<p>which school would lead to better opportunities in finance (ib) and consulting?</p>
<p>As some who graduated from Cornell ILR, albeit years ago, I would definitely go with UCLA.</p>
<p>To me, ILR only has value as a stepping stone to law school, and as a way to get a Cornell degree at state university prices.</p>
<p>UCLA Economics would be far better, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Mothers in China dream of sending their kid to UCLA.</p>
<p>I strongly recommend UCLA.</p>
<p>Im definitely going to Cornell, and like it, but Im strongly reconsidering ILR. When I applied to Cornell, I was on the fence of whether to do law or biz and thought ILR would be a good mix of both. How hard to you think it would be for me to internally transfer into Cornell aem, or hotel even after one year? also you said you graduated from ilr, if you dont mind, what are you and your ilr friends doing now?</p>
<p>BreakingGrace:</p>
<p>I am 57 years old, so my Cornell information and opinions are a “bit” dated, but it was my recollection that it was not easy to transfer to the Hotel school. They like people with hotel backgrounds. Also, I would not recommend the Hotel school, unless you really want to concentrate in that industry. Otherwise, in my opinion, the education you get will be too narrow. My brother’s kid passed up the Cornell Hotel School to go to Wash U Business School, and has done very well. I don’t think ILR is that good for business. You learn a lot of stuff about unions, and stuff like that. Everyone I know who went to Cornell ILR became a lawyer. In my opinion, which is of course very outdated, I wouldn’t go to ILR unless I wanted to become a lawyer. And I wouldn’t go to ILR with the idea of transferring to Hotel or AEM, because what if you can’t do it. I would go to UCLA. My son got into UCLA last year, but turned it down. That is my honest opinion. ILR, at least when I was a kid, was kind of separate from the rest of Cornell, and you spent all your time in the ILR library, and were friends with mostly other ILR people. It was also mostly people from New York. I don’t think ILR is that good an entre’ into business.</p>
<p>where did your son decide to go?</p>
<p>My son graduated from ILR in 2011, and the class had extremely good job placement rates even with the recession going on. The emphasis is less on unions these days – Labor Relations is just one of six departments within ILR. You can concentrate in Economics if you want, which is now combined with the Arts school’s program ([Cornell</a> Chronicle: Universitywide economics department created](<a href=“Home | Cornell Chronicle”>Home | Cornell Chronicle)). </p>
<p>My son did, in fact, get a job in labor relations, but several of his friends went into IB from the ILR school. 73% of grads in 2011 went into the workforce, 18% to law school and 6% to other grad programs, Here’s the postgrad report: [Postgraduate</a> Reports](<a href=“http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/careerservices/postgrad/]Postgraduate”>http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/careerservices/postgrad/)</p>
<p>Many ILR students are from New York; that’s true. But there are plenty of students from elsewhere, and you’ll meet students from all parts of the university in your dorm and many of your basic freshman classes.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about Econ at UCLA, but I don’t think ILR will hold you back from your career goals.</p>
<p>It’s not that Im scared it will hold me back as it is the cost worth it? Im out of state so ILR is the same price as CAS for me and at my state school id get paid $10k a year to attend but no ibanks would ever come there to recruit (no, im not in cali). im just scared i committed to ilr but its not for me. its just im already having thoughts of internally transfering after the first year and that really scared me and makes me think i may have made the wrong choice… was your son ever interested in pursuing finance or was labor relations just his passion?</p>
<p>Breaking Grace:</p>
<p>My son made kind of an unconventional choice.</p>
<p>He got into University of Florida, University of Miami, University of NC, and UCLA.</p>
<p>I wanted him to go to UCLA.</p>
<p>He decided instead to go a completely different route, to the University of St Andrews, in Scotland.</p>
<p>He also got waitlisted at many schools, such as Johns Hopkins, Emory, and Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>I went to the ILR school because it was a way to go to Cornell half price, because I was a New York resident. Otherwise, I would have studied political science and history.</p>
<p>I can tell you that college will be a misery for you if you major in something you really don’t even want to major in.</p>
<p>Given what the other parent posted about the current situation at ILR, I would advise you to nail down exactly what courses you would be taking at ILR, and what courses are required courses. And see if you would be happy taking those courses. Back when I attended, most of the classes you had to take were at the ILR school. I believe I only took two courses outside the ILR school.</p>
