I’d be ok, but I’m planning on working for a few years before I get my JD since I wanted to apply for a JD/MBA program, so the only that scares me is am I going to be able to find a top job in business (finance or consulting or something in that area) with only an ILR degree and not an AEM one, as Cornellian2011 said. </p>
<p>Also, a few people (both on this website and outside), have told me that it will be “easy” to get good grades in both ILR and AEM. I know there’s a difference between classes that are straight up not challenging and classes that are intellectually stimulating but easy to get good grades in. Which of the following would you classify as most closely describing the ILR curriculum? Also, do you feel this reputation has any negative effects as far as jobs/grad school go? </p>
<p>Thank you so much to ResurgameBell, hermanns, chendrix, and Cornellian2011. I really do appreciate all the insight and guidance, it really does help a lot.</p>
<p>ILR is excellent for going to law school, period. Many go to top law schools out of ILR, harvard included. [ILR</a> Undergraduate Admissions: Employers and Schools](<a href=“http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/admissions/careers/employers.html]ILR”>http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/admissions/careers/employers.html) <-That link includes employers ILR graduates from 2006 work for, along with Law schools they attended which includes many of the best in the country. Also shows some employers in the finance and consulting industry (GS, Bain, JPM, DB, UBS, Lehman…oops) that hired ILR employers that would probably interest you if you haven’t seen this data before.</p>
<p>As far as the cultural perspectives requirement in ILR, you only have to take ONE class for it. It is not a big deal at all. A world religions course I took fulfilled the requirement for me.</p>
<p>One thing you can do if you want is minor in economics. It is not the easiest minor to get (requires a number of classes), but if that is what you are interested you can do it. Regardless, you could take a lot of econ courses within ILR also.</p>
<p>You do not need to major in business to go into finance. ILR is fine for a variety of fields, finance included. </p>
<p>As far as classes, some of them are pretty easy, but some aren’t. The easy ones tend to not be curved, and harder are usually curved. For instance the 65% I got on my labor econ prelim was enough for an A. What should be my easiest class right now (HR management) still has a lot of work. I’m in the process of completing a very long group project right now.</p>
<p>i think in ILR the easy classes depend on what professors you take…and also depends on your own strengths…</p>
<p>the cultural perspectives and the rest of the distribution requirements are not too different across cornell…</p>
<p>i think ILR will be better preparation for a JD…unless you plan on doing corporate/financial law which might require you to have a better business background…</p>
<p>i am going to do more humanities/social science graduate work…i’m still deciding on a masters in history/american studies and law school too for kicks…pretty much the sky’s the limit (even with my terrible gpa history lol) </p>
<p>ILR is great for consulting…and well you can get decent exposure to finance with the general electives you have…</p>
<p>Yeah as I said I am thinking of the corporate/financial law or possibly even real estate so I definately do feel I need the background in business, but I think it was chendrix who said I could practically get an unofficial minor in business with all the general elective classes I could take, which is something that really endeared me to the ILR program. The econ minor hermanns mentioned is definitely something I would consider.</p>
<p>Speaking of which, thank you very much for the information and data hermanns! It was all extremely enlightening to me. Yeah like I said I’m not too worried about getting into law school, its more getting that job right away before law school, since I’m going to need some work experience before I can apply for an MBA. Yeah I was kind of scared since I kept hearing about people going into HR, but if its by choice than I guess that’s a different story. </p>
<p>One thing that I did notice when looking at your information though, is that the average person going into business is making a mean salary of less than 50k/year, where as the avg going from the AEM program is making a mean of 53k + 8k in bonuses. I’m assuming the increased number is simply more people going into business from AEM means more people getting higher paying jobs, not the fact that ILR people are getting less competitive jobs in business, right?</p>
<p>right now the economy is too unstable to rely on that data…</p>
<p>everyone is looking for a job right now…and many wont have one upon graduation…</p>
<p>since you are considering an MBA (which is where business educ. belongs) then ILR will be perfect…</p>
<p>i think that people in AEM do have the upper hand in getting financial/general business jobs right off the bat, but you will have the upper hand at law school…</p>
<p>i will warn you that ILR majors mostly get consulting/hr internships…but transferring into AEM might be a bit difficult…</p>