Cornell University Top Questions

My favorite part of Cornell, and what I'll miss the most once I leave, is Lynah Rink. And the Carriage House Cafe, in Collegetown. And CTB. I like food. One thing I'd change - the weather. Everyone's got to say that. Winters here suck, it "Ithacates", which is this disgusting mix of snow and rain that blows in your face and makes you hate life. Fortunately, the globe is warming. That said, Ithaca in the fall is unlike anything you've ever seen - beautiful beyond words. Ah, nostalgia. Cornell apples, and apple cider, and all the trees turning color...it makes trudging through the sludge for 4 months tooooootally worth it. Cornell is big. I like it that way. It's broken down into colleges, and that helps. Plus, somehow everyone seems to know everyone. I'm not really sure how that works. When I tell hotel people that I'm in the Hotel School, I am greeted with SHOCK AND AWE. Even though hotelies are dumped on by the rest of campus for being stupid and dragging down the school's SAT scores, it is absolutely the best hospitality school on the planet. Non-hotel people usually fall into one of two categories: "Ohh, Ivy League" or "Cornell, what's that?" I spend most of my time on campus in the libraries, but that is a new development this year! Also, we finally got a Starbucks, which is awesome. Ithacans are hippies and don't like big chains, so we had to fight to get it. But the grande peppermint mocha frappachinos and sooo worth the decline and fall of the unique Ithacan non-conformity. Ithaca is definitely a college town. Collegetown is located off the south side of campus. It's about 6 square blocks of student-focused retail, restaurants, and off-campus housing. Plus, along with Ithaca College on South Hill, college students make up half of the Ithaca population. I wonder what they do in the summertime? Cornell's got a pretty fugly bureaucracy going on. Skorton is the people's president, though, he's obviously making a lot of effort to change things in favor of the students. Still can't get those extra Big Red Bucks back at the end of spring semester, though. The biggest recent controversy? Cornell Republicans trying to get a resolution passed for concealed carry (of guns) on campus. It was astoundingly defeated by the Student Assembly. Every once in a while the Republicans do something bat-shit crazy and cause a stir. Our basketball team is great this year, which is exciting. The Lynah Faithful are always a force to be reckoned with. Other than that, about the only manifestation of school pride is the t-shirt section of the Cornell Store.

Best thing about Cornell is the variety - breadth of classes, range of backgrounds of students. I'd change the central place the Greek scene has in the underclass's social scene. School was just the right size - big enough to meet all kinds of people and offer a lot of different classes and clubs, but split into the different colleges, so it still had a smaller feel. People are generally impressed by the Cornell name, but it doesn't have the same cache as Harvard or Yale. I think more people can relate to it than they can to the other Ivies, though. (I have a graduate degree from another Ivy.) I spent most of my time, when between classes, in one of the library cafes. Didn't get much work done, but it was a fun, casual place to read the paper or hang out with friends. I also spent A LOT of time at the newspaper office. Definite college town, but Ithaca also has its own economy that doesn't just rely on the universities, which is nice. Get to know it! The administration gets a bad rap, but that's the case with all schools. There's a lot of Big Red tape because it's such a large school. I had one incident where I needed the administration's help, both at the college and eventually university level, and they totally fell through. But in terms of general operations, I'm usually impressed. Loads of school pride. Which is different from rah rah school spirit like when you root for a sports team. Cornell has that, too, since our hockey team (and now basketball team) rocks. I think Cornellians bond over the fact that we go to school in what most consider the middle of nowhere, and we do it in what most think is a harsh winter for most of the year (not completely accurate, we do get seasons). An experience I'll always remember is, well....too many to count. A few: seeing Vonnegut speak at the Cornell Sun's 125th anniversary, slope day every year, going to class drunk once (oops!), realizing during an upperclass seminar I talked my way into in my freshman fall that I was a lot smarter than I ever thought I was. Most frequent complaints are probably related to the cost of things, the cold (and then the hot), and the workload. I don't think those are much different from complaints at any of the top Northeastern schools, though.

The best thing about Cornell is most definitely the education. First-rate professors, courses, and majors allow students to have one leg up on students from other universities. People are always really impressed when I tell them I go to Cornell. The administration is difficult to deal with most of the time, and financial aid is definitely really hard to come by at an institution when a lot of students are able to pay full tuition (and then some). So for minorities and lower class students it can be a really frustrating process.

Size is big enough to be annonymous when you feel like it--like you can go to several places where you know you won't run into anyone you know, but it is really easy to get involved in a number of activities that really make the campus smaller. One of these is Greek life, which some say is a little to prominent. It does give you the best social life at Cornell should you choose to participate, and it definately makes the campus smaller, but the majority of people you'll be meet in your classes will tell you they're perfectly happy being unaffiliated. On campus, I spend time at the libraries, studying and socializing (Libe Cafe is great).

Cornell can be too big at times....it gets super super annoying when professors hold 500+ ppl lectures

- Cornell's campus is gorgeous. Also, the abundance and variety of classes offered guarantees that everyone will find something he/she will be interested to study. - When I tell people I go to Cornell, I heard either "Don't kill yourself", or "Isn't it in the middle of nowhere?" (or both). - There is a lot of school pride. - Most people complain that the campus is too big (have to walk a lot, especially as freshmen, as North [where most freshmen live] is far from where classes are)

I love the size of Cornell. My major and activities that i'm involved in allow me to have a smaller community within the large Cornell community that I love. The one thing that I would change is all the red tape in the way Cornell is run. General people react with surprise when I tell them I'm a Cornell Engineer, and then they ask me how many math classes I have to take. The administration here makes things difficult, in terms of all the levels of contact there are to make one decision and an overall lack of participation of students in the administration. School pride is huge, I'm proud to be a Cornellian. I just wish there was more parking...

People from home are always like WOW, you must be smart when I tell them I go to Cornell. I am either in KD or at Uris library studying. This is not really a college town.. the bars are really strict at kind of small. Everytime I go to Binghamton, I have more fun because I can get into the bars without a problem. Biggest controversy is the whole concealed weapons thing and juicy campus. School pride is only big with hockey.

WVBR-FM 93.5: Real Rock Radio has been an awesome experience. I have met cool people, in and around Ithaca, and I have made a lot of friends.

I like the size of the school. The idea of 13,000 undergraduates might intimidate some people, but I've found it to be a good number. You'll be surprised how cozy the campus seems after spending some time here. I have found a great group of friends, and I always manage to see a familiar face whenever I'm walking to class. Because Cornell is a midsized institution, advising and counseling centers are pretty busy. No one will hold your hand while you're here. It's up to you to take the initiative to talk to professors and take advantage of career advising. The size is great for students who want to be self-reliant. It prepares you for the real world. I like studying in the library cafes--pretty much any place that has the smell of coffee in the air and a little background noise. Catherwood Library is also great. The seats are really comfortable, and the library is always silent. It's the perfect atmosphere to sit down and concentrate on 50 pages of reading. Cornell produces its own dairy products. The Dairy Bar makes incredible ice cream with unique flavors. My favorite Dairy Bar ice cream flavor is called "Pie's the Limit": vanilla ice cream with caramel swirls and pieces of apple and pie crust. It's heaven on a cone.