<p>I don’t do chance threads and I don’t know much about Cornell’s music program.</p>
<p>3) What are the people like? I worry a lot about that typical, cut-throat Ivy attitude.</p>
<p>Cornell is a very large uni with 13K UGs. There are 7 schools, each one with its own kind of students. It is very hard to generalize when you are talking about such a large student body. I have met a lot of students from Cornell, both from work and personal contacts. I find them to be very smart, hard working (without a lot of sense of entitlement), but at the same time like to have a good time. They know they need to work hard to get good grades, there is really no short cuts. Cornell is no different than all other top tier schools when it comes to course work. I have never heard my kids complaining about people being cut-throat, as in not being helpful or purposely not sharing their books/notes when asked.<br>
Due to its size, it’s easier to find like mind friends. It is also easier to move in and out of groups, without feeling being tied down with a clique. The school has a lot of clubs and activities, so you should be able to find people with similar interests.</p>
<p>4) What is the Greek system like? What are the top frats/sororities? Are the people in them nice, or snobby?</p>
<p>I think 30% of students join Greek, so there are a lot of students outside of Greek. Recruiting at Cornell tends to be more low key than southern schools - no legacy, no LORs are required to join. To say it is not cliquish or exclusive would be disingenuous, by the fact that they could only take X number makes it exclusive. Both of my girls belong to the same sorority. They enjoy mixers, formals and many activities Greek life offers, but they also have outside clubs they belong too. They have many friends outside of their sorority, but their closes friends are their sorority sisters. </p>
<p>If you want to know what are the top frats/sororities, you can search on this forum, every year there is a thread about that. BTW - I don’t know who writes them every year, but according to my girls they are fairly accurate. It is not necessary to join Greek in order to have a good social life. Freshman fall, most fraternity parties are open to people, but by freshman spring, Greek parties are generally mixers which are closed to people outside of Greek life. After freshman year, most people tend to go to house parties.</p>
<p>5) Is there a shopping period? What is the flexibility in course scheduling like?</p>
<p>My kids tend to sign up for more courses than they would ultimately take. They’ll go to each one few times before they decide which one to drop. I think you have a month (you can google) to decide if you want to drop a course with no penalty or take it P/F. There are 7 different schools at Cornell, so same courses could be offered at multiple schools, which makes it easier to get the courses you want. Even when a course is full, you could often talk to the professor about squeezing you in.</p>