Cornell University Top Questions

First, sports. The most popular sport is ice hockey -- that's the one people will line up for with tickets and things. A lot of people go to the homecoming football game, but that's pretty much it. Sports aren't all that huge on campus, but I think that's fine... you can go to whatever games you want to and you'll find a small, loyal crowd of followers. Even though Cornell might not be the most sport-oriented school as far as spirit goes, there's a tremendous amount of school pride, and everyone loves proclaiming their love for the Big Red Bear, for wearing all red, and for being Cornellians. The dorms are all sort of different... Donlon is a social dorm, Dickson is a big, social dorm full of singles, Court-Kay-Bauer and Mews are the newest and prettiest and are slightly, slightly less social but still very friendly, and I don't know too much about the other ones. I met all my besties in my hall; we do everything together, whether that's going to see a Bhangra show, watching a movie, going out, eating dinner together, everything! On the weekends, people pretty much party. Study a bit in the day, party at night. I've done it a couple times, but I usually take the more relaxed route -- watch a movie with friends, play Bananagrams, sit around and talk and watch youtube videos and listen to music. There's always a lot of stuff to do in the community centers and at Willard Strait Hall (where they always have free popcorn, by the way) and there are groups that get together to do sober things and have fun and be happy. There's no pressure either way, people just do what they want to do, and there are plenty of people to do whatever that is with you.

There are hundreds of clubs, and if it doesn't exist, you can create it. There shouldn't be a concern of "what's popular" since almost everyone has a different thing they're interested in. I am part of the Big Red Marching Band, and its been one of the most positive experiences here. Most of my friends are from the band, and the regularly organize parties for members. The drinking on campus isn't that bad. I have never found a large social pressure to drink. I think drinking at Cornell is somehow heavily exaggerated by the high number of fraternity houses present, but greek life is by no means the dominant social scene.

There are hundreds of clubs, and if it doesn't exist, you can create it. There shouldn't be a concern of "what's popular" since almost everyone has a different thing they're interested in. I am part of the Big Red Marching Band, and its been one of the most positive experiences here. Most of my friends are from the band, and the regularly organize parties for members. The drinking on campus isn't that bad. I have never found a large social pressure to drink. I think drinking at Cornell is somehow heavily exaggerated by the high number of fraternity houses present, but greek life is by no means the dominant social scene.

There are clubs for everything. I'll rep Concert Commission and Program Board, which bring performing artists (like B.o.B, Lupe Fiasco, K'naan, Passion Pit, and Girl Talk) and speakers/comedians (like John Stewart, Aziz Ansari, and Keith Olbermann) respectively. Greek life is very popular; I'd say around a third of people are in frats or sororities. However, you don't need to be in one to have fun, or to go out. A lot of people go out and party on Thursday, Friday, and the weekends, but many don't. I don't know, you can really do whatever you want.

There are clubs for everything. I'll rep Concert Commission and Program Board, which bring performing artists (like B.o.B, Lupe Fiasco, K'naan, Passion Pit, and Girl Talk) and speakers/comedians (like John Stewart, Aziz Ansari, and Keith Olbermann) respectively. Greek life is very popular; I'd say around a third of people are in frats or sororities. However, you don't need to be in one to have fun, or to go out. A lot of people go out and party on Thursday, Friday, and the weekends, but many don't. I don't know, you can really do whatever you want.

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The student life is really active. There are tons of student organizations and events going on. There is a great new website at Cornell called omgFreeFood (www.omgfreefood.com) which shows a lot these events happening on campus (especially those events offering free food).

Tons of activities, programs, and clubs on campus. Really fun traditions (e.g. Slope Day, Dragon Day,Battle of the Late Night Foods, Chinese New Year and Mardi Gras Dinners, etc.). Residence halls usually have a number of unique events. People seem to party and drink every single weekend (but I don't!). If not, its common to hang out in each other's dorm rooms or at the mall.

CallbaXX a cappella sings under an archway on North Campus to a crowd of people returning from their first prelims.

Fraternities and sororities. The theather arts is another world all together and it is very competitive in of itself.

