Cornell University

Ithaca NY
March 22, 2009

First and foremost, Cornell is a mammoth institution. As my family first stumbled upon the surprisingly mysterious architecture and New England town feeling of Ithaca, New York, Cornell’s picturesque campus atop a hill overlooking the entire Lake Cayuga valley seemed to beckon down to the measly town below.

As seen in the aside photo from the top of the campus hill, a huge variety of architecture, elevations, building materials, and colors adorn the cramped-seeming campus. Despite the campus’s great size, a tour guide explained most of the modern academic buildings were haphazardly planned and themed around fluctuating budgets and influxes in students after the second World War. For this reason, the dozens of impressive gothic and ivy covered buildings dating back to the nineteenth century are surrounded by many less ornate, modern buildings. Although this slightly dilutes the beauty of the campus, the overall effect is still extraordinary.

Among these buildings are the traditional college president’s house, clock tower, and chapel (all of which are stunning), but also huge modern classroom facilities and one of a kind scientific laboratories. Including the worlds second best nanotechnology center, theses facilities are both large in size and of an incredible structural caliber. Again, the size of the campus is simply immense. Sidewalks are two to three times wider than usual and the campus has something like two hundred and fifty academic buildings. To manage the size and make the campus accessible to pedestrians, all of the academic buildings are hoarded into the center of the campus, and different bunches of student dormitories and graduate schools flank the central campus on all sides.
















To explain the large size of the school, let me explain a little bit about the school’s history. Founded on a land grant from the New York state senate, the school was designed as the state’s first university. Over time, parts of the school broke out of the states control and the school divided into seven distinct undergraduate schools and several other graduate schools, all of which function totally independently for funding and admissions. Currently, the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS), the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and the College of Human Ecology still receive some public funding, making them the only public schools in the Ivy League. For this reason, in-state residents enjoy a tuition break only at these three schools. The Universities wholly private colleges include the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, the College of Arts and Science, the College of Engineering, and the School of Hotel Administration.

The school’s affiliation with the state of New York explains why it offers so many unique programs, many of which are world renowned. The School of Hotel Administration, for example, is the only program of its kind at a prestigious University in the United States. Along with programs such as Cornell’s School of Hotel Management, the University boasts many strong programs in unique sciences, both human and environmental, as well as the nation’s finest veterinary program.

This eclectic nature is what defines Cornell. It might not have the best teachers or the most well known professors, but I truly believe it has the best facilities and some of the the most diverse and strongest programs of any University in the United States. I should also note the broad music program.
















As one would expect, such a strong reputation as a diverse institution brings in a huge variety of students. Cornell is home to about thirteen thousand undergraduates and another seven thousand graduate students, which brings the universities total student enrollment to just under twenty thousand students. The only real anomaly in the student demographics is the highest concentration of East Asian students in the Ivy League and subsequently very strong programs in Asian culture and languages.

On my campus visit, I experienced a wide variety of student demographics and was pleasantly surprised to find mostly confident, intellectual, and very friendly undergraduates. Just from peeking into the library, I could tell that the students are people who know where they are going in life and are intent on getting there the best prepared. Academics were described as extremely tough. Students in rigorous programs allegedly never leave the library. My tour guides were both very warm and spunky but still very driven individuals who both lined up jobs and internships within their first year at the University. Although they said that academics can at times get overwhelming with large classes and high workloads, each student has an assigned academic advisor as well as a wealth of tutoring opportunities available from within their field of study.

Taking a break from academics, my tour guides also added that the University has arranged for no classes to occur between 3:30 and 7:30. This allows a specific time every day for students to participate in athletics or clubs, take a nap, catch up on work, or meet with friends for dinner. This time seems integral to avoiding a meltdown amidst Cornell’s very intense and competitive environment.

As to my overall impression of the University, I found Cornell to be immediately lovable in its beautiful campus and warm students yet intimidating and deceptive in its huge size and focus on research rather than undergraduate education. The town of Ithaca was surprisingly urban and upbeat, if not slightly past its prime, and seemed to fit nicely with the college and the several other colleges in Ithaca, giving it an appealing atmosphere. Cornell seems like the quintessence of the big school that students fail out of because they get lost amidst the universities demanding academics and uninviting atmosphere . Students also seemed to have a darker side of being constantly overwhelmed by a dearth of academic pressure and competition, although I genuinely believe that Cornellians are truly happy and that such an intense experience is invaluably rewarding later in life.

Admissions to Cornell culminates in an average SAT score of 1395 and an ACT range of 28-32. The overall admission rate was 21% last year, with the Early Decision rate hovering around 37%.