How pervasive is the party culture at Cornell? I know that it has a reputation for having a healthy Greek system and party culture, but if someone didn’t want to participate in that (at least not that often) would they be missing out?
Also if I’m the nerdy type (not an athlete at all, really into books, science/engineering and art, kind of like UChicago people) would it be hard to find similarly minded people at Cornell?
Cornell is a huge school with a great culture that encompasses both party and nerd culture. The “party” culture isn’t exclusive just to people in Greek life (believe me, there are plenty of clubs that drink or rage harder than some people in Greek life) and the nerd culture is not just restricted to engineers (there are plenty of people in Greek life that work meticulously). It’s a work hard/play hard school in general, but if you want more of one or the other that’s completely up to you. If you come into it with an open mind, then you won’t be missing out on either.
Also I’ve visited friends at UChicago many times, and I think it’s the same there. Perhaps they have more of the “nerd” culture than Cornell, but that may because a) it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy based on how they brand themselves and how students think they need to fit into that and b) it’s a smaller school with only a fraction of the amount of Greek chapters
About 1/3 of Cornell students are in Greek life. So I’ve found that about 1/3 of my conversations on a daily basis deal with Greek life, 1/3 deal with classes, and 1/3 is everything else. I would be open to Greek life if I were you - a lot of people come in with preconceived notions about it, but find out it is actually very different than what they expected. It’s been an enjoyable part of my college experience.
Greek membership is about 25% actually.
http://dos.cornell.edu/fraternity-sorority-life/greek-community-cornell
@lostaccount don’t want to belabor the point, but it is 1/3