My Class Visit to Cornell Johnson @ Ithaca, NY

The Round 1 deadline for Cornell was October 10. I wanted to make sure that I had actually visited and learnt more about the Johnson Graduate School of Management before I submitted my application online.

So, I scheduled a class visit online for the first week of October. I planned to reach Ithaca the day before and looked for multiple lodging options. From online reviews, I realized that the ‘Best Western University Inn’ at Ithaca was where most visiting prospective students had stayed. However, due to lack of availability, I stayed at the ‘Ramada Ithaca Executive Conference Center’. I rate the hotel as below average. The rooms are really old and the entire hotel needs serious renovating. However it was ok for a night’s stay. Some of the positives of the hotel were excellent speed free wireless internet, very cordial staff and the timely free shuttle to anywhere on Cornell campus. I arrived to Ithaca by the Coach USA bus(http://www.coachusa.com/) from New York and would highly recommend it to anyone traveling from New York, but doesn’t want to drive. I got off at the State Terminal Stop at Ithaca and the Ramada Shuttle was there to pick me up (as I had requested before hand).

The next day, I took the shuttle again and arrived at Sage Hall about an hour before my scheduled class visit. All the business school classes and social events at Johnson take place at the Sage Hall building. After reaching the school, I met Michael Corbett at the Admissions Office. I think he is one of the most cordial and well-informed admissions officers I have met. He knows it all about the admissions process and is really cordial and helpful. Michael mentioned that my host for the day would be there to assist me about 15 minutes before the class. He suggested that I go out in the atrium and talk to current students and learn more about the school.

This experience at Johnson was like that at no other school. Since current students in the atrium are used to meeting prospective students, I actually had current students coming over and introducing themselves. They were interested to know what were my interests at business school and actually put me in touch with a couple of students who shared similar interests. This gave me about half an hour to learn more about the school, recruiting opportunities and also life at Ithaca. You will learn immediately that ‘COLLABORATION’ is the mantra at Cornell and students really enjoy being there.

Coming back to the admissions office, I met my host for the day who escorted me to the Finance Class of interest to me. I found the class I attended to be of average quality. The professor seemed nothing outstanding and I found that student discussion or class participation was conspicuous by its absence. I do not want to judge the school by one class, but I somehow got the feeling that the professors here were some good and some bad. I decided that if I ever got accepted, I would have a serious in-depth discussion with some of the current students I had met before making a commitment to business school education for 2 years. The current student who was my host for the class, was really cordial and answered the questions I had for him. Also he was very positive about the reputation of the school for finance.

Apart from the professor, another thing I did not like about the classes was that all of Johnson’s MBA classes are held in the basement. As a result of that the classrooms look a bit dull and unattractive. The entire school building called sage hall has been renovated a couple of years back, but still I would have loved to see classrooms with lovely windows.

Coming back to the admissions office after the class visit, I was introduced to two current students who were going to host the information session for about 5 prospective students like me. We started off with lunch and a very informal discussion. I enjoyed the discussion with the students and was glad to learn about the Johnson being a top school for Finance, excellent recruitment at New York City, collaborative environment at the school and their love for the school. The students later presented us with an information session about the school and the MBA program. This was followed by a tour of the Sage Hall which left me impressed by the modern facilities at Sage Hall. Couldn’t they have made one small change....Have classrooms at place other than the basement!!!

Another important point, before visiting Ithaca, I was really concerned about the fact that Cornell was at a place seemingly nowhere and maybe I would feel really depressed and lonely there. But, meeting the current students here, I have somehow changed that opinion.

Completing the visit, I left school and took the Coach USA bus again to get back to New York. All in all, I was impressed by Cornell.

Pros: Ivy League, Great school for finance, excellent and open-minded students

Cons: Basement classrooms, average faculty, About 4 hour drive from New York.

Hope this description helps you in your Cornell Visit and wishing you a very positive experience during your visit to Ithaca!!!!