<p>It’s overrated. I can tell you, I live right near it, and my school is a feeder school to it. This year, at least a quarter of the senior class (about 100 people/400) got accepted. Another 100 or so got deferred. Do all of them deserve to go? Is Cornell actually that amazing? No. They have a good Hotel school, and strong premed advising, but it’s not amazing by any means. Ithaca is an alright place to live…Well, good actually, but not if you like urban. And I’m not saying Cornell is bad. It’s a really good school, but it doesn’t deserve the credit it gets.</p>
<p>^ Spoken like a true Ithacan.</p>
<p>CayugaRed, I found this interesting:
“Want Yale type secret societies with alums in high level of positions of power in the U.S. government and international corporations? Cornell has that.”
Could you explain? All I could think of was Janet Reno, haha, but there must be people in like national defense if thats what you are referring to?</p>
<p>CayugaRed, you from Ithaca too?</p>
<p>Yes, Hawkette. I do. I also don’t see what any of that has to do with the question, “Is Cornell overrated?” </p>
<p>I understand I came to this discussion late. I realize that it veered WAY away from its initial intention long ago and, therefore, probably should die. Cornellians have enough trouble validating their worth to the general public without a thread adding to it.</p>
<p>Btw SingDanceRunLIfe - Cornell has agreements with certain local high schools and community colleges as part of their land grant responsibility to serve the New York State population. You might have gone to one of them. </p>
<p>I, too, found that Upstate New Yorkers from certain schools had a FAR easier time getting in and a FAR lower respect for the school than most others who scratched and clawed to get in the way most do to such schools. I remember some were debating between Alfred State and Cornell. I was like, “Alfred who?!?” </p>
<p>Where I come from - and for most from NYC area and anywhere else but certain regions of Upstate New York - that would not be a debate. I guess that’s what hundreds of millions in Big Daddy government tax dollars will buy a small town or farm kid: his own ticket to the Ivies. I found most squandered the opportunity because to them Cornell was just that school down the road.</p>
<p>"Honestly, I don’t understand how a school without a huge D1 athletics scene can have tremendous school spirit. "</p>
<p>You can’t be serious. You’re a student at one of the top colleges in the country and you really don’t get that ties to one’s alma mater can be fostered in ways other than cheering in a stadium for a team sport?</p>
<p>“I have always heard that Yale students LOVE LOVE their school and look back incredibly fondly upon their undergraduate years. I just don’t get it. I mean sure, Yalies probably form lifelong friendships and enjoy time with friends but this can theoretically happen at any school. What lasting connection do Yalies have to their alma mater after they graduate other than the fact that its name helped them get good jobs?”</p>
<p>Good memories, perhaps? Which for SOME people include going to tailgates and cheering on teams, for OTHERS might include special moments on the campus or town, for OTHERS might include clubs or organizations or Greek systems they were part of. What’s so superior in the memory-making department about cheering for a sports team? Personally, as an NU alum, I really enjoyed going to Waa-Mu (student theater production - sort of the “Star Search” of NU). I take my kids back every year. FOR ME, those are far more warmer memories and pride than going to the football games (which I also did).</p>
<p>“It generates revenue for the school, it rallies up the spirits of the students and it generally acts as the lifeblood of the university. I personally think it binds the entire undergraduate student body in a way nothing else can. Sure, you might be interested in theater or art, but can you really talk to any random Joe at your college about it?”</p>
<p>But if I don’t FIND football / b-ball interesting, I don’t WANT to talk to any random Joe at my college about it! And the ability to talk to some random Joe at my college about sports isn’t what constitutes school spirit for me, or binds me to my alma mater. And trust me, I BLEED purple for Northwestern.</p>
<p>“I know that when I graduate from Duke, I will always have a tangible connection to my alma mater because of our high-profile basketball team. Wherever I am in the world, I will be able to follow how the team’s been doing and share my excitement with other alums. As a Cornell grad, all you will have is memories, even if they are extremely fond ones.”</p>
<p>I have just as strong of a connection to NU as you do to Duke. Honest. It just happens not to be based on sports memories, but on other memories (including certain organizations, my Greek membership, meeting my husband and other lifelong friends). How can you possibly claim that your ties are “stronger” than someone who went to Cornell, whatever? It just doesn’t make any sense. </p>
