Summer is beautiful and so is fall, but winter is miserable and spring doesn't come until finals week. The weather in Ithaca is pretty horrible. The joke at Cornell is that Ezra Cornell told his friends he would found an institution 'where any student can receive instruction in any study,' and that he would put it in a beautiful natural setting. Depression is common at Cornell, and I believe the weather is a major reason. The size and impersonality.
Class sizes are often in the hundreds, even for upperclassmen.
The stress level gets pretty high, and big classes that grade on a curve don't help. And the extremely high student caliber makes it difficult to get on top of that curve. Despite this stress, students often work together in study groups, and coping with the workload fosters friendships. Students Most Compatible Students able to chart their own course through Cornell's vast sea of offerings may fare best. It takes a fair amount of independence, self-confidence, and organization to succeed.