Cornell College Top Questions

Greek groups are very prevalent at Cornell, but not necessary in order to have a social life. You make friends with people in almost every group and then you go to their parties or their get-togethers. It's not like the group hate each other. They all get along and have fun.

Greek organizations dominate the social life for a large portion of the student body. Because there are so many (14), there are parties almost every weekend, although they are not the ragers that you see in movies. The school does sponsor some dry activities on the weekends, but most of the time you have make your own fun, dry or sober. Because Cornell is on the block plan, parties tend not to happen on weeknights (you really can't miss class), and it's not unheard of to have a paper due on Friday nights. Everyone's usually in bed by midnight during the week, and 2 or 3 am on weekends. Since practically everyone lives in the dorms, there's definitely a community. You'll see lots of doors open on a typical night. There are a lot of couples on campus, but there's definitely a lot of hooking up, too. If you want to do something off-campus, you can drive into Cedar Rapids (20 minutes) to see a movie or go out to eat. In Mount Vernon there are some cute restaurants and shops. There is a bowling alley, a grocery store, and a tiny movie theater. Campus is hilly, and there are definitely places to sled, and there's even an official sledding hill in town that's closed to traffic in the winter.