<p>Again, I personally would go to UCLA, but my brother’s kid currently attends Cornell, and he likes it. So to each its own. To me, Cornell is in the middle of nowhere, freezing cold, with little to do. UCLA is gorgeous, in sunny California, with a strong reputation in Asia.</p>
<p>No, my son was never interested in finance. He was trying to decide between labor relations and history. However, plenty of students go in with an interest in finance, and now that the economics program is combined with the one in CAS, there’s even more opportunity in the finance field. Also, you’re free to take plenty of courses in other divisions. (My son ended up taking a lot of history courses in CAS.)</p>
<p>That said, you might want to take a look at the internal transfer requirements to see how easy it would be to switch to another program. Take a look at the Ag School transfer requirements if you’re interested in AEM: [Office</a> of Internal Transfer](<a href=“http://internaltransfer.cornell.edu/College-Req.html]Office”>http://internaltransfer.cornell.edu/College-Req.html)</p>
<p>If you’re already committed to Cornell, then I’m sure you’ll find a way to get what you need somewhere within the university even if you stay in ILR. </p>
<p>If you’re still trying to decide between Cornell and your state school, that’s a very different question. I would really hesitate to go into a lot of debt at such a young age for any reason. If your state school isn’t good at direct IB placement, maybe you can see about arranging independent internships at IB firms during your time there. It’s a tough decision, and it would make sense to go talk to the placement office at your state school and any recent graduates you can find to see what the options are. (Is there a thread for that school here on CC?)</p>
<p>with ap credits, the only classes i will have to take in ilr freshmen year are intro to organizational behavior (doesnt sound to bad) and intro to labor history (doesnt really interest me…) so it looks like freshmen yr ill have those two classes, intro to macroecon and microecon in CAS (which i would have taken regardless of what college in cornell i enrolled in), one freshmen writing seminar (CAS), and 4 electives. so im hoping ill get a good feel for what seems to be a good fit for me as i plan to use most of my electives, if not all, for aem/hotel/maybe pam classes; then ill have exposure with 5 colleges within cornell and know whats my best option. unforunately, sophomore year the freedom is gone and and id be forced to take 4 ilr courses, which dont sound very interesting to me… although its possible i have i change of heart and start to love the ilr curriculum i dont think thats too likely. i chose it cuz it would offer flexibility towards biz and law (supposedly). btw, you said ilr is a training ground for lawyers. do most ilries gravitate toward certain branches of law or all branches? id love to go to ucla but there is no way i can afford it and cornells fin aid was very reasonable. (btw thank you for your continued informative replies, they are extremely appreciated)</p>
<p>kdmom, thank you too for your informative posts. can you please explain to me what it means by the econ dept being combined? does that mean that the department within ilr that was formally labor economics is know just economics and for distributive requirements that say i just have a certain number of ilr credit hours, i could use cas econ classes?</p>
<p>My point about combined economics was more about recruiting. Recruiters that come to campus to talk to people with econ backgrounds will now find more ILR students that have taken the courses they expect. (Though, plenty of ILR students went into IB even before the combined econ program, so maybe it’s not that big a deal.) </p>
<p>I don’t really know the details of the course distribution requirements, but there are a couple of links below that might be helpful. (Note that the specific courses offered change from year to year, depending on the rotation schedule.)</p>
<p>If you’re already committed to Cornell, you can just see what you think once you get into the swing of things. You’ll have an advisor to help you with course selection, and if it turns out that the options aren’t satisfactory, then look into transferring to CAS or Ag. I really think you’ll be ok.</p>
<p>Approved electives can be found here:
<a href=“http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/studentservices/curriculum/requirements/advElectives/upload/Approved-Electives-FA-13-ILRLE_HR_IC_LR_OB.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/studentservices/curriculum/requirements/advElectives/upload/Approved-Electives-FA-13-ILRLE_HR_IC_LR_OB.pdf</a></p>
<p>Courses that fulfill the economic policy requirements are here:
<a href=“http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/studentservices/curriculum/requirements/advElectives/upload/Economic-Policy-Distribution-Requirements-ILR-FA-13.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/studentservices/curriculum/requirements/advElectives/upload/Economic-Policy-Distribution-Requirements-ILR-FA-13.pdf</a></p>
<p>Grace–have you seen this?