The most popular organizations on campus are Greek organizations. I joined a sorority, and it was the best thing I did at Cornell. Once you join a house you will be defined by that house for the rest of the time you are at Cornell. However, the Greek system at Cornell is different than at other schools. Though social life is the biggest aspect of joining a house, it is also a place to live (every sorority and fraternity has room for you to live in for at least a year), and a smaller community. I met all my closest friends in my sorority. Freshman year, students live on "North Campus" which is nice because then all freshman are together and it is very convenient and a good way to get to see other freshmen and bond as a class. After that, students dorms are on West Campus or in Collegetown. In the freshman dorms, people leave their doors open, but the West Campus and Collegetown dorms are much quieter. Athletic events aren't popular, other than hockey (which you have to camp out to get tickets for) and homecoming for football. A yearly tradition is Slope Day, which is the last day of classes, where students get very drunk early in the morning and then there is a band that gives a free concert on the "slope" ( a hill on campus). Past performers have been Fat Joe, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg and the Game, Ben Folds Five and Talib Kweli, T.I., and Gym Class Heroes. The dating scene is very active. Cornell is a dating school more than a hook up school. Of my 16 roommates, only 1 did not have a boyfriend while at Cornell, and 13 graduated with a serious boyfriend. We heard while there that Cornell has the highest rate of marrying other people from the school than any other college and I believe it.

Parties start on Thursday nights, for those crazies out there. If you are a straight party person all year, I would not suggest going to this school. It sucks to wait outside a party on line and while it is freezing cold or the weather is bad. You practically always got to wear a coat and when entering you have to put it some where, hoping that when you are finished it will still be there. In terms of clubs, there are so many, I can almost guarantee everyone can fit in. If you wanted to do something outside of school, that is pretty difficult since Cornell is located in the middle of no where (Ithaca). I would also suggest people do there shopping outside of Ithaca, considering the mall is really small and not that great.

See above.

Cornell isn't all that into sports. Football and lacrosse have a decent following, and this year basketball got alot of attention since it made it to March Madness. Dorm life is alot of fun and very social, but it kind of depends on which dorm and floor you live on. I had my door open all the time when I lived in a dorm. Most students move off campus during their sophomore or junior year to Collegetown. Frats are very big on campus for partying, especially for underclassmen. Upperclassmen usually go to bars in collegetown.

weekends often revolve around the Frat houses unless you know someone who;s involved with some other group with social opportunities, or if you aren't into big parties, there are plenty of people who avoid the frats and find activities elsewhere. Dancing, bowling, swiming, movie watching, just to name a few. Dorms are a relevent factor as well. Donlon is known as the loudest party dorm (ambulences come by everyweekend) Dickson, the largest dorm, varies widely, it was the dorm I stayed in and I enjoyed it alot Court, Kay, Bauer, and Stras are the only dorms with AC, if that's important to you, try to live there there's JAM (just about music), latino learning lving center, risely for the arts, so on and so forth.

There is a club or activity for everyone at Cornell. From intermurals to club sports to varsity, there is always a way to keep playing a sport. Hockey games are huge (everyone goes to them), and lacrosse and basketball are becoming really popular, too. Other than homecoming, no one really goes to football games. Clubs cover every topic from philanthropy to videogames and everything in between. If you are a social person and like to go out, frats and sororities will be a big deal. I never thought I'd join a sorority- I had tons of stereotypes in mind and thought there was no reason to join one. But what I found was an amazing group of girls, a great philanthropy, mixers and parties, tons of things to do like intermurals, a way to be a leader on campus, great networking, and cheap housing in a gorgeous house. I love it and joinging was one of the best decisions of my college career. I can't stress it enough- go through Rush even if you don't think you want to be greek. My friends forced me to rush, and now I am so happy I did. If you're not in Greek life, you can definitely still go out plenty, it's just a little bit harder. Frats and sororities have mixers all the time, which other people can't go to, so if you're not in a house you can only go to really big open parties or parties in collegetown or a sports houses. If you're not into partying, there are always concerts, performances, movies, sports games, etc. to go to on a weekend night. Be sure to check out the a capella groups- they're amazing!!

Traditions: Cornell has awesome activities! Dragon Day! Slope Day! From day 1 you will learn to love these traditions and hold them as your own. Be excited to be a part of them! Drinking: Yes, lots of people drink underage but there are a infinite number of ways to avoid these activities. There are definitely more things to do when you're sober! Greek Life: Rush was a pretty big event here, but no one forces you, and there are a lot of other good housing options apart from Greek life. Friends: You'll find that you are either closest with the people you live with or the people you're in classes with. Like any new environment it's awkward the first few days, but by the end of first semester you'll definitely find your niche. I recommend joining a club; Cornell Symphony definitely introduced me to lots of people. Guest speakers: People who came this year: Sandra Day O'Conner, BJ Novak, John Ashcroft, Maya Angelou, Bill Nye, Jerry Stiller, Tracy Morgan. Also some great visiting professors!

