172 replies to this topic

[bananagramsfan]

Anyone planning to go to Cornell?

[red_crayons]

I didn't want to start this thread... But I'm glad you did!

I did my undergrad here, and for lack of any better ideas when I graduated, I stuck around and took more classes and started working on campus.

Now I'm 95% sure I'll be doing a PhD in the Communication department. I was a biology major as an undergrad and have done a lot of other things since; I am not in much danger of committing the sin of academic incest. I don't like change very much, so I'm sort of psyched to be staying here. It'll save me moving costs, for sure, which means I'll be able to buy a car and spend more time exploring the surrounding area. I haven't had a car since my junior year of college, when I was too poor and depressed to do very much exploration.

I'm super impatient for my department's open house next weekend! I want to meet new people and find someone to be my roommate. Gotta make sure I meet new people...

Gonna go to grad school, yeah!

[so47]

Hehe I have also been waiting for someone to post this!

I am probably 95% sure I am going to Cornell next year. I loved it when I looked at it for undergrad, but was just way out of reach financially at the time. So when I started looking into graduate school, and realized it is one of the top 10 for my area, it has been my #1 choice ever since! It's the full package of what I want, the program seems like an amazing fit, it is geographically closer to my hometown which is very important to me, and I love the school overall. Plus their financial package blew my others out of the water, which just makes it an easier decision! Now I just have to visit the department to make sure the people fit too!

I am going for Chemistry, specializing in the Bio-Organic/Chemical Biology area. I'm going for the visitation weekend March 5-7, so I am VERY excited. I feel like I already have my mind made up, and just really want to visit to make sure. I am visiting another school too, but unless I HATE all the profs and grad students at Cornell, I really don't think there is much of a chance of me going elsewhere.

I am currently finishing my senior year as a chemistry major at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Another reason I love Cornell, I am SO done with living in the city. I am ready to settle back into a much more suburban setting.

So...YAY for Cornell!

[blon19]

Yep, as of now I plan on being in Ithaca in the fall. I'm still waiting on a couple of decisions from other schools that may affect that, but they're long shots. I plan on visiting Ithaca in the next couple of weeks to check out the campus and look at some housing options.

To the poster who went to Cornell as an undergrad: Would you have any recommendations on good off-campus housing that is close by?

[red_crayons]

I'll just quote myself from the city guide Ithaca thread...

Fall Creek is the best area to live as a grad/young professional, IMHO. It's near a campus shuttle that runs once every ten minutes during the week, the apartments tend to be nicer and cheaper, it's closer to the few good bars, the houses are charming, and there are nice antique stores and coffee shops in the area. Downtown has a little pedestrian mall, with restaurants and several festivals throughout the year.

AVOID Collegetown (undergrad ghetto south of campus), with the possible exception of State Street or below Stewart Ave. North is ok, but the bus service isn't really as helpful as landlords would have you think, although it's improved quite a bit since I've been here. Cayuga Heights would be a nightmare for getting to/from campus in the snow - mostly downhill from campus, no real bus service. East Hill has lots of new-ish, carpeted apartment complexes, but again, bus service may not be as good as it sounds, depending on your schedule. If you want to have a social life at all, it might be very difficult to do living in East Hill, North and Cayuga Heights.

There's not really parking on campus, and it's super expensive. You may be able to drive to campus late at night or on the weekends, but you will not be able to just drive to your lab on a Monday morning. Buses and hills really start to matter!

I don't know much about Hasbrouck. There seem to be a lot of grad families with babies. Also, they occasionally thrown undergrads in there when they admit too many; it's caused friction recently. I remember dismantling the XL bed frame in my dorm back in the day with little trouble. Bus service directly from Hasbrouck to campus runs from 7ish am to 6ish pm. Otherwise, it's more efficient to walk than to try catching the bus. Bus service to Collegetown and Downtown is improving - every 15 minutes on weekends, every 30-15 minutes during the week, depending on the time of day.

I live in the Fall Creek area, FWIW. I love it. Coffee shop is around the corner, buses are all 2-4 blocks away - almost every bus line in town! - people are nice and mostly young, I know my neighbors, I even had the space and landlord cooperation to start a garden on the property! Just need to get my act together to find a roommate so I can stay here AND afford getting a car... In this area, you could pay as much as $900 for your own place, or as little as $400 to share with 2+ people. I'm finding that $450-$500 each with some utilities included for a 2 bedroom gives you plenty of appealing options.

[focused]

Yep, as of now I plan on being in Ithaca in the fall. I'm still waiting on a couple of decisions from other schools that may affect that, but they're long shots. I plan on visiting Ithaca in the next couple of weeks to check out the campus and look at some housing options.

To the poster who went to Cornell as an undergrad: Would you have any recommendations on good off-campus housing that is close by?

I'm not the original Cornell poster, but I completed my undergrad degree at Cornell, as well. I don't think many grad students live in the apartment complexes in Ithaca. To my knowledge, there aren't that many to begin with, and the ones that do exist are heavily populated by undergrads. I believe that most grad students share houses in the Commons/downtown Ithaca area. There is also collegetown, which is right at the edge of campus, but that is heavily populated by undergrads. As an in-between option, you could try to find a house that is a few streets down from the main collegetown street. I'm not going to Cornell for grad school, but feel free to PM me if you have any questions about Cornell or Ithaca. I'd be glad to help if I can.

[Theoriologian]

Not sure if i am going yet, but i got a very nice offer. So we shall seee.....

