<p>Hi, I'm applying to schools this cycle and Cornell is definitely on the list. I only recently began considering ILR, although my family had been recommending it to me for awhile (parents and sister are CU alums). I found that they were right, I think ILR is a really good fit for me. I just had a couple questions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>What do you feel is the focus of the curriculum? I looked on the website and it had a sample schedule, but I didn't really get a feel for what students study. Do you find it to be very econ oriented, sociology, history, gov't.....there were a lot of areas that ILR seemed to draw from (which was a plus for me), but I'm wondering what the emphasis is on. There are some areas that I like more than others. </p></li>
<li><p>To clarify: Many ILR students go on to do human resources? I'm planning to go to law school, but I'm just wondering what I would do for internships and if I decide against law school. </p></li>
<li><p>Can you tell me more about admissions? How is it in terms of difficulty compared to the other colleges? What is the importance of the essay?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The rest is not so much a question but looking for feedback:
I'm really kind of worried about the essay. The truth is, I haven't known for my whole life that I wanted to do ILR, and it hasn't really been my "passion." Everyone always thought I would be a history major, but I don't think that's very practical. I think ILR would be a great major for me because it's an intersection of many subjects that interest me, and is also an intersection of my interests and practicality. I also think that my resume matches very well with what ILR says they are looking for. My concern about the essay is because ILR was really an afterthought in my college search, and I don't want to be rejected because I seem disinterested in ILR.</p>
It is difficult to generalize and I wouldn’t try to do that if I were you. Econ, sociology, psychology, history, etc. are all part of it - students usually tailor their schedules to fit their academic wishes from here. I focused more on econ and psychology (org. behavior), while some of my friends were much heavier on econ and statistics while others took a much more of a pure psychology path. Your schedule the first year or two will be a bit of a mash of all of these disciplines and then you can focus on specific areas of study.<br>
many, but not all. Many others also do things like banking, consulting (both management consulting and HR), while some will go non-profit or other will do law internships (whatever those entail). I did research one summer with an ILR professor on campus. I wouldn’t worry about it now, the “big” internship happens between junior and senior years. Until then, ILR has a WISP program that is a small winter internship where students shadow ILR alumns on the job. It’s a good program and worth looking into if you’re ever on campus.
it’s getting more difficult. The admit rate for the incoming class was 20% while the yield remains strong. If ILR is your #1 choice, I’d certainly consider applying ED. And the essays are extremely important, each one is read by 3 adcoms and those who make the pass will be given to faculty members for evaluation.<br>
your activities lining up well with what ILR is about is a very important tool in helping admissions figure out your interest in the school. Focus on highliting these and I wouldn’t worry too much about the other details. But again, they do scrutinize the essays, so write them carefully (most essays they see are crap, don’t fall into this hole). Focus on yourself, your passions, and your interests, and use each wiriting piece to highlight something different about you (all of the writing pieces seen together should give them an idea of who you are and why you’d be good for ILR).</p>
<p>it can get kinda annoying having to take a required class in an area you don’t like…but giving you a rounded education is one of strengths about the ilr curriculum…</p>