<p>D had a very nice visit and tour of the engineering college. Nice facilities. Liked Ithaca.</p>
<p>She’s very excited. Its rising to the top of her list.</p>
<p>I have to wonder though how much do the students interact? The clusters of buildings are built around the colleges and it seems possible to go to your morning class - hit the lab - have a cup of coffee with other eng’rs - go to another class - then go back to your dorm, and never leave the quad. Does this occur? How about the other colleges? Are they set up similarly? (It appears so from the map.)</p>
<p>Is this even an issue?</p>
<p>Also, how do you get up and down the hills in winter?</p>
<p>Common sense answer:Wear boots-they help you get up and down.
There are over 20 thousand students at Cornell-they manage to bump into each other.
Let me guess, your D is the first in the family to go to college.</p>
<p>Isolation really is not an issue at all. Engineers will probably end up taking classes in all of the quadrangles at some point, at least because of liberal studies requirements. For freshmen, many of the Freshman Writing Seminars meet in Goldwin-Smith hall in the Arts quad. </p>
<p>Most of the interaction takes place outside of the classroom. Dormitories are not segregated by college or major, so your daughter is more than likely to make friends from other undergraduate colleges. </p>
<p>Cornell does a pretty good job of cleaning up snow and salting ice, but I would strongly advise getting a nice pair of shoes or boots with good traction. It is helpful to lean forward when climbing slippery paths. If the path is icy, it is probably safer to walk on the snow. Some paths are clearly marked as “No Winter Maintenance” - I would try to avoid those. It might take a little bit of getting used to if you’re not accustomed to walking in the winter, but it is not a huge problem for most people.</p>
<p>I’m glad your daughter enjoyed her visit! I agree with TchaikovskyPiano. I’m not currently at Cornell, (though I’ll be heading there this fall–so excited!!!), but I have a cousin at Cornell and from what she’s said, the above answer seems spot on. As for Batllo–wow, I think you need to chill out and be less rude. You could have easily answered the question without coming off like a jerk, or you could have not answered at all.</p>
<p>Also, all freshmen get a free bus pass to use throughout the year. Personally, I found the bus system to be a lifesaver, especially being from SoCal. The buses are also pretty reliable, they leave every 5-10 minutes from North Campus and loop continuously from North to Central. I used the bus pretty much every day, except on the rare occasions that it would be above 50 degrees.</p>
<p>My daughter is going to be junior this fall, but studying abroad. She had 3 best friends from freshman year - engineering, architecture, and pre-med in A&S. They didn’t all live in the same dorm, and they all pledged the same sorority. In their sorority, they have girls in all different schools and majors. As a matter of fact, my daughter is a math/econ major, and she only has one friend from her math classes, and he is thinking of dropping math. My daughter also takes classes outside of her school (A&S) - Hotel, AEM.</p>
<p>I’d forgotten about the dorms and I like the freshman writing seminar idea. Maybe it was just our tour guide who was all about engineering/all the time.</p>
<p>On the other hand, her interest and obvious enthusiasm for her projects and subjects struck a cord with D.</p>