Comments on Cornell?

[mathgeek]

I received my first acceptance the other day to the Ph.D. program in mathematics at Cornell. I'm completely thrilled, and think that this may be my school of choice. (I've applied to a few 'better' schools, but I really don't have much expectation for acceptances from Berkeley, UCLA or Harvard, especially consider that the first two have already sent out acceptances.)

Does anyone here have any experience as a grad student at Cornell? Living in Ithaca? Thoughts other than 'gorges are beautiful and winter is long'? It's an Ivy, so are there certain social aspects that go along with that (clothes, events, etc)?

Thanks.

[tt503]

I received my first acceptance the other day to the Ph.D. program in mathematics at Cornell. I'm completely thrilled, and think that this may be my school of choice. (I've applied to a few 'better' schools, but I really don't have much expectation for acceptances from Berkeley, UCLA or Harvard, especially consider that the first two have already sent out acceptances.)

Does anyone here have any experience as a grad student at Cornell? Living in Ithaca? Thoughts other than 'gorges are beautiful and winter is long'? It's an Ivy, so are there certain social aspects that go along with that (clothes, events, etc)?

Thanks.

I'm a grad student currently at Cornell. I don't know much about the math dept. though. This is my first year here, and clearly although it is a lot colder than Berkeley or UCLA, the weather is just as comparable to Boston (I lived in Cambridge for two years). There are opportunities to be social, if that's your thing (there is a graduate students night every Friday at the Big Red Barn), and a lot of hangout places in Collegetown or in the Commons. There are a billion student activity clubs if you want to be involved in those (http://sao.cornell.edu/SO/).

As far as maintaining an Ivy perception, Cornell is like the public university of the Ivy league. Some people wear designer clothes, some people wear pajama pants. It really is whatever you want it to be. You can find whatever you want here. We aren't all wearing tweed coat jackets with leather patches eating brie and dom perignon.

I suggest you visit if you can. You'll get a feel for the campus and the people here. Personally, I like it, but it might not be for everybody.

[kdilks]

GO TO THE HOCKEY GAMES

[kateow]

I received my first acceptance the other day to the Ph.D. program in mathematics at Cornell. I'm completely thrilled, and think that this may be my school of choice. (I've applied to a few 'better' schools, but I really don't have much expectation for acceptances from Berkeley, UCLA or Harvard, especially consider that the first two have already sent out acceptances.)

Does anyone here have any experience as a grad student at Cornell? Living in Ithaca? Thoughts other than 'gorges are beautiful and winter is long'? It's an Ivy, so are there certain social aspects that go along with that (clothes, events, etc)?

Thanks.

Check out the "City Guide" Forum on the main menu--there's a topic for Ithaca.

[DJLamar]

The Ivy thing doesn't really seem to affect the grad student community much. The undergrads seem to have rich parents a lot (or really, that's just my and many others' perception), but that's it. It does inflate rent prices I think (considering that there are 1-bedroom apartments in Collegetown which go for $1400 a month -- you could almost get a 1-bedroom in New York City or San Francisco for that much, I believe). But then those same kids' money is probably largely responsible for the town's economy being able to sustain so much stuff like (pretty) good restaurants and bars, etc.

In my experience so far (I'm a first-year), the grad students here seem fairly social and relatively laid-back. My department certainly seems more relaxed than CS departments at some other schools are rumored to be. A huge portion (but I guess not really a majority) of the bars in town are crappy undergrad haunts, but there's still a good variety of nice bars that cater more towards grad students or normal people.

And the weather is not so bad. I'm from Georgia and I've been pretty comfortable in the cold this Winter. If you're not used to weather like this place has already, just get a good wool coat, one or two good scarves, gloves, and a hat and you'll be fine.

[psycholinguist]

I did my undergrad degree at Cornell, and loved it! Most people are really down-to-earth (there really isn't any stereotypical Ivy League feel to it at all) and there's a great variety of backgrounds: as I recall, about 35% of the grad-students are from countries other than the U.S. Ithaca is in the middle of nowhere and hard to get in and out of, but the area is stunningly pretty. The winters...well, they're winters, but they're manageable. And they're always preceded by the most amazing autumns I've ever witnessed.