Advice from someone who failed out of Cornell University
Written: Jan 30 '00 (Updated Dec 26 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: High quality education, many extracurricular activities
Cons: Expensive, minimal support
The Bottom Line: Cornell is an excellent university for students who are very intelligent and self-motivated.
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| jiwhite's Full Review: Cornell University |
In high school, I was a nearly straight A student, having done almost no homework, and extremely ready to leave home and live away from my parents. I am very intelligent and able to excel at standardized tests with ease. For me, it was never a question of whether or not to go to college. It was a question of which college I was going to attend. My standardized test scores and activities combined with affluent parents led me to have a broad choice of schools to attend. I chose Cornell University based on a weekend long visit during which I saw that it was a rigorous school and I spent much of the time partying. (My visit was shortly after the drinking age had increased from 18 to 21, before SADD and dry campuses.) It seemed a great combination to a high school senior.
As a student at Cornell University, I became more involved in student activities, founding a rogue student radio station and joining Alpha Chi Sigma, than in my school work. The humanities basics and engineering curriculum required intensive study to succeed. Because I was more interested in having fun than studying engineering, I spent much less time than was necessary to excel as a student at Cornell University. Also, I hated the mile walk in the winter between my dorm on North Campus and the Engineering College. I hate cold and I didn't care enough about my major to make the trek through the snow. There was a wealth of knowledge available from the excellent professors at Cornell, but no one followed up on me. In classes with hundreds of students, professors and graduate assistants leave it up to you to be there or not and make up any work that you miss. My advisor was the Dean of the Engineering College. He was very friendly, but didn't seem to have a handle on the day to day functioning of being a student.
The first semester I was put on probation, I received a letter giving the terms of my probation and saying that I had to go see the Counseling Office of the Engineering College. I made an appointment and appeared. When my name was called, I went in the counselor's office. The counselor said, "Have you read the probation letter?" I said, "Yes." The counselor said, "Do you understand it?" I said, "Yes." That was it. I received no counseling from the Counseling Department. I continued to live my live as I had been and failed out the next semester. The letter kicking me out of the university advised that I go into a less technical field.
My failure at Cornell University had nothing to do with the quality of the education that is available there or my capacity to complete the work. Eventually, I went on to earn a Master's Degree in sociology from the University of Arizona, a top-ten department at a Research 1 university. I consult in data management and criminology. My failure at Cornell University had everything to do with my lack of motivation to succeed academically at that point in my life and the lack of any support structure to succeed. From what I've read, Cornell hasn't changed that much from when I was there. If you are a very intelligent, highly motivated student who can afford it, I highly recommend that you attend Cornell University. Be prepared to work hard at your studies despite the lure of many fun activities, or at the very least in addition to them. Don't expect anyone to be checking up on you to make sure that you get to class or get your assignments in.
Recommended:
Yes
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jiwhite
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Member: Janine White
Location: Chandler, AZ
Reviews written: 194
Trusted by: 142 members
About Me:
Criminologist turned Software Engineer
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