My favorite past-time at Cornell was being a "Lynah Faithful" - or having season tickets to Cornell Men's Hockey! I had never seen a game before and they're so fun! Expect to camp overnight for tickets! Greek life is as much a part of your experience as you make it. I know people who NEVER went to frat parties, and others that rushed and pledged a house. People leave their doors open all the time and usually welcome any distractions from work. My dorm had pool and pingpong tables that I could always find friends at, or people are always up for watching movies until 5 am.

Greek Life... If you're on the fence about joining a fraternity/sorority, I highly recommend that you rush. I wasn't going to rush for a sorority until about 3 weeks before rush week. I decided that if I didn't like it, I could always drop out. In fact, many people do drop out, and it's not considered a bad thing. My decision to join a sorority was based on the following reasons: 1) Networking (being a part of a national organization has so many benefits that may become apparent when job hunting, for example) 2) More social opportunities (especially if you're into partying, many parties in the spring semester are closed/exclusive and you need to know people to get in) 3) Meeting people (I know tons of people now) 4) Volunteer and leadership opportunities (you will never get bored with all the opportunities available to you) 5) Forming close friends (the guys/girls who you live with are similar in many ways and different in others, but chances are that you will get along very well and form some lifelong friendships) Many fraternties and most sororities at Cornell do not haze. About 1/3 of the student body is involved in the greek life at Cornell, and a big part of the social life revolves around it.

Cornell has a pretty good social life, and there are TONS of activities to get involved in. There are over 600 student groups on campus, and they range from cooking clubs to sports clubs to religious clubs to political groups. I actually find the idea of all these clubs overwhelming, but I guess it helps to find one or two groups that you really want to get involved in. There is a thing at the beginning of the year called "Club Fair" where hundreds of clubs set up tables of information and students just walk up and down aisles of tables getting info where they want, signing up where they want, and just generally getting an idea of what they want to be involved in. Cornell has a lot of school spirit... for a few sports. Our hockey team is the most popular team on campus, and you have to buy season tickets that are upwards of $300 in order to go to games. I did not buy season tickets (can you say broke college kid?) but I heard that they are a lot of fun to go to. We also just really got into our basketball team, which went to the NCAA tournament last year for the first time in 20 years. It was amazing. For basketball and just about any other sporting event, you buy individual tickets for the game (that are cheap- about $3) or you can buy a Sports Pass for $40 that lets you get into any game you want without buying a ticket (but you can't use these for hockey games). Our football team sucks, but the games are kinda fun to go to, especially homecoming because all the fraternities and sororities come and cheer on the team. There's also a "Freshmen flock the field" game where all the freshmen get to line up on the field before the game and welcome in our team. It's kinda fun, but not overly so. Weekends at Cornell are what we live for. We work really hard all week, and by the time the weekend comes, all we want to do is let off some steam. For those of you who drink, there are always frat parties to go to where you just have to show a Cornell ID to get in (no cover charge and no worrying about not getting beer!). For those who don't drink, there are always shows going on at the Cornell Cinema that are a bit older movies or up at the mall's movie theater, which shows all new movies. Or you can go bowling at Helen Newman lanes, which is in the basement of Helen Newman Gym right on North Campus by the freshmen dorms. It's kinda small, but really cute and very cheap. Going out to dinner is a nice way to get away from the dining halls (which actually have very, very, very good food!), and for that you can hop on a bus (you get a free bus pass your freshman year) and either go up by the mall, down to Collegetown, or down into Ithaca. My favorite activity I do here at Cornell is be a part of my sorority, Alpha Xi Delta. You can rush at the beginning of your 2nd semester as a freshman or in the fall if you're a transfer or upperclass student. Rushing for girls is hard- you go all over campus visiting the 12 different sororities and then you choose first your top 9, then 6, then 3 and then your top 1. But in order to go back to the houses after choosing your tops ones, you have to be on that houses list as well. It can get tiring, discouraging, and highly annoying (and also really cold because it's January in Ithaca) but it's highly rewarding if you stick it through. For guys, the process is a bit different because there are almost 50 frat houses on campus. For guys, you take the first few days to visit as many as you want, then you start going back to the ones you like best repeatedly. Frats also have events at night that guys can go to, and you choose to go to the frats that you think you connect the best with. Then, after a couple more days, the frats will invite you back for a bit more formal meeting and then you can only go where you were invited back to. The final pick comes when frats offer you a bid and then you have to choose which house to accept the bid from. Cornell has the 3rd largest Greek system in the nation and so approximately 30{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the student body is involved in greek life (this also includes Multi-Cultural Greek Letter Council houses that have frats/sororities for minorities). It is the most amazing experience of my life and I have met some of the most wonderful people on Earth. They will be your best friends for the next four years, and you will enjoy every minute of it.