Cornell University

Date: Jan 22 2008
Major: Economics (This Major's Salary over time)
I went to one of the public colleges in Cornell, I'm not from Long Island, and I steered clear of the frat scene. So you can probably already guess that I found Cornell to be pretty horrific beneath its beautiful exterior.

I felt like a visitor in my own classes for all 4 years, but I survived. I made friends pretty much only through my residence halls, but I survived. I wasn't nearly as involved in clubs as I should have been, but I survived. I decided I hated my dull major only it was too late and too expensive to change, but I survived.

I survived an uncaring bureaucracy that treated me like a number. I survived an environment that gave me 100% freedom yet no direction on what to do. I survived a student populace that could be generously described as "unfriendly". I survived an essentially nonexistent social scene for those who weren't into keg parties.

I survived hours of studying every night for years on end. I survived watching people freak out all around me, all semester long, every semester. I survived endless cold, lonely days of studying.

When it was finally all over, the real world was a piece of cake.

Was all that torture at Cornell worth it? Was all that stress worth it? Maybe. I didn't learn anything useful for the real world from any of my classes. And I had student loan debts that crippled me for years. The one good thing about Cornell is that it gave me a work ethic second to none. And an ability to do it myself.