We’ve arrived at what I like to call the dreaded ‘spring semester slump.’ Skies are gray, prelims are copious, the slope feels steeper and spring break cannot come soon enough. During this time of the semester, it is easy to forget the positive and succumb to academic pressure and focus only on the negative. Now, with the slump at its peak, I wanted to combat this mindset and highlight the benefits of living on this wonderful campus. So, I racked my brain for ways to remind people of the reasons why we all love attending Cornell — and then it hit me: all I had to do was remind people of the reasons why we all love attending Cornell.
Yet rather than compile a list, I decided it was more impactful to let the Cornell community speak for itself. So I walked around Mann Library, collecting responses from students. These are testaments from 30 students on why they are happy to attend Cornell — and why you should be, too:
- The weather is great, especially in the fall when the seasons change.
- The connections I made here are lifelong connections.
- I found a home here with great people.
- My friends.
- Academic prestige and also my friends.
- My best friends go to school here, too.
- The people and how they hold themselves make me a better person.
- The distance away from New York City offers independence but access to the city.
- The natural beauty of campus. It’s so beautiful.
- I really like the faculty; everyone is super knowledgeable, and there are a lot of opportunities for my field.
- I love my extracurriculars. I felt welcomed despite my religious differences, and people accepted my faith.
- There are a lot of different opportunities and perspectives.
- The friends I have and the community I was able to make.
- I like the community, and even though it may take some effort to find your community, it’s super tight-knit once you do.
- I really love the friend group that I’m in, and I am grateful that I was lucky enough to receive a higher education.
- The campus.
- I’m an international student, and Cornell is a community of belonging in which students can feel at home.
- People say orientation week friend groups don’t last, but mine did.
- The people here are so nice and cool.
- People are impressed whenever I mention that I go to school here.
- I made a really nice group of friends here.
- I really like the dorms; all of the facilities are super nice.
- I found a really good group of friends, and I like hanging out with them.
- The people are so great.
- I just think that everyone here is a lot nicer and less competitive than I thought they were going to be.
- I really like my major. It’s so interesting, and the people in it with me are so nice.
- I like the clubs I’m in. They’re really fun, and I got to meet some cool people.
- I met some people who helped me bring myself out of my comfort zone, and I tried things here I never would have done in high school.
- The people here that I’ve gotten to meet are so cool. I am grateful I got to know them.
- I really like the gorges.
Before I began compiling the list from 30 students, I thought I would receive 30 individual reasons. However, I ended up making an even greater discovery. I did not simply find a list of 30 generic reasons why college is fun. Instead, I found a clear trend in the responses that explains why this campus is amazing — the answer was the people and the community.
One common denominator I noticed when I was interviewing participants was their sudden shift in attitude when I asked the simple question, “Why are you happy here?” instead of “Are you happy here?” or “How could you be happier here?” This question asked people to think about their college experience positively, which is not everyone’s default. Yet when I asked, their response was always the same: they paused and thought for a while, and then answered. Smiling while recounting happy memories from their Cornell experiences, the interview became a walk down memory lane. I could see people become visibly happier after thinking about memories, even in the middle of prelim season. I think this demonstrates that when encouraged to focus on the positive, people are more than willing to be distracted from their negative experience and open their eyes to the wonderful things in their lives.
Despite all the less-than-perfect aspects of college we’ll experience, we know we’ll have people beside us to conquer them. Everyone on campus is burdened with the daunting responsibility of ‘finding their people’ once they start their college careers. Yet, one thing that is special about Cornell is that the value of our relationships lies not simply in quantity or proximity but in quality. One thing I’ve noticed, whether when talking to alumni or students, is that every Cornellian talks about the amazing connections they still have on campus. During homecoming, hockey games, and family weekend, I see people far beyond their college years walking around this campus, arm in arm with their peers, reliving their Cornell days as the best days of their lives. I think this little experiment brought me a huge step closer to understanding why they do.
While I don’t have the benefit of separation or nostalgia like alumni quite yet, one thing I do know is that when enough points align, you start to see a pattern. In the case of the results from my interviews, the pattern is the people, and the numbers don’t lie. Cornellians are like no other, so if you find yourself descending into the depths of your ‘spring semester slump,’ remember that you are a part of a community that knows how to lift each other up.
Jared Miller is a sophomore in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He can be reached at jmm792@cornell.edu.
