Cornell has excellent programs in humanities areas, not only english but also comparative literature and creative writing. And others.
To say it has one particular “atmosphere” reflects a misunderstanding of what it is really like there. It is not a tiny homogeneous liberal arts college, it is a multi-college university where students attending have very diverse academic interests. On the same campus you have people studying in its liberal arts college (“CAS”). While other people, who are also there, are studying in hugely diverse fields: eg industrial and labor relations, hotel administration, apparel design, policy studies, fine arts, urban planning, architecture, business, engineering, …
Some of these are" techie", some are not at all “techie”.There is not one set of interests, there is not one “type”…
Socially it is as diverse as it is academically.
There are more students attending its college of arts & sciences than at most stand-alone liberal arts colleges.
Its just that there are a lot of other people there too, above and beyond that (who are also not all “techie”).
Academically a CAS humanities student may spend a lot of time on the Arts Quad. And have many fellow travelers in their classes. Socially everyone is mixed in the freshman dorms. Afterwards, as an upperclassman, when you get your own social group , you may live and socialize with whoever you want to. That group will be as “techie” as you want it to be.
A humanities student is not likely to be taking engineering courses, on the engineering quad.
There is an impact, but it is social, not academic. Some programs, engineering and maybe business, tend to attract relatively more male students, so they contribute to a leveling out the university’s male-female ratio. A lot of stand-alone liberal arts colleges are weighed more female these days. There is a great deal of dating between colleges, back in my day but evidently now too, due primarily to everyone being together initially in the dorms, I think. I know a number of couples who met there, while attending different colleges, and later married. So I would say the social aspect of the other colleges may be more germane than creation of a particular “atmosphere”. There isn’t one “atmosphere”.
MY D2 graduated from Cornell as a humanities major. She dated a guy from a different college there. Also not a “techie”.She loved it there. She said her courses in English and creative writing were great.