[Cornell</a> Students Look Forward to New Business Minor | The Cornell Daily Sun](<a href=“http://www.cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2012/10/22/cornell-students-look-forward-new-business-minor]Cornell”>http://www.cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2012/10/22/cornell-students-look-forward-new-business-minor)</p>
<p>This link provides more detail about the new university-wide business minor, including the pre-reqs you would need to take.<br>
[Charles</a> H. Dyson School: University-wide Business Minor](<a href=“Applied Economics and Management Degree Program | Cornell Dyson”>Applied Economics and Management Degree Program | Cornell Dyson)</p>
<p>I think ILR dovetails nicely with business. I was ILR in the 80s and took classes all over the university: marketing & accounting in Ag Ec (now AEM), ORIE in Engineering, and Hotel (real estate, more accounting and computers in addition to wine tasting!). </p>
<p>There is a great deal of overlap between the mandatory courses in Hotel and ILR. Hotel seems to have eliminated some of the food & beverage focus and ILR seems to have cut back on the union focus. </p>
<p>I can’t address UCLA so will leave that to others. Drill down on the links that kdmom provided also.</p>
<p>CT, if you don’t mind me asking, did you go into law? If don’t, what did you do after ilr, and what are you up to now? Also, did you feel isolated from nonilr students at cornell? Also thanks for the link. I would do the business minor, but i feel the aem major with a focus in strategy would be better tailored to my interests as my dream career is in management consulting.</p>
<p>You can do IB from ILR and finance/consulting recruiting will be way better at Cornell than UCLA. You won’t get many looks from NYC firms if you’re out on the west coast. </p>
<p>That said it probably is more of an uphill battle coming out of ILR than say AEM/Econ but certainly doable. The good thing is you know what track you want to do and that will help you get started on internships early (which is way more important than major btw) and as long as you have a high GPA and good internships, you’ll get plenty of opportunities from ILR.</p>
<p>It depends on why you applied to Cornell ILR. If you thought it was truly a unique and engaging program, then come here.</p>
<p>If you applied to it because you thought it was easier to get in… then toss-up.</p>
<p>ILR people definitely get recruited into investment banking. I’m in CAS, but I know people in ILR, and they manage to integrate a lot of business knowledge. I even know a guy who transferred from Cornell Econ into ILR to save money. (Then again, he’s prelaw.)</p>
<p>On the other hand (and I know I’m going to get hammered for this), ILR does sort of have a reputation of being the backdoor into Cornell, especially for transfers. Nobody will ever walk up to you and start laughing at you or something, but there is a subtle prejudice among some people and I’d be lying if I told you otherwise. But ILR also has exclusive networks and internship opportunities which the rest of Cornell doesn’t have access to.</p>
<p>UCLA can get you into banking as well, just on the West Coast. It might also be a bit tougher.</p>
<p>If you had AEM or CAS, I’d tell you take Cornell in a heartbeat. For ILR… If you like the program, then ILR. Otherwise, eh… I’m from Los Angeles and can tell you that the weather in Los Angeles is much better than Ithaca. You also have access to beaches and big-time sports.</p>
<p>I applied to ILR under the assumption that I could use my elective courses at any school at Cornell; I recently found out that a considerable number of courses in aem and hotel are exclusive to their own schools. So what my mentality in applying to ILR was not only would I get a huge amount of freedom in my curriculum (only 6 required ilr courses in all 4 years) I also wouldnt have to take the sci reqs for aem in cals, and when I applied to banks Id stick out more as an ilr major than just another aem/econ major. but no, the required ilr classes dont really grab me. when i was applying, i was more on the fence about law or business but now im definitely more attracted to business, thus the ilr classes interest me less than when i applied. what i do like about ilr is that it offers a ton of for credit opportunities for internships. I thought it was more that ilries just chose to go more into hr but now im hearing that its not that most of them want hr jobs but its just what they get offers for. saugus would the average cornellian looks down more on an ilr student (nontransfer) than a hotelie or humaneco student or just in comparison to cas or engineering? do you know how hard it would be to transfer into aem if i met the reqs after the 1st year? my freshmen yr my schedule would be intro to organizational behavior, intro to labor history, intro to macroecon and microecon in CAS , one freshmen writing seminar in CAS, and 4 electives (thank you ap credits). i would use most if not all of the 4 electives for biz classes in aem or hotel. do you know anyone who has tried to transfer into aem?</p>
<p>also if it came down to it, who would have an edge in competing for an ib/management consulting job (assuming extracurriculars and internships are the same) a ilr or hotel student?</p>
<p>Dude. Use grammar. Your post is borderline incoherent…</p>
<p>I would go to UCLA if you don’t actually like ILR. It sounds like you used it as a backdoor.</p>
<p>It would depend on the individual and the person they were networking with.</p>