Cornell University
Well I've read several of those college student review websites and the general impression is that it's a very enjoyable experience (despite the workload), people are open and friendly for the most part, great food, and despite the campus being located in the middle of nowhere, there are still things to do in beautiful Ithaca, NY.
Would any AppleInsider Cornell graduates, friends of graduates, etc care to share experiences, fun facts, or anecdotes from their years?
Thanks.
(For those who read the MacNN Lounge and notice the similarities, I'm just trying to expand user input. Members of both forums seem to be intelligent and for the most part very helpful in questions I have asked in the past)
Would any AppleInsider Cornell graduates, friends of graduates, etc care to share experiences, fun facts, or anecdotes from their years?
Thanks.
(For those who read the MacNN Lounge and notice the similarities, I'm just trying to expand user input. Members of both forums seem to be intelligent and for the most part very helpful in questions I have asked in the past)
Comments
A couple of campus highlights come to mind: The first is dragon day. That?s when those goofy architects bring up their dragon float and parade it around central campus. It?s made from materials donated, pillaged and primarily from proceeds made during the prior 2 weeks from dragon day T-shirt sales. At the end of the parade, the architects will haul the float into the middle of the arts quad and burn it. The engineers have traditionally on occasion tried to disrupt the parade by either ambushing the route or obstructing the path at the Engineering quad (one year, they built a fort). The Planning students got involved one year but making a cow and tossing it at the dragon as an offering; don?t know if this was a one time thing or not. Oh. If there is ice on the ground on that day, be prepared to duck a lot. For about 2 weeks the architects and the engineers will try to out prank each other too. The other highlight would be Slope day. This is basically the end of the academic year festivities. It can be a bit Woodstock-y with the bands (or DJ, depending). Alcohol, though not encouraged, will appear in massive quantities. If nothing else, you get a chance to see some people get stupid-drunk.
Well,, if BuonRotto stops by this thread he may have something else to say that may or may not negate what I have said.
If you go to Cornell, you will have a blast. Oh, wait. The food question. Yes. Let?s put it this way: If you are never to leave campus, you will never starve. I have had friend from other universities come visit and they had to pick their jaws up form the floor when I take them to the dining halls. The meal plan can be pricey but that depends on which option you choose. Though you?ll probably transition to making your on meals, nothing beats heading to Oakenshields at Willard Straight Hall for Sunday brunch (or Jansens on West Campus). Oakenshields opens for breakfast at 7 and is the best place to go after an all-nighter. Stop by the Greendragon at the AAP college for coffee. Oh, another thing. Twice a year, the dining halls will host an outside restuarant to provide the meals. Great time to compete with friends to see who will put away the most plates while your metabolism is still at its highest. LOL.
Damn. Hungry now? I?ll pop in once or twice if you have any other questions. There are a number of other Cornellians here. They?ll give you more info hopefully.
His second complaint is the lack of things to do. He says the most interesting thing is the one movie theater that they have in the 50 square miles surrounding Ithica. But I guess a lack of things to do will help you concentrate on your studies.
Originally posted by Scott
Does it get slammed with lake effect snows there?
Not as bad as some parts of Western New York, but more than most of us would like to see.
However, you should keep in mind that the weather is rather harsh and it is far away from major cities.
Ithaca is quite beautiful but I think you might get sick of it if you were to spend a lot of time there. (I would since I grew up in a big city)
Also to note is that Cornell has the highest suicide rate in us colleges, in fact, one of my dad's friends jumped off one of the water falls. Doesn't neccessarily mean anything though.
Cornell is a great school. What other schools did you get into? What are you planning to study?
Steve.
I confer with the fact that the work load is tremendous. You will probably not have much time to do anything else. Depends on what you want.
That was one of the reasons I decided to come to uva. Although studying is always a good thing, I figured that I needed to grow in a well rounded way. For example, I do fencing, ballroom dancing and a lot of biking. I am also in the Italian club, the European club and will be starting my mac user group next semester and I plan to find a job.
If I had gone to cornell, I probably wouldn't have much extracurricular time. It is my philosophy that university is an experience and studying is only one of the things of many.
