<p>I'm going to apply to Cornell, UVA (in-state), Duke, some safeties, and then maybe a few other Ivies. </p>
<p>What I want to know is: what is life at Cornell like? Do you like it? Is it fun? Is the work manageable? How are the ECs? Research? Parties? People? Tell me everything!</p>
<p>I want to apply ED someplace to maximize my chances... but first I need to be absolutely sure I want to go there.</p>
<p>Freshman here: Life at Cornell, at least so far, has been awesome. I have been very occupied and thus haven’t had a ton of free time, but the fact that I’m doing interesting things and meeting interesting people makes it almost impossible to be depressed or anything like that. For me, the work is time-consuming but manageable if I plan correctly; of course, I am taking several time-consuming classes this semester. I don’t know anything much about research, but it’s a research university so I’m sure you could find something to do, and I plan to do so in the future as well. About parties, every non BYU college out there will have parties; for freshmen it has gotten tougher to find them, but they are definitely there if you want them; as for the kinds of parties, it’s what you’d expect from college, but no SEC-level stuff.</p>
<p>This video pretty much gives you the feel of Cornell:</p>
<p>[This</a> Is on Vimeo](<a href=“http://vimeo.com/23897683]This”>http://vimeo.com/23897683)</p>
<p>Cornell is amazing, though I am sure that no two people will paint the same picture for you of what it is like here. The work is very manageable-- I transfered here from a state school, and the work really isn’t all that more demanding, there is just more of it. If you are decent at managing your time, and don’t overload yourself, then it’s not that bad. I usually take 15 credits/semester, have 2-3 ECs, and am in a sorority and go out 2-4 nights a week and still have a great GPA. It’s really all about managing your time. </p>
<p>There are very different types of people at Cornell. Most people will tell you there is a divide between those who go out and those who don’t, which I find is somewhat true. Regardless, there are all different kinds of kids here, and I don’t think anyone would be hard pressed to find someone (or many people) that they clicked with.</p>
<p>Life at cornell is great and can’t really be described because its different for every single person depending on your major, what activities you do, if you do a sport, if you work, where you live, if you’re in greek life, etc. its just such a big school and there are so many variations of what you could do that its impossible. But I love it. and hate it at the same time, sometimes, but mostly love it.<br>
I have a great time, its a lot of fun and there are so many people that you’ll definitely find some that fit you’re idea of fun, whether its going to a party or playing video games or having movie marathons or whatever.<br>
The work is totally dependent on your major and what you’re involved in. For me personally i usually find the work very stressful–i’m in a studio based major so its a LOT of time, and i’m constantly in studio. i work, eat, sleep, even watch movies and drink in studio. what makes it manageable for me is that most of my best friends are also always there. but at the same time the amount of work that i get + all the different activities i’m involved in + greek life + having a boyfriend + keeping in touch with friends outside my major and my sorority = not much sleep, and a constant feeling of stress and needing an extra day in the week to just figure everything out. </p>
<p>The best way I could describe it, which is not true for everyone at all but would be true for people with relatively demanding majors who also like to socialize and party–which would describe me and most of my friends–is that we do everything extremely and never sleep. During the week we work and study as much as we can, giving it all of our concentration. On the weekends we go out and party hard, giving it all our pent up energy. What is unfortunate is that we never seem to just chill. Its so rare to just hang out with the girls and go to a movie, that when happens like once a semester its amazingly refreshing. </p>
<p>I realized all this last summer, when I stayed in Ithaca–its like everything just slows down to half speed and instead of killing ourselves all week and raging every weekend we’d just do our 9-5 jobs/research and then sit on porches and drink some wine and talk for hours every night. much less stressful, probably a much healthier lifestyle too.<br>
Its also really apparent this semester, as I’m studying abroad, and everything is just so much calmer, i’m getting proper amounts of sleep, etc.</p>
<p>I also agree in termsof people theres somewhat of a divide between those who go out and those that do, just because you tend to see the same people over and over again at parties even if you may never see them in your classes. But there are people from all backgrounds and interested in everything imaginable so you can’t really generalize about what people are like. </p>
<p>I’ve had an amazing time with ECs and research. The one thing I would say is that it doesn’t just happen, you have to actively seek it out, and a lot of people aren’t willing to put in the effort to do that and then complain about how hard it is to find research or get a job. Given I’m in a really small major, I just went up to a professor I met during my orientation who seemed focused on the same type of research I was interested in, talked to her, and she offered me a job working at the costume collection. She’s now my research adviser as well. I picked up a bunch of extra curriculars, dropped some and got really involved in others. There are so many opportunities you just have to put in some effort to take advantage of them.</p>