[red_crayons]

I'm not the original Cornell poster, but I completed my undergrad degree at Cornell, as well. I don't think many grad students live in the apartment complexes in Ithaca. To my knowledge, there aren't that many to begin with, and the ones that do exist are heavily populated by undergrads. I believe that most grad students share houses in the Commons/downtown Ithaca area. There is also collegetown, which is right at the edge of campus, but that is heavily populated by undergrads. As an in-between option, you could try to find a house that is a few streets down from the main collegetown street. I'm not going to Cornell for grad school, but feel free to PM me if you have any questions about Cornell or Ithaca. I'd be glad to help if I can.

I was thinking of the apartment complexes up by the airport/Community Corners/Convenient Care/the mall. There's a bunch that cater to grad students and young professionals in those areas. Some of my professional colleagues have had good experiences up there, but the location doesn't lend itself to nighttime bus service or walking to restaurants/bars/campus, so it might hamper someone looking for an active social life. But if you are looking for wall to wall carpeting and furnished apartments, and don't need to go out much in the evenings, they would be a good option.

I would not at all recommend that a grad student should live in 312 or Eddygate (both apartment complexes in Collegetown), oh my!

Anything downtown/commons/Fall Creek will have bus service to campus every 10ish minutes until 8 pm or so, so the distance to campus isn't a problem. There are lots of studios and 1 bedrooms to be had in that area, a preponderance of 2 and 3 bedroom apartments, and a *few* whole houses and larger apartments. Many of the downtown apartments are in houses with only a few apartments and landlords with only a few properties, which has its pros and cons.

[so47]

So do you guys have recommendations of sites to use to look for housing? I heard someone in the Ithaca,NY forum say craigslist, but I have had some sketchy experiences with craigslist (someone tried to scam me through something to do with housing) so are there any other more reputable housing sites for the Ithaca area?

[alfie08]

I'm about 80% sure I'll be attending!

[red_crayons]

Craigslist is totally legitimate in Ithaca. Local papers hardly have any housing ads anymore (except for in the campus paper, geared toward undergrads) because Craigslist is so much better. Homeowners, small complexes, luxury, college ghetto, it's all there. If a rent amount looks very PRECISE, it's almost guaranteed to be a complex. Don't know why, that's just how they roll.

Do a Google search for "apartment ithaca, ny". All the major landlords will come up in the first couple pages. But you usually find the real gems by emailing people who only own one or two properties through Craigslist.

[meg]

So I'm 99% sure I'm headed to Cornell this fall. I'm really excited about the program, and the department's made me an offer that it would be very difficult for me to refuse. Plus, I just love the idea of living in Ithaca, a community that, as I understand it, is relatively interested in sustainability--not to mention surrounded by hiking paths and wine country. All in all, it seems like kind of dream opportunity for me, but I'm waiting until next Tuesday, when I visit, before finalizing my decision.

I just posted a question about purchasing a home in Ithaca under the City Guide - Ithaca thread. I thought maybe this would be an appropriate place to bring it up, too. Is anyone else considering buying instead of renting? Any thoughts/advice?

[so47]

Leaving tomorrow morning for my visitation weekend at Cornell! The Chemistry Dept looks like they do a very nice job of it, lots of good events planned. They also assigned me a "student host" who is a first year in the program, which seems like a great idea to get some one-on-one opinions on the program. Very excited, can't wait! Hopefully when I get back I can soon say I am definitely going to Cornell!

Edited by so47, 04 March 2010 - 08:25 PM.

[xdyj]

<br />Anyone planning to go to Cornell?<br />

<br /><br /><br />

Hi! I am 99% sure I will go there this year. Thanks for all those advices.

[so47]

It's official! I'm going to Cornell in the fall So happy!

[boblong]

ill be going to cornell in the fall too!!! hopefully i can meet some of yall.

[red_crayons]

Yay! More Cornell people!

What fields/programs will you be going into?

I'm going to be in Communication, and what I plan to do is to somehow make literary theory and social science work together to analyze pharmaceutical advertising. And my undergrad major was biology, with minors in linguistics and French. Yup.

[so47]

Yay! More Cornell people!

What fields/programs will you be going into?

I'm going to be in Communication, and what I plan to do is to somehow make literary theory and social science work together to analyze pharmaceutical advertising. And my undergrad major was biology, with minors in linguistics and French. Yup.

Wow, quite a diverse repertoire you got there! My major is chemistry (which I am pursuing at Cornell) and I actually minored in French as well! Although most science-y people I know think I am really odd for taking so much French voluntarily, so it is nice to see someone else did the same! It's nice to get a break from science and flex a different part of my brain

[red_crayons]

Chemistry! You'll get to meet Roald Hoffmann, I'm guessing? He's a nobel laureate and prolific author, yet he's super gentle and old man-y and teaches remedial intro chem (which I took, ha). I have a crush on that man from afar, even though he must be approaching 80.

Most of the people in my French classes as an undergrad were in the sciences. But that might be skewed here because Cornell requires undergrads to be "proficient" in a foreign language. I plan to audit some French classes to keep up with it next year, which will be fun!

[so47]

I sure hope I get to meet him! I certainly heard about him when I was there for Visitation Weekend! The Chem Dept is very proud (for good reason!) to have a Nobel laureate in their midst, though I'm not sure how active he is anymore.

At my school chemistry majors had to take 2 language classes, but most people took just them and ran for the hills. It's mostly engineering and science though, so there is not a good emphasis on humanities. I was glad to hear at Cornell you can audit classes in other areas, I have heard stories of some schools who won't let you take anything not relevant to your degree! I'd like to take some "fun"/non-science classes to help keep my sanity too!

I feel like such a little kid, I am so excited to go there next year! My parents want to take a day trip out there over my spring break (probably just an excuse to go buy themselves Cornell gear )