Cornell University Top Questions

To find the right college in the midst of all of today?s institutions is an amazing personal challenge. The best advice I can give is to first stay true to yourself when choosing your field of study, because ultimately you will earn a degree that will, if nothing else, get you started. If you don?t know, ensure your choice doesn?t limit your options. Second is that people surrounding you will make your experience. Visit schools for a night or two during the ?off-season?, attend some classes, and look up professor ratings online. That will give you an idea as to whether you will be doing a lot of work or partying on your own. Other factors cannot make up for these first two. The college experience is goes along the same lines. Don?t forget that your studies will get you to the next ?step? in life, but that college will (normally) only be there once. Find and spend time with your friends, go to sports games, and make those connections that will last for your lifetime. Make sure you have stories to talk about with your buddies, and some that you can tell your grandchildren.

In order to find the right college and/or university for yourself or for your child, you have start researching schools that fit you or your childs needs. However, before even the research begins, the child needs to be passionate, ambitious, and driven enough to want to succeed and learn in a higher learning environment. The school and child will form a symbiotic relationship where both the school and student gives and take as much as each puts in. To summarize, the best advice I can give parents and/or students about finding the right college and making the most of the college experience is to first enjoy high school and start the college application process early. Enjoying high school will teach students how to enjoy college and thus life, and an early start on a college application will reduce stress and make for a well informed decision.

Make sure you do you research and start early. Its as simple as that. Just take the process one step at a time and dont get overwhelmed. When you start doing research look at common schools and decide what specifications your college should have. Make a list, visit schools and revise your list. Theres nothing that helps define a campus more than visiting while class is in session. Just seeing how the students carry themselves, what they do for fun and their overall determination will give you an idea whether or not you want to join them. The most important thing is to pick a school you are excited to attend. When you are excited you are motivated so make sure you make the right choice. In some cases you get down to the fact that the school you would love to attend is also the school you would love to afford. Student loans, financial aid and work opportunities are availible if you look into it. As a student who expects to have 25 thousand dollars a year in loans I still think it is worth every penny to go to the school you want. You only get one chance.

There is no magical formula. Do the best you can with what you have. You'll know after the first semester whether it's the right place for you. If it isn't, don't be afraid to transfer. I transferred to Cornell from another school where I wasn't happy and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Do not pay too much attention to college rankings! I know too many parents and students who aggressively mull over every tiny detail of Princeton Review or US News ranks. Decisions are made due to reasons as silly as because School A ranks 0.1 higher than School B. There is no substantial meaning to that. I would advise rather that students first identify what they would like to study. If it's engineering, then what tendencies do you have? Do you like financial engineering or are you a prospective tech savvy electrical engineer? What have you done in and outside of school that you really loved and wanted to follow up on? Having identified a core interest, then do some research on what schools excel in that. Again, don't heed too much attention to ranks. Rather, talk to students of said university how they feel their classes are, what the social life consists of, what a typical weekend is like. Don't believe everything that the college brochures that the university admissions office print. Visit the campus, stay and experience life on campus and decide for yourself if this is the right environment for you.

To the student: Finding the right college for you can be very intimidating for someone just out of high school - it was for me, at least! The first thing I reccommend that you do is decide what interests you and what you think you might enjoy doing later on in life. The next step is researching schools that offer majors in subjects that interest you (if you don't know what you want to do, it's OK! You can apply Undecided to schools that are strong in multiple fields). Next, be sure to narrow down your list of schools based on affordability and location! When you have five (give or take) or fewer remaining on the list, I *highly* recommend visiting the schools that interest you so that you can get a feel for the campus academics, diversity, social life, and the surrounding area. While you're there, ask students if they like it there and why, what the worst thing about the school is, and whether they made the right decision by enrolling! Making the most of your college experience is easy - GET INVOLVED! Don't be shy around new people, it'll be easier to make friends!

Keep this kind of answer simple: Lots and lots of students are applying to colleges today. Simply not everyone can get into every college taht they choose. There are many super qualified and wonderful candidates out there, and with so many excellent students applying grades are far from the determining factor. Character, personality and excitement in what you do is the most important -- if you are excited it will come across, so take time to write well on your essays and to learn about a school before interviewing if you chose to do that. And don't be dissappointed is you don't get in. There are also many good schools out there, and the real quality of a school comes from what you make of your time there. So wherever you end up just work hard and do what you love, and don't let the application process make you feel inferior or cheated. This is simply a step of life. And of course, good luck to all.

Tours, visits and campus stays are critical. Try to take classes, get a job, or get involved on the campus as a pre-frosh over the summer if you can before deciding where to apply/enroll.

