<p>how is ILR perceived (in terms of respect, difficulty, quality of students, type of students, etc.) by students of the other schools at cornell. thanks. Please do not respond telling me my question is superficial, if thats how you feel, do not bother answering this question.</p>
<p>initially transfers will stick with transfers…</p>
<p>and freshman ILRies will stick together…</p>
<p>No real difference. For Arts-leaning ILRies, you can quickly fit in with the history and government majors in CAS. For business-leaning ILRies, you quickly can fit in with the kids in AEM and Hotel. And if you want to take math or computer science classes as an ILRie, nobody is going to say that you can’t.</p>
<p>The only thing that ILR is really known for is that freshmen year students have a lot of reading assigned… “I Love Reading”.</p>
<p>I know that ILR students tend to be the most active in student government and take on a disproportionate amount of leadership roles on campus relative to all the other colleges. That said, it’s hard to break out similar stats for the social science programs in the other colleges, because they are lumped in with other disciplines.</p>
<p>Generally, ILR students are perceived as kids who read a lot and want to go to law school.</p>
<p>^^ that pretty much sums it up. well said.</p>
<p>People recognize it as the easiest to get into. In fact last year 60% of transfers were taken according to the Cornell Daily Sun. Lots of memorization and few analytical skills are developed. There is always pro-union propoganda in pretty much every course that you take. The math assessment is about 7th grade level. The school claims to be a hybrid business school, but business fundamentals dcf, cash flows, and other valuation techniques are not taught. You end up learning too much about unions, which will die off soon anyways.</p>
<p>Wow, you are really down on ILR. Your numbers are highly misleading though considering a large number of each incoming transfer class consists of guaranteed tranfers (yes, they are included in that number) which greatly inflates the acceptance percentage. I was told it is typically 30-35% for external transfers. And I believe it is about 25% for freshman. GT’s probably deflate the freshman % and inflate it for transfers.</p>
<p>I love how all 16 of your posts here say the EXACT SAME thing. Get a life, cornellstudent; I certainly hope you aren’t a “Cornell Student” because if you are, I’m embarassed at your astronomical shallowness.</p>
<p>[Notice this (intentional) double post, cornellstudent]</p>
<p>Also, your critique of the math assessment is unfair. Entering students at all statutory colleges (ie Hum Ec & Ag) are required to take or pass out of the NY State math assessment. My guess is that a good deal of entering ILR students didn’t have to take the assessment due to sufficiently high AP Calc scores. </p>
<p>To wit, there are only two required courses that discuss unions in detail. Labor history is a social and economic history of the American working class since the 1860s, and unions have figured prominently in that regard. You learn about modern vehicles for workers’ representation in HR and OB, and if you keep your wits about you, you’ll even gain an appreciation for how that trend affects our notions of capitalism and democracy. Even if you don’t, you can probably just partake in “lots of memorization” and earn a B, although I think this is characteristic of most majors at Cornell. </p>
<p>The second course that emphasizes labor unions is labor law. Substantively, this course emphasizes how the protections the National Labor Relations Act affords to workers interested in unionizing, although equal employment opportunity is discussed as well. This may or may not be relevant to your career goals, but I think it imparts at least a basic knowledge of what we, as ILR graduates, should know, and introduces us to legal writing, research, and analysis. </p>
<p>I’ve never seen ILR claim to be a “hybrid” business school, so I can’t comment. However, you criticize ILR for not teaching accounting; my guess is that it doesn’t teach or require accounting because it deems accounting outside the magisteria of ILR, and it doesn’t see a need to impose a requirement that students may freely take at the Johnson School, AEM, or ORIE if they choose. I’m also not sure how accounting teaches analytical skills, either. </p>
<p>Now back to the OP. </p>
<p>First, I agree with FBI that there is a stereotype that ILR students want to go to law school, and a great number do. Second, there is a stereotype that ILR stands for “I Love Reading,” and indeed, there is a lot of reading, particularly for in the CB department (ie labor law and labor history above). In terms of respect within Cornell, I think students are most judged by their character, not their major. Outside of Cornell, don’t expect everyone to have heard of it, but among those who have (and they will have in law schools, the HR profession), those I’ve met only hold it in the highest regard. </p>
<p>In terms of “types of students,” I mostly socialized with students across the whole university, and the sample of 30-or-so ILRies with whom I became closely acquainted were too diverse to stereotype here. My guess is that many of my classmates had the same impression.</p>
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<p>That’s a bold assertion in the face of economic calamity not seen in generations.</p>
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<p>That ILR is a hybrid business school is a new one to me as well. I thought the school was interested in recruiting students who “might like to apply the social sciences to solving human problems” within the “world of work”.</p>
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<p>No. It’s actually at the 12th grade level for New York State. And it’s not like you can’t take advanced math courses for elective credit within the ILR school. I should know, as I took Real Analysis.</p>
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<p>Get off your high horse about these “business fundamentals”. I work with cashflow valuation techniques everyday in my job, and guess what? I picked it up in the span of a couple of hours while doing my job. Wow. Big deal. I’m so glad I was able to take tangible courses in labor market behavior, the history of immigration to this country, and the political philosophy of worker’s rights. Because learning how to divide by some future discount factor to estimate the current value of an asset is not my idea of a worthwhile undergraduate education.</p>
<p>The only Rhodes scholar to come out of Cornell in the last three years has come out of ILR. And she was a GT to boot. Deal.</p>
<p>Bravo Caguyga very well said. Makes me proud to be a prospective ILR’ie.</p>
<p>okay, and for you ILR grads or anybody else who has had experience…when you talk to somebody who doesn’t go to Cornell and you say you have a B.S in ILR or that you are studying ILR, how do you explain what it is, and what are people’s general reactions (or is the Cornell name the thing most people seem to concentrate on)</p>
<p>well it depends on what jobs you’re applying for and where…</p>
<p>for thouse outside of the tri-state area you might have to explain the type of course work you’ve taken…</p>
<p>but in general CORNELL is CORNELL…</p>
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<p>That’s a really good question, and it depends on the particular context you find yourself in. If you’re among fellow Cornell alums, then obviously they will know what you mean. And it also depends on what you concentrated in within ILR – some do international relations others do human resources. </p>
<p>Myself? I was in ILR (an interdisciplinary social sciences program focused on issues of employment and work) , with a formal concentration in both economics and inequality studies, taking a lot of math/stats on the side. I also studied abroad and took a lot of courses in English history and literature pertaining to industrial development.</p>
<p>So that’s the long answer. </p>
<p>But my rule of thumb is:
– Labor economics at Cornell ILR for people in the public policy/government world.
– Economics and statistics for people who I work with professionally and for the private sector job interviews I have had.
– Economics and history for random people on the street.</p>
<p>Of course, if you are into conflict negotiation and arbitration, you would say that. And if you are into organizational behavior and strategy you could say that. And others will just say human resources if that’s their interest.</p>
<p>To the original question. Most people at Cornell don’t give a sh**t which college you’re in. There are rich and poor, smart and stupid, ambitious and lazy kids in every college. There are easy and tough majors in every college. There are people from everyone in the country and world in every college. No one knows how much tuition you’re paying or what your SAT scores are. You could have a kid in A&S who is dirt poor and getting a full ride with financial aid, and a kid in ILR from out-of-state paying big bucks from his family’s fortune. You could be a jock who got in because of his athletic prowess, or a “faculty brat”, or a legacy. The school is just too damned big, diverse, and sprawling for anyone to be able to judge a college as a whole like that. There is no stigma being in ILR. Not that anyone ever has to know you’re in ILR anyways. Tell people you’re in Architecture. :)</p>