Cornell --> Yale + Brown + Williams + ???

monydad
Wed, 04 Feb 2015 14:30:49 +0000

FWIW, if you wind up staying I imagine things will look better for you than they do now.

After freshman year people go off into their own groups, houses, etc, Those who joined fraternities go there, and the other 2/3 of the student body basically has nothing more to do with fraternitites, unless they want to. My D2 transferred there as a sophomore and never attended a single greek event her whole time there.

As a freshman you are likely experiencing the "worst’ of the class sizes. They will get smaller.
Not necessarily small, or LAC small, but smaller. Depending on particular selections.

As an upperclassman your “community” more and more centers around your group of friends, your living arrangements, and your major(s). With a group of friends, most people find they have plenty to do there, without a big city but with a college town and 30,000 college students right there.Certainly more than most LACs are likely to have.

When I was there it seemed like there was an active gay community, but that was eons ago. IIRC Ithaca has a sizable gay community itself. My hunch is this social aspect would get better, once you are out of the dorms.

So in short, once you are away from the dorms, living with friends instead of anybody, and away from freshman rush, you will be spending a lot less time around people you don’t like.
But if you feel you’d prefer a big city, Ithaca is not a big city,
And if you prefer the intimacy of an LAC, Cornell is not an LAC. Those are accurate facts that will not change.