http://www.metaezra.com/ en Copyright 2010 Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:51:41 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss By Matthew Nagowski Continuing with last week's Love Story topic, MetaEzra reader SD '12 writes in: Just finished the post on Love Story and thought you might like to know that even though Love Story never caught on to Cornell as a whole, it holds a special place with the Big Red Pep Band. On their annual trip to Hahvahd/Dartmouth for hockey games, the pep band watches Love Story on the bus. They watch up to the part where Hahvahd gets their ass kicked in hockey (during which they cheer and applaud) and then they fast forward to the part where Jenny dies... http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/no_big_red_love_for_love_story.shtml http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/no_big_red_love_for_love_story.shtml Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:51:41 -0500 By Matthew Nagowski The Times recently ran an article that explores a rather peculiar tradition at Harvard which revolves around the film Love Story. So reports the newspaper of record: Nowhere is “Love Story” more pummeled than at Harvard, the site of Oliver and Jenny’s gooey courtship. Every year the Crimson Key Society, a student organization that conducts campus tours and otherwise promotes college spirit, runs “Love Story” strictly for laughs for first-year students during their orientation. This year’s two screenings take place on Aug. 30. Harvard students may 'pummel' the film, but no died-in-the-wool Cornellian should forget that it is the Crimson... http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/what_can_you_say_about_a_hocke.shtml http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/what_can_you_say_about_a_hocke.shtml Wed, 25 Aug 2010 22:35:03 -0500 By Matthew Nagowski I was pleased to see that this year's New Student reading selection committee took a creative turn with Phillip K. Dick's Do Android's Dream of Electric Sheep, a science fiction novella that explores what it means to be human. I was also pleased to see that rather than sticking 3,600 teenagers in a stifling hot Barton Hall to be bored by a panel discussion, this year's reading project introduced several thematic lectures that students could choose to attend: Speaking in Statler Auditorium, associate professor of communication and information science Jeff Hancock referenced the novel's Voigt-Kampff "human-detector" empathy test as he... http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/androids_empathy_and_faith.shtml http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/androids_empathy_and_faith.shtml Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:12:28 -0500 By Matthew Nagowski There's good news for students who have been cross-admitted to Cornell and other Ivies who would prefer to attend Cornell. Starting this year Cornell will match the parental contribution and loan level amount of any student admitted to any of the other Ivies, as well as Stanford, Duke, and MIT. -- In order to improve Cornell's competitiveness in the recruitment and enrollment of undergraduate students, Cornell will commit to matching the parental contribution and loan level of other Ivy schools, and will strive to also match the parental contribution and loan levels at Stanford, Duke and MIT. -- The match... http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/cornell_to_match_aid_packages.shtml http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/cornell_to_match_aid_packages.shtml Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:37:42 -0500 By Matthew Nagowski The folks over at Cornell Insider picked up on an interesting NPR story that tracks how well college graduates pay back their student loans. The NPR story cites the fact that Cornell has the second highest loan repayment rate in the Ivy League, at 82 percent, falling only to (who else?) Harvard's 84 percent. That's all well and good, save for the fact that NPR reported on the Cornell in Iowa. You know, the one where students only take one course at a time and the topography is flat and without any intersecting hydrological features? Cornell's actual repayment rate is... http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/npr_confuses_the_cornells.shtml http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/npr_confuses_the_cornells.shtml Sun, 22 Aug 2010 17:34:21 -0500 By Matthew Nagowski Longtime readers of the site know my old adage -- acceptance rates tell us nothing -- because they tell you nothing about the academic caliber of the institution, nor the quality of the students applying, being accepted, or enrolling. That said, SAT-contingent acceptance rates can be very useful to students applying to a school because it may help provide guidance to their chances of being accepted. This is true even at a school like Cornell, which with many different undergraduate colleges and niche majors like architecture, viticulture, and hotel management, tends to be more focused on a qualitative assessment of... http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/cornell_acceptance_rates_by_sa.shtml http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/cornell_acceptance_rates_by_sa.shtml Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:17:53 -0500 By Matthew Nagowski With orientation only a week away for the Class of 2014 and students already arriving in Ithaca for awesome pre-orientation programs like Outdoor Odyssey, nee Wilderness Reflections, MetaEzra recently came across some statistics for the entering class. And with this year's low acceptance rate and high yield, we knew that the Class of 2014 was bound to impress. The big news is that this appears to be the strongest year in recent memory, not only on the acceptance rate and yield side, but also on the academic caliber side. The later is much more important, because acceptance rates don't really... http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/class_of_2014_strongest_class.shtml http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/class_of_2014_strongest_class.shtml Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:26:20 -0500 By Elie Bilmes Mark Kirk's '81 star may be falling, but another Midwestern Cornellian is poised to win big in November. As we posted in the sidebar and the Sun reported last week, Hansen Clarke '81 defeated thirteen-year