such diversity in one university

Introduction
People who like Cornell are people who like to try new things every week, meet new people constantly, and work as hard as the next pre-med while they're at it. There are a lot of things to sink your teeth into, as long as academics don't kill you first.

Campus Life and Social Life
There are a lot of parties, but mostly the drink until you drop kind. Though there are a lot of parties, they are all pretty much the same. A good chunk of campus stays away from all parties, and does other things instead. Overall, everyone's pretty friendly. Everybody you meet wants to be your friend. Advertisement
Academics
Some departments have great professors and TAs. Others only care about their research so they don't pay any attention to undergrads. It really depends on the department. The humanities and social sciences in general have professors who like to teach, and the sciences have professors who think teaching is a bother. But there are plenty of your peers that you could also learn from, so the work isn't too daunting.

Student Body
In spite of the campus being incredibly racially diverse, the student body is actually very segregated. This might be because of the program houses that separate students by race, or perhaps because of the various organizations that celebrate a certain culture.

Students come from all parts of the world, with a large international population (does Canada count?) from Asia and Europe.

Most students here are middle class, so you don't have your 5th generation legacy students like Yale or Princeton does. They've worked hard, and their family has worked hard to get them here. Because of this, Cornell has to give out a lot more financial aid than the other Ivies, and so each student can't get as much. But then again, there are really all kinds of students here, from the ones who grew up on farms and are the only ones in their to go to college, let alone an Ivy League school, to the children of royalty of small nations in Asia.

In Closing...
Diversity. Academic diversity. Student diversity. That's what Cornell is all about.