SO-SO Time at Cornell...

Introduction
I chose Cornell because it demonstrated a long-standing, strong commitment to diversity and it's a very large school offering an outstanding variety of majors, extra-curricular activities, clubs, academic, and socail opportunities. Also it's reputation for five-star dining facilities (which it definitely lives up to) drew me to Cornell. If you don't like working really, really, and I mean REALLY hard to get A's in most classes, seriously freezing, icy, and downright brutal winters, 20-30 min walks to classes, or being isolated in a very rural hippie town then Cornell is proabably not the place for you.

Campus Life and Social Life
Social life at Cornell...is definitely what you make it to be. How much fun you have all depends on your personality and the kinds of friends that you make. If you are socially challenged then you probably won't have much fun as most people don't go out there way to socialize with you if you isolate yourself (with the exception of your RA). Greek life seems to be where most the FUN to had is whether or not you join a frat or sorority. Alcohol, beer,getting drunk and hooking up are the main focuses of frat parties which happen from Thursday nights through Early Sunday Mornings. If you don't like what frat parties have to offer there are plenty of other nightly and weekend activities held every night/weekend by countless student and university organizations. Many restaurants, a mall, and movie theatre also a short bus ride from campus. Sorry no night clubs and bars have strict ID policies. Many students under 21 get away with Saki (Japanese Beer) Bombing at two of the main Japanese Restaurants in Collegetown, Miyake and The Plum Tree. As for campus life, there are too many student organizations to name, last time I checked there SAO website boasts about 800 different campus organizations. The clubs range from the normal run of the mill like Cornell Republicans and Cornell Daily Sun to really special interests like Cornell Smash Brothers and Cornell DDR. Many, many internationl and cultural student organizations. It should not be hard to find a club or several that interest you and if not it is fairly easy to form your own club and get university sponsorship. Sports??? No sports matter except hockey and it's not even the team, rather the super fun atmosphere of the games. Academics
Overall Academics are very difficult. Students must have enormous motivation and diligence to do well here. The workload is overwhelming at times especially if you don't keep up with a schedule. Competition is steep since everyone is competing with some of the best and most hard-working students anywhere. A good number of classes are graded on curved scales which makes competition even worse. However difficulty does vary depending on which major you chose. Engineering and Architecture students get hit the worse with workload and difficulty of classes. Arts, CALS, and Human Ecology students vary in difficulty/workload depending on majors. Hotel students suffer the stigma having the easiest and lightest workloads which is true most of the time for what I know.

Student Body
The Student body is pretty diverse, but diversity doesn't mean people usually mix once among each other. This meaning that I have witnessed a lot of self-segregation amongst students. Black students have there own parties, Greek system, housing, and mostly stay amongst themselves. White student also. Asian students segregate themselves from other races and also other asian cultures. Indian students have mainly Indian friends and so on. Althought people do mix, it is not as common as it could be.

In Closing...
Cornell was alright, but make sure you do you research before you come here. The horrible weather, the overwhelming competition, and the really isolated location got to me after about two years.