<p>"Have you ever been to a UM football game? I can’t think of anybody who wouldn’t be excited by the sheer magnificence of that scene. "</p>
<p>I have been to many Big 10 games. They don’t “excite” me at all. I’m glad to go so I can visit with friends, but there is nothing about going to a football or b-ball game that makes me think “wow this is magnificent” or “boy, I’m so glad I chose NU over xxx.” </p>
<p>"Many of you many not comprehend what Hawkette and I are saying now, but when you’re at a bar 15 years for a few drinks 15 years from now with a bunch of coworkers who are all excitingly cheering on their state school/Duke/Stanford athletic teams who are playing in an exciting game and are sharing their crazy tailgating/“high-drama” gametime memories while you have no one to root for/nothing to relate to, "</p>
<p>I don’t particularly care for the whole bar scene in the first place, I find the mindless shouting-at-the-screen-in-a-bar scene totally overrated and not to my taste, and if I have no one to root for? I don’t particularly care. Not interested. That’s what makes the world go round, Evil Asian Dictator. Repeat after me: Just because you like sports, doesn’t mean that everyone does or has to; and people who don’t like sports aren’t “suffering” in any way. Don’t feel “sorry” for me because I don’t want to engage in something I’m not interested in.</p>
<p>"For many, many others, not having a strong athletic program makes it superior. I would rather my school invest in academic research and programs than massive stadiums. I grew up near the University Michigan. I know the obsessive culture of college athletics. I’ve been to Div 1 games at major schools across the country where I was awash in people putting their arms around me swaying and singing some silly song. </p>
<p>I find it all miserably boring, and so too do many other students. I’m simply speaking for the other side. At the end of the day though, whatever happens on the field has minimal if any bearing on my life (and I did play college varsity athletics, I just can’t fathom why anyone would commit part of their sense of self identity to simply being someone who watches it for more than passing amusement)."</p>
<p>Yes, yes, yes.</p>
<p>Two of the last three National Security Advisors and two of the last four World Bank Presidents have been Cornellians. All of them have been in the same senior society.</p>
<p>Granted, it’s not the Presidency, but do a little bit more digging and see what else shows up.</p>
<p>And no, I’m not from Ithaca. But I lived there for five years, so I know the mentality of some townies when I see it.</p>
<p>"Many of you many not comprehend what Hawkette and I are saying now, but when you’re at a bar 15 years for a few drinks 15 years from now with a bunch of coworkers who are all excitingly cheering on their state school/Duke/Stanford athletic teams who are playing in an exciting game and are sharing their crazy tailgating/“high-drama” gametime memories while you have no one to root for/nothing to relate to, "</p>
<p>Evil Asian Dictator - I graduated from NU years ago. I have two children in high school. The idea that I’d even *want to sit in a bar with coworkers who are loudly cheering on some game and think of that as a rollicking good time is laughable. I don’t *care who’s in the Rose Bowl or the Cotton Bowl or the Final Four or any of that. I don’t *care that I have no one to root for, because I don’t care about the outcomes at all. Feel free to hoot and holler at the screen all you like, though and I’ll just weakly and indulgently smile while inside I’ll be thinking, “Whatever” and figuring out ways to gracefully exit. </p>
<p>I’ve been to plenty of Big 10 tailgates. They just aren’t any big deal. They’re a bunch of people eating crappy food out of the backs of their cars in the parking lot of a football stadium. I enjoy catching up with friends who are there, but beyond that? They aren’t memory-makers to me. I’d be just as happy to catch up with my friends elsewhere; it just so happens that a group of us catch up at NU games because it’s as convenient of a meeting place as any and our kids can enjoy the festivities. </p>
<p>If you enjoy those things, GREAT! More power to you and it sounds like Duke’s a great fit. What is so difficult about understanding that what is a good experience to *you is not that for other people?</p>
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<p>At least on the crappy food front, come to a Cornell tail gate sometime! The Hotel School knows how to lay out a decent spread, and there is always fresh ice cream from the Cornell Dairy. </p>
<p>Okay. The Cornellian boosterism will stop.</p>
