<p>Sorry, you are right. That was more of a rant than a post. Main question-Would the average cornellian look down more on an ilr student (nontransfer) than a hotelie or humaneco student or just in comparison to a cas or engineering student?</p>
<p>@BreakingGrace, It seems like the reason you’re actually worried about ILR is because you think it is looked down upon. Is that correct? Seems like very shallow reasoning. </p>
<p>If you feel like the courses and material you will go through at Cornell are not of your interest, then I think you’re going to be pretty miserable there.</p>
<p>It’s shallow if the only people i’m worried will look down upon it are my peers. If employers in non-hr fields look down on it, then it definitely isn’t worth 63k/yr thus perception of the school is a real concern.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about student perception too much. Seriously, nobody really cares outside of the first time they meet you.</p>
<p>Employer perception? Plenty of people in ILR and Hotel get into banking.</p>
<p>But if you’re not actually interested in studying labor, then I wouldn’t go.</p>
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<p>As someone who graduated with Econ degree from Cornell, I can tell you that Econ degree isn’t very marketable. Not much more marketable than say, ILR or generic business management degree.</p>
<p>Truly marketable majors are: math, stats, engineering, comp sci, accounting, etc. There are very few companies that require a B.A. in Econ for hiring criteria. If you don’t believe me, take a look at some job boards.</p>
<p>That being said, if someone’s end game is entering banking or consulting, you’d have to go to Cornell over UCLA. Top consulting firms rarely recruit at schools like UCLA. Firms such as McKinsey or Bain don’t recruit at Cornell either. However, Cornell gets decent recruiting from much of bulge bracket banks.</p>
<p>Honestly, I wouldn’t choose a school solely based on probability of getting an IB or consulting job, unless the school in question is something ridiculous like Wharton or Harvard. Going to a school like Cornell gives you a shot, but you’d better be a superstar, loaded with competitive internships and prepared to do heavy networking/ interviewing prep, all the while maintaining a GPA of at least 3.6+, just to have a shot at entry. It’s easier said than done.</p>
<p>Lastly, most consulting and I-banking firms don’t care about your major. I have friends working in IB and consulting who majored in Poli Sci, history, Psychology, ILR, PAM, Hotel, etc. There is absolutely no edge for majoring in Econ or AEM, as far as consulting/banking recruiting is concerned.</p>
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<p>Do you qualify for financial aids? I know it’s not something you may want to hear, but I wouldn’t drop 63k/yr on college tuition. Even if it’s Harvard. No college is worth that much of a price tag.</p>
<p>ILR is great, but a bit one-dimensional. UCLA will offer you a broader spectrum of study. But UCLA classes are huge. Upper level ILR classes less than 30 students. Plus current chairman of the council of economic advisors is an ILR alum!</p>
<p>UCLA is a CA state school with funding issues. It may still be a good option for CA residents, but I am not so certain it is the case for OS.</p>
<p>One of my kid’s friends transferred from CAS to Hotel and is working at GS. Her best friend also transferred from CAS to Architecture and is at Stanford Law. Another friend graduated from CoE is also working at GS. My nephew is a Hotelie focusing on real estate.</p>
<p>My son is going to be starting ILR in August. He would have preferred AEM but didn’t think he’d get in. We studied the curriculum and made a lot of calls. There are a lot of classes incorporated in the ILR curriculum (macro and microeconomics, statistics, business strategy) which overlap a business major and now there’s the business minor. It seems like he would be able to take a lot of business courses in ILR. Don’t remember exactly but it seemed like he won’t have to take all that many “history of labor and unions” type classes. Even in most business majors you have to take at least one or two HR classes.</p>
<p>You can also get into management consulting through HR.</p>
<p>if you don’t mind me asking bridgezon, what other schools was your son considering/accepted to?</p>