Cornell is VERY expensive, keep in mind. the meal plan is very expensive and you have to pay for almost every little thing, for example, you have to pay for an internet connexion in the dorm, something provided free of charge in most other schools.
Also, while the campus is nice, it's nowhere near as beautiful as that of UVa (where a part of it was designed by Jefferson himself).
Again, what are your other choices?
The city is about 15,000 people I think. The city's population doubles when classes are in session, and there are a lot more people living in the surrounding towns too. But it's obviously not a big city by any means, not what I would have called a city though technically it is. It is about 3 1/2 hours outside NYC, just depends on how you go and when.
Despite being a small place, it's a fairly cultured place due to the 2 colleges and a close enough proximity to NYC to have some exchange. The blue-collar locals are friendly, if a bit rough around the edges. The other big industry in the region is mining (mostly salt). Ithaca Gun moved out of the area some time ago. There's a fairly good music scene. Cornell gets some good acts in town, and has most of the largest venues anyway, but there are some good bars and the State Theater (I think it holds 2,500) downtown and in Collegetown that get some good acts. The best place for movies is still Cornell Cinema, they do a great job with themed monthly movie showings, plus recent movies (a couple months later than commercial theaters but a hell of a lot cheaper too).
The food in the area reflects a fairly cosmopolitan population, some world famous restaurants in the area, everything from Vegetarian to Thai to big steak houses, etc. Cornell Dining is pretty good too, not amazing in itself but very competent at least. There are lots of different dining halls, with different themes, different student reresentation, snack bars/coffee stands, etc. They have theme nights and have annual events where restaurant chefs from all over come over and prepare the dinners at one dining hall per night for a week or two. Having the Hotel School and an Ag school is huge boon.
Frankly, you won't have much time to do stuff off campus with any frequency. Cornell does a good job of having lots of stuff happening right on campus anyway, and you have to like nature -- visit the various gorge parks (Treman, Buttermilk, etc.) while you're there. There's some excellent wine in the region, mostly by Lake Seneca, so make a long weekend some time to drive out and visit the wineries. Cornell has its own orchards, the Plantations, the dairy farm (ice cream!), and it's pinned between two large gorges manmade laes, creeks, Cayuga Lake of course, and has lots of athletic facilities for you. Ice Hockey is [i]the[i]sport and involves much spectator participation. Go to some home games, especially the Harvard game. Learn some cheers. Throw some fish.
Cornell is a large university, split into many smaller ones. For undergrads, there are seven colleges in the University umbrella. I think the smallest one is the College of Human Ecology (formerly the College of Home Economics), followed by Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP). They're each about 500 students total, including grad students. Arts & sciences and Engineering are the big ones. So it's huge place with HUGE quads and usually much smaller groups and classes, though the university is known for some giant courses like Psych 101 (2,000 students each semester, but really worth it) and of course the wine tasting course (400 students). Most of my classes ranged from 15 people to 40-ish for in-college required courses. For people in Arts & Sciences or Engineering, you probably take more courses that have 100-200 people in them in your early years. Later classes are very small and usually involve research, projects, dissertations and grad-level study. We were rather close (probably too close) to our professors, but that probably depends on how quickly you find a focus and where you concentrate your study. There's a HUGE library system there, and undergrads can access the grad libraries without some of their privileges. Its easy to sign up for out of college courses, but you have to manage your course load carefully, and it can be hard to keep up when it's elective for you and a core course for others. Try to take AP exams, and even some local community college courses and transfer the credits if you can for some requirements like Calculas, a natural science, CS and so forth if you're not into those things. A lot of the intro courses at Cornell are killer. (Actually, Astronomy 101 is manageable). You will usually meet some people in your first week at your dorm, and over the next year find a closer group of friends in your major or college. Your closest friends tend to be classmates in your major in my experience.
I have many anecdotes, some which shouldn't be repeated. Dragon Day is a blast if sometimes some people get out of hand. Slope day is an interesting if sloppy event. Slope Day is the last day of classes when students gather on Libe Slope (a huge hill the drops from the Arts Quad to the West Campus dorms) and get sloshed. Generally, the ambulances wait at the bottom of the hill and catch people who roll down.
