Cornell University Top Questions

Some stereotypes about Cornell is that it is one of the easiest Ivy League schools to get in to. Yes, it is easy to get in to, but Cornell offers one of the most rigorous academics out of the Ivy League schools. Grades are NOT inflated here. You have to work hard to earn your grades. I'm sure people assume that, as an Ivy league school, the students are boring and just work in the library 24 hours/ 7 days a week. However, Cornellians work hard, but they also play hard to. The Greek Life is one of the biggest groups here.

We're always working, the weather sucks (Ithaca is COLLLLD)

really intense, cutthroat. lots of suicides..

They work so hard they throw themselves in the gorges, or they are so obsessed with grades they rip pages out of their classmates' textbooks.

All depressed, all wealthy, all from NY, all Jewish

We're all geniuses and we're all stuck up rich kids.

Pretentious, proactive, hardworking, work hard play hard, change the world

That the Cornell campus is full of bridges that Cornell students all use to kill themselves.

Nerdiness is a big perceived trait, I think - and it can be true. Everyone's a bit nerdy, but that doesn't mean anything negative here, I don't believe; it's just a part of a lot of people's personalities because it's a pretty intellectual setting. But most people you talk to have pretty diverse interests and a lot of great things to offer...there are bookish types but they tend to be incredibly motivated and the kind that will someday make millions from coding software. There's also a generalization that here, as at any private school (particularly Ivies), you'd have a lot of pretentious rich kids.

Engineers and architecture students have no life.