My niece got into Cornell University

[zinfamous]

Winter at Cornell = cold, dark, and lonely. Cornell has the highest suicide rate for a reason.

does it? that used to be University of Chicago (for undergrads), for a very long time.

 

[zinfamous]

I had no idea how pretigious Cornell is when compared to other colleges. Supossedly its a big deal. One year is about $60,000 and she is almost going on a full scholarship. On her end she has to pay about $16,000 per year.

Her major is environmental. When I gratuated from highschool I went to community college.

oh but, pics and phone# for your niece?

 

[Mai72]

oh but, pics and phone# for your niece?

but but why?

 

[zinfamous]

Yeah. it seems odd that Cornell/Ithaca is picked out as a "cold, dark, and lonely" place. It's not that far North. And wouldn't you kinda know what you're getting into by even applying there as far as winter weather?

It stands out because it's only compared to the other Ivy League/Ivy League light schools, and where they are located. Ithaca is generally nice (so I've been told), but it is kinda shitty for an 18-22 year old for their first years outside of home when compared to, say, living in Boston where you have similar weather.

Or you know, Palo Alto. There's colder/lonelier/darker places where you can go live and get educated, but those places aren't cross-shopped with Cornell.

 

[zinfamous]

but but why?

to you know, offer advice?

 

[ponyo]

does it? that used to be University of Chicago (for undergrads), for a very long time.

University of Chicago is another one. Instead, I went to nearby Northwestern. And it was brutal cold there. That lake effect in the winter was awful. Loved the area in late spring, summer, and early fall but winter in Evanston sucked big donkey balls.

 

[IronWing]

does it? that used to be University of Chicago (for undergrads), for a very long time.

It has to be depressing to work so hard to get into college and then learn that your professors advised every rightwing dictator in Latin America and developed economic policies for the budding fascist dictatorships of eastern Europe.

 

[zinfamous]

University of Chicago is another one. Instead, I went to nearby Northwestern. And it was brutal cold there. That lake effect in the winter was awful. Loved the area in late spring, summer, and early fall but winter in Evanston sucked big donkey balls.

You know, Chicago gets the beneficial side of lake effect--milder seasonal temperatures and conditions--and the bad parts of a lake effect--wildly out-of-norm temps and truckloads of precipitation--occur to the opposite of Lake Michigan, so Benton Harbor, Grand Rapids, etc.

If you did pay attention to the weather forecasts regularly when you were there, and remember them, you might recall that the precipitation maps always showed a bit blob on the eastern side of the lake and a huge blank spot around Chicago most of the time. Yes, Chicago does get a fair bit of snow, but it's still milder than everything around it.

 

[zinfamous]

It has to be depressing to work so hard to get into college and then learn that your professors advised every rightwing dictator in Latin America and developed economic policies for the budding fascist dictatorships of eastern Europe.

heh, that could be part of it. When I worked there a few years, the prevailing argument is that:

--U of C has the most difficult undergraduate curriculum of any school in the US. That doesn't seem to have changed?

--It is a great school that is also a primary fallback school for the nation's overachievers. So, it's filled with coddled and probably abused children that didn't get into Harvard or Yale or Stanford because they got an A- once in 4 years of high school, in some elective that they probably shouldn't have taken. So, they are already angry for being there, and then they get sucker punched because the first semester is going to be 30x harder than anything they faced before in high school, and demonstrably less forgiving than if they were at Harvard or Princeton.

--because of the type of kids mentioned in the above point, they aren't very social. And while it is basically in Chicago, it's still a long ride for terrified, unsociable nerds trying to go out and have fun in the city. Hyde Park is historically quite dangerous, so the community there at the University has a long-standing attitude of being something of a human island (the first university police force in the nation was started at UofC, after the University threatened to finally leave for St Louis in response to the decades of crime and violence in Hyde Park, into the 60s, I think)

 

[ponyo]

You know, Chicago gets the beneficial side of lake effect--milder seasonal temperatures and conditions--and the bad parts of a lake effect--wildly out-of-norm temps and truckloads of precipitation--occur to the opposite of Lake Michigan, so Benton Harbor, Grand Rapids, etc.

If you did pay attention to the weather forecasts regularly when you were there, and remember them, you might recall that the precipitation maps always showed a bit blob on the eastern side of the lake and a huge blank spot around Chicago most of the time. Yes, Chicago does get a fair bit of snow, but it's still milder than everything around it.

Only thing I remember is the wind. I didn't mind the snow because the wind disappeared when it snowed. So I welcomed the snow. But that cold wind. Downtown Chicago wasn't as windy as Evanston.

 

[zinfamous]

Only thing I remember is the wind. I didn't mind the snow because the wind disappeared when it snowed. So I welcomed the snow. But that cold wind. Downtown Chicago wasn't as windy as Evanston.

yeah I mean, it's still really fricking windy and butt-cold there.

 

[IronWing]

yeah I mean, it's still really fricking windy and butt-cold there.

Chicago has a massive heat island effect plus the lake effect so it's still warmer there than in neighboring areas. In Wisconsin, it doesn't really get cold until the lakes freeze over, then the bottom falls out. Lake Michigan doesn't freeze over down by Chicago so it stays warmer.