Ithaca, NY: This past fall I made many trips to visit Cornell University to visit my sister and watch her soccer games. During these visits I got personal tours of the campus, and a sense of what life is like for the average student at Cornell.
Cornell, perched on the top of a hill overlooking downtown Ithaca, beautiful gorges, waterfalls and Cayuga Lake,  truly epitomizes the beauty of upstate New York. While the campus is in a fairly rural setting, it is only an hour away from Syracuse and about four hours from New York City. The quaint countryside surrounding the college made me realize how unique the setting is. Even though Cornell is not located in a metropolitan area, it is one of the top 10 research facilities in the U.S. Furthermore, downtown Ithaca is a perfect college town with many things to offer, including diverse restaurants, clothing and gift stores, and activities.
Cornell has a completely different feel than any of the other Ivy League universities. There’s a mix of modern architecture and traditional buildings covered in ivy. This mix symbolizes one of Cornell’s most important values – diversity – not only in the physical campus, but also in the student body. It creates an environment that draws unique students from around the world to grow and learn from each other. The university also has a large campus with spaced out buildings, and a bus system that makes transportation across campus easy.

While at Cornell, I learned that all freshmen students live on North Campus, an area with many housing options including townhouses, double or single rooms, and all girl dorms. North Campus offers freshmen a unique opportunity to get to know other students in their first year and provides many resources targeted toward freshmen. It also provides a smaller community that makes the first year of college less stressful.
While watching my sister’s soccer games, I got a sense of the impressive athletic facilities and programs offered to student athletes. The athletic center is well equipped and provides free snacks to the athletes. The school also has many outdoor facilities such as turf fields, baseball fields, and tracks that the school takes pride in.

Cornell University is definitely a school I would like to further pursue and potentially apply to my senior year. The school has a very competitive admission process drawing from top students throughout the world. Any student would be excited to be admitted.