<p>“At Duke, I take pleasure in knowing that even if I have NEVER met someone on campus, I can always start out a potential conversation with a reference to our basketball team or whatever sports team is currentlly playing in the season when being introduced by a mutual friend. “Hey did you see that basketball game yesterday…wasn’ that dunk crazy?” Or whatever. My point is you can’t do that at Yale.”</p>
<p>So? I can meet an alum from NU and I can ask them where they lived, if they were in the Greek system, other things that are unique to the campus, and pretty soon we’re off to the same six-degrees-of-separation reminiscing thing. What’s so superior about sports as a way of bonding with fellow alumni? </p>
<p>Also, it’s interesting that you relate bonding with fellow alumni to school spirit. If I went the rest of my life and never bumped into another fellow NU alum, I’d still have tremendous school spirit. My spirit and love and warm feelings for NU is internal and it’s manifested in my support for the school financially and otherwise; it has nothing to do with making small talk with fellow alums.</p>
<p>See, now that sounds neat to me, Cayuga!</p>
<p>some sports stars wannabes are just trying too hard to convey this idea of the “all-encompassing benefits of spectator sports” in an attempt to hide their insecurity due to a dearth of athletic prowess on their part</p>
<p>You guys should come to a CMU football game sometime. There’s more people in the marching band than the crowd. I still do regret never tailgating on the roof of the parking structure the bleachers are built against.</p>
<p>applejack - I just go to a HS that oh, I don’t know…A quarter of the population has family connections to Cornell in one way or another, many having parents serving as professors, or having older siblings as graduates.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl,
If your views are representative of what “the other side” thinks of a college’s athletic scene, that’s fine. But my points all along in this and in other threads are two-fold. First, some people like the athletic scene. Second, some schools do a much better job with creating an exciting and fun athletic scene than others, so much so that the college’s athletic life materially affects the undergraduate social life of many students, not to mention some alumni years after graduation. </p>
<p>For example, if Northwestern football went again to the Rose Bowl, you and others may not care, but I can assure you that some of your classmates will. </p>
<p>Or if Duke makes a deep run in the NCAA basketball tournament, some Duke students and alums may not care, but many do.</p>
<p>Or if Rice or Vanderbilt goes to the College World Series, some Rice and Vandy students/alumni may not care, but many will. </p>
<p>In each of the above examples, some students and alumni may not care about the college’s athletic scene, but for those who do, these colleges can provide that possible experience and those folks tend to find those experiences to be exciting and a lot of fun. </p>
<p>Re the other experiences that you mention, those are great memories for you and no one is knocking that. However, I don’t think that anything you have mentioned is particularly unique to Northwestern and could be duplicated at many colleges. But if the Wildcats were to win the Big Ten again and go to the Rose Bowl again, that would be a pretty unique experience (even if you personally didn’t really care). That is a difference that can be important to some students as they evaluate various colleges.</p>
<p>Hawkette, truly, I think you’re far overemphasizing the impact of spectator sports on the NU community. It’s flattering and all, but I think Cayuga (?) upthread said something about NU’s social scene being like Penn, and I think that’s largely true. So our football team plays against UMich and theirs plays against Yale – so what, they’re still just football games, and for the vast majority of students on the campus, it’s an amusing diversion and pleasant way to spend a nice fall Friday, not something that is that all-fired important. Even my NU alum friends with season football tickets (and one even runs a sports-marketing agency) don’t seem to elevate it in importance in determining or adding to the campus’ culture, character and spirit the way you seem to.</p>
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<p>Speaking of Marching Bands, I can’t help but give another shameless plug!</p>
<p>Cornell has the only ‘real’ Marching Band in the Ancient Eight. They actually march instead of scramble. And they even have a bi-annual parade in New York City. So if you are looking for a little bit of Big 10 glory in the Ivy League, Cornell is your place.</p>
<p>Okay. I’ll stop now.</p>
<p>NU’s marching band (NUMB) is a big source of school spirit for those who were in it - their alumni are very loyal and spirited. Imagine that - they may have valued their own activity more than watching other people in an activity. Go figure!! LOL.</p>