conflicted and confused

unalove
Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:33:24 +0000

1) A lot of my smart, intellectual friends at Cornell refused to consider Chicago/Columbia, with the reasoning that they would always have time to live in a city and that college was for something different. I would argue that Cornell’s Collegetown and the city of Ithaca have more college-student oriented activities than the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. When I’ve been in the city of Ithaca or in Collegetown, I’ve never felt that Cornell was rural-- I felt it was its own utopian city, filled with smart and beautiful 18-25 year-olds. But when you look out to the west over the Arts and Sciences quad to see rolling hills that look like they are straight out of the Sound of Music…that’s when you know you’re in the country.

2) Pre-med classes are probably competitive anywhere, as you are concentrating a group of people with a shared goal (getting into med school) that can’t be offered to anyone. It’s the same reason my high school was competitive-- everybody in the honors classes wanted to get into one of eight schools.

Pre-Med classes might be crunchy, but I can tell you that Cornell (or any college, taken as a whole) will not feel competitive, as you’ll be around different people with different life plans, including plans like hotel administration and the NHL.

3) Part of the reason I avoided Cornell was that it was wayyyyy too familiar to me. But it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have loved it or that it’s not a wonderful school.