Cornell - honest opinion

[Anonymous]

Regardless of weather, it's important to distinguish that students majoring in engineering and CS are having a very different experience at Cornell than the hospitality or the humanities students. I'd throw in Dyson too - Applied Econ and Management. Those three programs are incredibly competitive. There are known to be difficult, intense, and cutthroat. You either have the disposition for it, or you don't - particularly engineering and CS.

It's probably best for students that like the outdoors, can compartmentalize, and have an outgoing personality that makes it easy to make friends. I'd be wary of sending an introvert with Seasonal Affective Disorder to do STEM at cold and dark Cornell. Hotel Administration and the softer majors will be different. Plenty of time to join clubs or the Greek system. But engineering and CS are very time consuming majors at Cornell.

[Anonymous]

I almost never hear that Harvard, BC, Colgate, Hamilton, Bowdoin, Bates etc. and cold dark and dreary but for some reason that is the first thing I hear about Cornell. Always wondered if it was just a way to discredit it or is there more to it.

[Anonymous]

I'm an alum. Yes, the winters are cold and dreary, and occasionally quite windy due to the lake effect. I wouldn't call them brutal, but being from the northeast originally, I don't mind the snow and cold; someone who does might find the Ithaca winter to be too much. My freshman year roommate from AZ transferred out because of the weather and there was one guy down the hall from CA who grumbled a lot about the snow, but most students seemed to grin and bear it. The campus is situated on a steep hill from downtown Ithaca and the upperclassmen dorms on West Campus, and I remember trudging up to class up that hill in the snow was no joke. Fall and summer are quite lovely though.

As far as competitiveness goes, I was in Arts&Sci and while the academics were challenging to be sure, I never found it overwhelmingly competitive. I agree with the above PP that the feeling of competitiveness will likely depend on your major or school - premeds and engineering students have a reputation of being more competitive than the liberal arts or social sciences. That was true 20 years ago, and it's likely still true today. I lived with a bunch of engineering students (Chemical and Materials Science) and while they hit the books a ton, they also had some downtime and were able to participate in clubs and activities. It's not like they spent their entire undergraduate experience holed up in the library stacks.

[Anonymous]

Engineering is a notoriously difficult major at Cornell. Definitely expect a D or four on the report card. Just have to be ok with that. Maybe things have changed in the 20 years since I went there though! The campus is beautiful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't visit a second time until you have an acceptance. That is putting way too much emphasis on what is probably a 5% crap shoot. I would never do that to my kid.

the weather will be fine. I went to school in Chicago. it was cold from Nov until we left in May each year but we all had fun regardless. Snow and cold becomes a non-event very quickly. as to the competitiveness? You can access that once he gets accepted.

This. My kid applied RD (engineering) and was waitlisted. And it's bitterly cold. Read up about suicide bridge on wikipedia. it has its own page: Cornell gorge suicides.

Suicide and mental health issues are found in all the top schools. Cornell is not a stand-out.
This article from last year about Yale mental health is quite sobering. https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/11/yale-suicides-mental-health-withdrawals/

This piece from Penn is also quite interesting. Cornell doesn’t even make the list:
https://seaswellness.seas.upenn.edu/research/#:~:text=This%20article%20states%20several%20important,other%20schools%20in%20the%20country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bill Maher went there. Today, he'd encourage your kid to become a plumber.

Have you tried to hire a plumber lately? I went there and told my kids to become a plumber.

Winters aren’t as bad as Syracuse because Syracuse has the lake effect - the extra moisture dumps massive amounts of snow.

There is snow, cold, grey, slush, wet, freezing rain, etc. I was too busy studying or partying to mind the weather too much but it is there.