Originally posted by stevegongrui
Yeah, just another thing,
I confer with the fact that the work load is tremendous. You will probably not have much time to do anything else. Depends on what you want.
That was one of the reasons I decided to come to uva. Although studying is always a good thing, I figured that I needed to grow in a well rounded way. For example, I do fencing, ballroom dancing and a lot of biking. I am also in the Italian club, the European club and will be starting my mac user group next semester and I plan to find a job.
If I had gone to cornell, I probably wouldn't have much extracurricular time. It is my philosophy that university is an experience and studying is only one of the things of many.
Cornell is VERY expensive, keep in mind. the meal plan is very expensive and you have to pay for almost every little thing, for example, you have to pay for an internet connexion in the dorm, something provided free of charge in most other schools.
Also, while the campus is nice, it's nowhere near as beautiful as that of UVa (where a part of it was designed by Jefferson himself).
Again, what are your other choices?
1.) So you chose the easier school? That's something to be proud of
2.) Cornell and any other school of its caliber offers far and beyond any amount of extracurriculars anyone may want to participate in. Italian and European club? Sounds like a high school extracurricular list
3.) Going to Cornell you will see a lot more diversity in where people are from than UVA. That's my biggest problem with Cal.... too many californians.
4.) UVA is very expensive for out of staters. So is Cal. Cornell also has a shitload more money to give in scholarships and grants than UVA does so you can't predict what it will cost at all. I have to pay for my internet connection and most people do, and if you think you don't, I'd investigate that housing bill a bit further. bandwidth doesn't come for free
5.) UVA may have been gorgeous in the 1700s...... I'd take Cornell over it though.
Great mathematicians. The arXiv server is now hosted at Cornell.
Originally posted by applenut
1.) So you chose the easier school? That's something to be proud of
How hard the work load is at the college doesn´t decide entirely how good an education you get. Depends entirely on what you are studying and what you do besides your studies. Not that I think you disagrees with it but I justt thought your comment is a bit misleading.
Originally posted by jchen
How difficult is it to establish New York State residency for in-state tuition at the public colleges at Cornell?
sorry, you're question confuses me..... Cornell is a private university. Being in-state offers you no financial benefit there.
Originally posted by Anders
How hard the work load is at the college doesn´t decide entirely how good an education you get. Depends entirely on what you are studying and what you do besides your studies. Not that I think you disagrees with it but I justt thought your comment is a bit misleading.
sure, but we are talking Cornell here. it's not like its some kind of community college with 40 hours of homework a week
Originally posted by DMBand0026
So if you are looking for an easy school, this would not be the one for you.
Really, none of the top schools -- ivy league or not -- are easy. There are departments that don't take too much effort, but if you care about your education, it's difficult.
BTW, Princeton is the best.
Why are you such an eternal pain in the ass? Do you have to argue and try to discredit everything I say?
And I find it very offensive how you have tried to say that UVa is a shit school on several occasions.
Originally posted by applenut
sorry, you're question confuses me..... Cornell is a private university. Being in-state offers you no financial benefit there.
Actually, Cornell is treated as a private institution, but it is also the land grant college of New York state, like Texas A&M is to the state of Texas. The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell was founded for New York state. Other Ivy Leaguers (sorry, Spline, I've lived in P'ton too long to think much of the place
BTW, Meaningless and I both went to the architecture school, so if our perspectives sounds pretty homogenous, it's because we were basically living and working in the same building for 5 years.
Originally posted by stevegongrui
Applenut,
Why are you such an eternal pain in the ass? Do you have to argue and try to discredit everything I say?
And I find it very offensive how you have tried to say that UVa is a shit school on several occasions.
don't post blatant BS that I feel the need to discredit.
Where have you been to outside of the US?
I've been to Canada. if you'd like to pay to send me to Italy and the rest of Europe I'd be more than happy to accept. I'm sure you can afford it since you save so much money going to UVA.
BuonRotto,
Thanks for the info. Never knew that. I have a bunch of friends at Cornell and they all love it. Although they all agree it's frickin freezing at this time of the year.
If I told you how much I pay for UVa you'd be so jealous.