incumbent Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick in the Democratic primary for Michigan's 13th District. Given that the district is strongly Democratic, analysts predict that Hansen is "all but certain" to win this fall's election. Clarke's victory was due in large part to the ethical problems facing Kilpatrick and her family, but Clarke's personal story is a compelling narrative of diversity and perseverance. His father, a Bangladeshi... http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/moving_past_coulter_and_olberm.shtml http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/moving_past_coulter_and_olberm.shtml Mon, 09 Aug 2010 20:12:24 -0500 By Matthew Nagowski Last week I detailed where Cornell alumni live across the country, and I noted at the time that I was most surprised by Denver's relatively high standing in the rankings -- ahead of larger metropolitan areas like Phoenix and Atlanta. Today, MetaEzra reader AB contributes: I am a current student and avid reader and thank you for your great blog. I learn more from your blog than I do any other Cornell related publication. I am in a rush, but as a proud Coloradan I couldn't help but notice you mentioning that the only thing that could explain kids going... http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/explaining_denver.shtml http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/explaining_denver.shtml Mon, 09 Aug 2010 10:40:52 -0500 By Matthew Nagowski A cool new Cornell meme that's circulating the Internets is the I Am Cornell project, which came out of University's Office of Web Communications. Reads the project website: Are you a Cornellian? Do you work for the university? Teach on the Hill? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you are Cornell. Make a sign telling the world how Cornell is in your life, how the university has touched your world, how you relate to the Big Red. Then have someone snap your photo holding it. Be creative. Have fun. Share your Cornell with the world. During... http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/i_am_cornell.shtml http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/i_am_cornell.shtml Sun, 08 Aug 2010 22:48:35 -0500 By Matthew Nagowski Not to turn this humble blog towards all-suicide, all-the-time coverage, but I recently came across some additional statistics on suicides at Cornell and in Tompkins County. This follows Susan Murphy's public statements that the Ithaca Journal covered last month. Taken in full, I believe the statistics point to the fact that aside from the tragic cluster that occurred this spring which required a large response by the administration, Cornell still doesn't have a suicide problem, it has a bridge problem. * Between 1990 and 2010, there were 29 gorge-related suicide or suicide attempts in Tompkins County. Of those 29, 15... http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/cornells_suicide_bridge_proble.shtml http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/cornells_suicide_bridge_proble.shtml Fri, 06 Aug 2010 15:36:46 -0500 By Matthew Nagowski One of the tidbits of info that Chris Marshall shared with me in his interview last year was the location of Cornell alumni across the country. I, of course, neglected to include the data in the original interview, but recently stumbled across it again and thought it would be worthwhile to share with all of you. Now, this type of information might not be all that interesting to some of our readers, but as both a data and a geography geek, I find it pretty neat. I was also able to match up Chris's data with data from the U.S.... http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/where_do_cornell_alumni_live_1.shtml http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/where_do_cornell_alumni_live_1.shtml Tue, 03 Aug 2010 19:55:47 -0500 By Elie Bilmes It should be clear to Big Red sports fans that the spring of 2010 was the historical high-water mark for Cornell Athletics. The season was marked by not only the unprecedented success of teams like women's hockey and men's basketball, but also the continued success of teams like men's hockey, women's softball, men's lacrosse, wrestling, and track and field. In the weeks since, however, it has become clear that this pinnacle of sports success will not be matched in 2011. Two of the individuals responsible for this success, basketball coach Steve Donahue and lacrosse coach Jeff Tambroni, left for bigger... http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/continuing_the_golden_age_afte.shtml http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/08/continuing_the_golden_age_afte.shtml Sun, 01 Aug 2010 18:46:38 -0500 By Matthew Nagowski We've had our suspicions for the last month or so, but the New York Times recently confirmed the fact that Cornell has yet to take a student off the waitlist this summer. Currently, Cornell has has 3,238 students planning on arriving in Ithaca this August. That's 88 students more than the annual incoming class target of 3,150. What's striking is that Cornell over-enrolled despite all of the bad press about suicides this spring. Just imagine how over-enrolled Cornell would have been had only the Sweet Sixteen (which certainly bumped up enrollment at the margins) occurred. Curious to note the number... http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/07/overenrolled_again_no_waitlist.shtml http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/07/overenrolled_again_no_waitlist.shtml Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:33:07 -0500 By Matthew Nagowski MetaEzra reader MP writes in to protest last week's coverage of the fact that Cornell's suicide rate is lower than the national average: I'd politely suggest that you should really know better than to 1) quote the ithaca journal for...anything. 2) use statistics in an argument. You cite CU suicide rates over 21 years. The big 10 study is over 10. Apples, Oranges. And you leave off this gem: "The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Suicide Prevention Task Force 2004 report indicated that over a five year period seven UNC students committed suicide. This is consistent with the... http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/07/more_on_cornells_suicide_rate.shtml http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/07/more_on_cornells_suicide_rate.shtml Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:29:47 -0500