[Anonymous]

Go if you get in. It’s still grim in april. And you’re putting too much pressure on a school to visit 2x

[Anonymous]

Senior 4.0 GPA loves it. Transfer sophomore. Arts and Sciences. Cold but nothing a Canada Goose level 4 can't solve. Other kids in NYC and DC got level 3s. You get an Ivy Degree. What's not to like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I almost never hear that Harvard, BC, Colgate, Hamilton, Bowdoin, Bates etc. and cold dark and dreary but for some reason that is the first thing I hear about Cornell. Always wondered if it was just a way to discredit it or is there more to it.

Weather is not quite as cold at Harvard and Boston/Cambridge are much sunnier than Ithaca + you are in an urban location. The SLACs you mentioned have very cold weather but they all have a small footprint. The Cornell campus is massive and hilly which probably makes it feel more cold and bleak in winter than some of the other schools you mentioned. Overall, Cornell is a great school but the weather and rural location can be challenging for some people

[Anonymous]

It's not fair to single out schools for suicide. It happens in high-pressure academics. Many of the Ivies are not actually rigorous so it's also not a fair comparison across institutions. Engineering, STEM are. Cornell has a phenomenal engineering program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I almost never hear that Harvard, BC, Colgate, Hamilton, Bowdoin, Bates etc. and cold dark and dreary but for some reason that is the first thing I hear about Cornell. Always wondered if it was just a way to discredit it or is there more to it.

Michigan and Pittsburgh also have particularly dreary winters, it’s geography.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an alum. Yes, the winters are cold and dreary, and occasionally quite windy due to the lake effect. I wouldn't call them brutal, but being from the northeast originally, I don't mind the snow and cold; someone who does might find the Ithaca winter to be too much. My freshman year roommate from AZ transferred out because of the weather and there was one guy down the hall from CA who grumbled a lot about the snow, but most students seemed to grin and bear it. The campus is situated on a steep hill from downtown Ithaca and the upperclassmen dorms on West Campus, and I remember trudging up to class up that hill in the snow was no joke. Fall and summer are quite lovely though.

As far as competitiveness goes, I was in Arts&Sci and while the academics were challenging to be sure, I never found it overwhelmingly competitive. I agree with the above PP that the feeling of competitiveness will likely depend on your major or school - premeds and engineering students have a reputation of being more competitive than the liberal arts or social sciences. That was true 20 years ago, and it's likely still true today. I lived with a bunch of engineering students (Chemical and Materials Science) and while they hit the books a ton, they also had some downtime and were able to participate in clubs and activities. It's not like they spent their entire undergraduate experience holed up in the library stacks.

+1 - I'm a 2012 A&S alum and could have written most of this post. My STEM friends, particularly pre-med and engineering, did have a more challenging time academically, but we supported each other as best we could. Also, unfortunately during my time there there were 3 suicides and they installed nets underneath the bridges over the gorges.

[Anonymous]

You can't generalize about how competitive Cornell is because there are 7 colleges. The academic experience can very quite a bit depending on the college and major. My daughter is in Cornell Engineering which is tough. A lot of work. The problem sets and exams never end and even after putting in a lot of work, it is tough to get top grades. And the other students are very good so the standards are high. But its not cutthroat in terms of students trying to undermine other students. However, I'm sure its also tough at other top engineering programs, such as Carnegie Mellon, MIT, etc. Does you kid want to go through the top engineering school experience? My daughter has a friend majoring in psychology at Cornell that has a lot more free time. In terms of the weather, it doesn't feel colder to me than much of the Northeast such as Boston where I grew up, but, as others have mentioned, it does get grey. Its a good place for a student that likes nature. The campus is beautiful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bill Maher went there. Today, he'd encourage your kid to become a plumber.

Jews who go to Cornell only do so because they didn’t get into Columbia or hypsm-Penn

Bubbes will always compare you to your cousin who went to one of those other schools

No wonder Maher has a chip on his shoulder about Cornell

Bill Maher was raised a Catholic and os now an Atheist.

Not sure what your comment on Jews has yo do with anything.

[Anonymous]

irrelevant school.