Take the time to visit the school and learn what the institution offers its students. Take advantage of the bus trips that many of these schools offer to interested/prospective students to spend a night or weekend at the school. Make sure to ask both administrators and students at the university plenty of questions regarding your field of interest as well as any general interests (eg ? social life). Don?t worry if you are undecided! It is perfectly ok not to know your field of study going into college. Once in college, make sure to take full advantage of the resources available that help students succeed. If unsure of something, do not be afraid to ASK questions ? no matter the topic (academics, financial aid, housing, etc.). Lastly, just because you do not get accepted into your top choice college, it does not mean that you cannot fully embrace everything that the institution you attend has to offer. It is up to you to make the most of your college education and experience and you must be open minded about what will most likely be the BEST 4 years of your life. (Yes ? it is even better than high school!)

Visit each school you are interested in. It may sound expensive, but it is worth it to go to the campus, talk with the students, and see what the college is like. Also, don't brush the school off if you don't like it the first time. I didn't like Cornell the first time, and now I love the school and am happy I chose to go here. Always have a safety school ready, and don't be afraid to aim high; Cornell was a reach school and I now go there. And once you pick a college, explore it to the fullest; go to movies, check out clubs, and do something new. You'll be happy you did. Good luck!

Look at what your needs are. I chose my university because I wanted to be challenged. Do not choose a college or university just because your friend goes there, or because your parents went there, or because it looks nice. I would suggest looking at how well a student would "fit", that is, be compatible with the school both academically and socially.

With all the events and programs available at Cornell, make sure you organize and plan your time and schedules well. It?ll definitely be worth it in the end.?

Try a lot before you decide-- that goes for visiting colleges, taking courses, choosing activities, etc. As tempting is it is to settle in where you first feel comfortable, don't narrow things down too quickly.

I?ll never forget career day. Our puerile responses were spontaneous and simple. One student proudly proclaimed to the teacher, ? I want to be a fireman.? Another smugly shouted, ? I want to be a doctor.? I always thought that my answer was the coolest, and most profound for my young first grader status, ? I want to be an astronaut.? That bold statement never traipsed across my mind as something that was out of my range, something that was unachievable. I didn?t stop to fret about the many applications I would have to pound through, the hours, days, and weeks waiting for a response from that reach school, or even the money that it would cost. I truly believed I was going to be an astronaut, sipping tang and wearing space boots, but after watching Armageddon I was singing another tune. Although I no longer have the desire to become an astronaut I realize I had made a pivotal decision on that day. Young age is a catalyst for the imagination. I set no limits because I foresaw none. Parent?s and students shouldn't see college is unattainable, forget the naysayers and work hard.

There is no easy way to make such a daunting decision. No matter where you go you will second guess yourself and you will have friends who appear to be enjoying their experience more than you are. After completeing one year of school I have realized that it is far more important to choose a university based on the availability of both classes and activities that involve your interests than to choose a school based on the climate, social environment, appearance and reputation. There is diversity everywhere and you will always be able to make lifelong friends put in a little effort to find them. Ultimately college is about learning new things and developing your mind with the addition of information you will not be able to recieve anywhere else other than a college campus. As such it is far more important to be in an intellectually stimulating environment than where you can get a nice tan and love every person you may meet.

Do an honest assesment of what kind of person you are and what you want. Fitting in on campus and being happy are much more important that going to a school that is ranked slightly higher. Going to a 15th ranked school over a better fitting 20th ranked school can mean the difference between being happy and being motivated to do well or barely passing.

You should definitley visit the school before going. I thought I would hate cornell before coming up and was not really even considering it. I thought it was too big, but i realized it was just the right size (big enough for good research facilities, but small enough to not get lost, and i dont mean in terms of directions). Visiting other schools i realized i did not like them at all, so it is very important.

Make sure you're making the choice for yourself and not for your parents. If it's between just a handful of schools, go with the place you think you can be at for 4 years and know that you will have the same opportunities regardless of which similarly ranked school you go with.

The best advice would be to actually check out the schools that the student is interesting in attending. The brochures and facts and peer experiences can be misleading and exxagerations. Take a trip over the weekend and see if the campus is a fit for you and your personality. If there are programs where you can sit in on some classes or stay the weekend at at a dorm with a student, I would highly encourage prospective students to take them.

In terms of selecting the right college for you, availability of particular areas of study and location, should be important factors to consider. Finding a school that offered the somewhat unique major I wanted to go into (landscape architecture) was hard, so that narrowed my choices significantly. From there, I took geographic location into account. I could have chosen the school in my home town, or a school that was a 4 hour drive away. I chose the farther one. While both were good schools, I wanted to get away a little bit to broaden my horizons. Because I love my family and home, it was very hard for me to adjust, but after two years I've decided it was a good decision. I appreciate the unique opportunities that the small but ecclectic town of Ithaca, NY offers. On the other hand, it's not so far that I can't drive home in case of a family emergency. Overall, it is most important that the student, and not the parent, is the main decision-maker when it comes to choosing the best college.