Cornell University Top Questions

The student body is extremely diverse covering every state of the United States and has a strong international body, especially from Korea and Asian countries. Cornell has a mandatory diversity program that everyone must attend during Freshmen orientation for better or worse. The majority of Cornell students are from the Northeast US and California, but still bring a wide variety of students from across the globe. The financial backgrounds are diverse from the affluent to those in need of financial aid and to those who have financial aid and do not need it. Cornell is politically to the left but still has the view of the right on campus, as seen from the campus debate about carrying arms on campus.

cornell is diverse, but there is still much segregation on campus. there are program houses which i think are an awful idea, as there is an african american living center, a latino living center, etc. I think the idea of these houses is so stupid, as i think it promotes separatism and does not allow students to integrate and better get to know eachother.

I'm a Christian on campus, and I feel sorry to say that most of my friends are Christian, even though this campus is so diverse and so full of many cultures and religions. I don't think any school has the diversity and social caliber that our school does, simply because we can learn so much more from people who are different from us.

As a whole the university is fairly diverse and there are a lot of international students. But naturally humans tend towards people who have similar interests and backgrounds to them. This is true at Cornell and everywhere in the world.

This is the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about at Cornell: Cornell supports voluntary segregation. The program and cultural dorms, and the greek system all support a form of self-segregation that I find very depressing. I understand that someone who feels like they belong to an ethnic, racial, religious, or cultural minority could feel more comfortable living with and socializing with others who belong to this same minority, but this kind of exclusionary practice only ends up creating more divides. This applies to the dorms freshmen and sophomore year, and also the greek system which has special multicultural fraternities and sororities. And as for the fraternities and sororities that are not multicultural, they are overwhelmingly made up of white, wealthy, jewish New Yorkers. I don't know how this phenomenon could be changed, but it really should be.

There are various cultural organizations that students can join to feel more culturally involved - but I do not believe (or nor do I get the sense) that Cornell students segregate in that regard. Most students wear regular clothes (because most students tend to walk to class). There are buses that run (especially if you live on North campus, it is very easy to get from place to place). I believe Cornell is very diversified and that not too much segregation occurs. It is the student's choice to segregate themselves from other groups. Most Cornell students are from the East Coast Area (i.e. New York, New Jersey), but I've met so many people from a variety of places such as Alaska, California, Minnesota, Panama, Korea... the list is endless.

Cornell is a large school, and because of its size, its student body is really diverse so that it's pretty difficult to classify the "stereotypical" Cornell student.

I think a lot more Cornellians are from the tri-state area than I expected. Since Cornell's part land-grant, a significant percentage are from New York. Since I'm not, I feel like I've gotten to know all kinds of new people. Cornell has all kinds of diversity... not just the general ethnic kind, but there are all kinds of people who think differently and have had different experiences. There are always different clubs protesting something or another. Sometimes there are even counter-protests! Cornell is about speaking your mind and being heard, and it works.

Cornell is very diverse but very segregated- whites hang out with white, blacks with blacks, asians with asians, etc....of course there are exceptions, but this type of segregation is very noticeable around campus. I think certain things exacerbate the problem- such as Ujamaa, the African American living center- this really serves to segregate people and give students an opportunity to avoid learning to live/interact/be friends with people who are different from them. A lot of people are fro New York of course, but I have met people from all over - Ohio, California, Colorado, Turkey...

People have way too much money and way too little interest in helping others