Cornell University Top Questions

Being a dairy science student, joining the dairy science club has been so rewarding. Through this program, students with a slight interest in dairy get to travel all over to look at dairy operations for example some of us went to Italy, or Spain this winter break and the year before we went to California. Not only do we go see dairy operations but we also get to do the whole site seeing thing. These trips really bring together the students outside of the classroom. Every fall we host a harvest sale where we set up the pavilion and basically take care of the animals and prep the animals for the auction that takes place at the end of the week. We also do philanthropy events, etc to help raise money for these trips. This club has been extremely beneficial for me because we get to work hands on with animals for a week which is not something I get to do everyday, and we get to know some of the most amazing people there are on this campus.

Whatever kind of person you are, you'll be able to find those people at Cornell. Most people are very open-minded. There is a lot of clique-like behavior, but there are surprisingly diverse groups of people. Most are liberal. Nobody will feel out of place if they make the effort to make friends.

Cornell's main divisions among the student body are religious - you're either Jewish, or you're not. Someone who is shy and introverted might not feel at home here, becuase you have to step out of your comfort zone to really make the experience here all that it can be. Cornell students are mostly middle to upper class. Class is a fashion show - I've seen more trends start here than in New York City.

I don't know of any type of student that would feel out of place at Cornell. There's a group for just about every area of interest and if someone can't find a group that they could fit into, there might be a problem.

If you label yourself something, there is a group for it on campus. You just have to find it, or you can readily estabilsh your own organization. A student who needs a small, close knit community might feel out of place. Your department can create this environement, but the larger student body (with the exception of the hotel school) doesn't foster this sort of experience.

There are a lot of leftist groups on campus, and it's nice. There are too many sorority girls who'll wear pearls to class, but there are a fair amount of normal people. There's also a good number of people from all political inclinations, so it makes for good discussions.

Ridiculously diverse. A lot of supernerds, and a lot of party animals, and people in the middle.

I feel like it would be hard to feel out of place at Cornell, becasue there are so many people! A lot of Cornell students are form New York state; the major groups are somewhere in NewYork (lots of Westchester, upstate, and Long Island), New Jersey, and California. I feel like a large majority of students going to Cornell come form families that are well off. I'd like to think that different types of students interact, but I think people get into their niche and stay in that pretty strongly. Cornell has lots of "bubbles": a Cornell bubble, then there bubbles of race, of majors, of greek life and of what house you're in, sports bubbles, it goes on and on.

Any type of student of any background can find a home at Cornell, even the minority of minority groups! However, this doesn't mean that minorities are well represented at Cornell. In fact, they are far from well represented. The University is still largely Caucasion, so unless a minority student associates with other minorities, they feel isolated. It seems that the groups seen in high school are still seen at the college level, only larger. There are the jocks, the black kids, the rich white girls (usually carrying Sorority bags), the Asian kids, and so on. These groups are usually seperated by race and socioeconomic differences, although you will rarely find a more diverse table of students and have to question how they all met. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as minority students are able to navigate through groups and find where they will be most comfortable (usually a group of individuals most similiar to them, ie. race or socioeconimic status). So Cornell is "diverse", but it is segregated diversity that probably helps many students find their comfort zone within this dominantly white institution.

Cornell claims to be diverse, but a lot of the time groups just stick together. There are organizations for every group on campus and housing for a few. Different types of students will interact in class but not as much as they should outside.