<p>My son will be attending either ILR or George Washington in the fall. His interest is in politics.(I am hoping for GW.) I graduated from ILR in the 80’s and spent several years in labor relations before returning to Cornell Law. While my experience is a bit dated, my class was divided into two major groups. The first group was focused on law school (mostly Harvard or Yale, at least in their dreams). The second group wished to work in H.R. (e.g., labor relations, comp/benefits, etc). A very few were focused on academia. More interesting was the bifurcation that occurred early on in the first year. Since most of the kids were from the top of their respective classes, they were now in a different pool. Instead of being the elite of their high schools, they were now “average” among their peers. (My best friend in ILR went to dinner with her dorm mates her first week at Cornell and found to her horror that among 9, 2 were valedictorians, 3 were salutatorians and 3 were NMF.) Some of my classmates took up the challenge and studied all hours of the day and night. More decided it was not worth the effort to try and stay in the “top 10%” and settled for “B’s.” (ILR graded on a bell curve, so “A’s” were not the norm.) Competition among those wishing to stay in the elite group was vicious. For example, after a major assignment was given, students would run to the library and attempt to take out every relevant book, not so such to use them all, but to keep their fellow students from having access to those materials. (This was pre-computer, Lexis, BNA on-line, etc). Overall, it was an unhealthy environment. Perhaps things have changed in the past 25 years or so, but I tend to doubt it. With the benefit of hindsight, grades are critically important if you wish to go to law school (if you do not get into a top 20 school, save your money). Grades are not as critical if you wish to become an HR practitioner, as employers tend to look for “fit” as opposed to top grades. They know that even a B- student from ILR has the ability to be very successful in Human Resources. My advice is to know what you want out of ILR before enrolling, and then decide if you are willing to adopt the lifestyle necessary (e.g., long nights of studying. and pressure, if your goal is law school.) If you decide on law school, be ready for the final upper tier in the intellectual pyramid once you are accepted. At ILR I always felt like I could compete with the best. When I got to Cornell Law, I often sat in amazement when others responded to hypotheticals thinking “Wow! That was brilliant!! Why didn’t I think of that??” And more often than not, the responses were brilliant. So, in summary, if yu wish to go to law school and are willing to devote yourself to grades, ILR is a great pathway. If you wish to go into H.R., ILR is also a good choice (focus on internships). If you wish to go to law school and are not willing to spend four years in the library, consider a less competitive school where you can more easily get the GPA needed for a top law school. If your interests are “none of the above” ask yourself, “Why ILR?”</p>
<p>I’m personally not interested in hr. As for why I applied to ilr, when I was applying I was more on the fence regarding law or business and saw an opportunity to keep both doors open. I have definitely shifted more to the business side (investment banking, management consulting, etc) since then. I feel like the curriculum has changed drastically since then as there are only 7 specifically required ilr courses for the entire major. (for advanced ilr electives, you can take classes from aem/cas econ and do a credit internship) I feel like ilr is more versatile than just prelaw or hr, dadtoson. Has the curriculum changed significantly since you went? <a href=“http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/studentservices/curriculum/requirements/upload/ILR-Curriculum-7-15-11-2.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/studentservices/curriculum/requirements/upload/ILR-Curriculum-7-15-11-2.pdf</a></p>
<p>He was accepted to Cornell ILR ed so that’s that. He got into Michigan, Case Western, U of Miami, Indiana, etc. rolling or early admission. He was going to apply to NYU Stern, Wash U, Georgetown, USC, and some safeties like GW. I wondered if he would have been better off with a more general business curriculum but it’s a moot point now. He will take as many business classes as he can and a Cornell degree has a lot of prestige. He’s very excited about Cornell.</p>
<p>There was a female student in ILR in my year that got into law school, deferred it, and is banking @ Merrill Lynch for 2 years. The only ILR student that I knew lol</p>
<p>just curious, would you happen to remember what law school? also, is ilr so distant from the other colleges within cornell that you only met one ilr kid your whole time at cornell?</p>
<p>Harvard. ILR isn’t distant from the other schools. I was in engineering and hung out with mostly engineers. Actually now that I think about it there was another ILR student who is know working happily in HR for L’occitane. I’ve met 2 other ILR students but one or two conversations doesn’t count as “knowing” someone. I’ve probably been in class with more when I took classes outside engineering but it’s kinda hard to meet ppl in lectures that don’t have projects or discussions.</p>
<p>Basically the takeaway is that I have a narrow and unrepresentative view into ILR students and that IS ENTIRELY MY FAULT and not the ILR school’s. I just thought the student I mentioned to begin with was directly relevant to the discussion of ILR exit opportunities.</p>