On the Hill

I have never seen a phenomenon that I recently entitled “the grind” so clearly represented as it has for me this semester. Alright, so “the grind” is the one-to-two weeks prior to spring break when Cornell students get slammed with prelims, papers, and especially in my case this semester – midterms. Oh, just so you’re up on the vernacular, a “prelim” is short for a preliminary examination, which is nothing more than a glorified exam. Prelims typically are given 2-3 times a semester and worth a significant portion of students’ grades in classes.

I took a prelim in my ethics class yesterday, and it wasn’t too bad at all. So that was good. The bad news is, next Wednesday I have a 6-8 page paper due in my ethics class and a midterm in my US Congress class (which is worth, I think close to half our grade.) It should be noted I just started doing the reading for US Congress last night. Thursday is even worse. In my Securities and Trading class I have an in class midterm during the day and in my Investments class I have a three hour midterm the same evening. Yep, those are my two hardest classes too. Oh, also, the Prof for Investments informed us that to ensure a good grade, students should expect to study 50 hours.

Luckily, I am off to Spring Break in Hilton Head, SC the day after the grind ends. But for now, I’m stuck in it…

My favorite place to study – the A.D. White Memorial Library

Two guys who graduated from Cornell and were in Psi U with me, Doug and Yanni, have started an interesting website that I think fits in nicely with the theme of blogging. It is called Loud Campus and is a website which allows students to post reviews (professors, restaurants, etc.) and discussions (issues on campus, politics, current events, etc.) It is basically a constantly running forum which is categotrized and also has quite a few nice features. So, for any perspective students or parents of perspective students out there looking to see what students really talk about, make sure to check it out. I should probably add that it is not affiliated with the school so anything you read on the site is purely unedited banter among students.

Alright, I know you are all probably sick of me always just recounting trips to New York City. Five of us from Psi U along with three pledges drove down to Princeton, NJ to watch another fraternity brother of ours, Dave, swim in the EISL Championship meet. Dave is a senior who I lived with for a semester and one of my good friends in the house. He has been steadily progressing each year while collecting many accolades and this year truly was his last hurrah. He had been training especially hard to attempt a shot at making the NCAA meet (top 25 swimmers in each event, country wide.)

John picked me up from class at 3:30 on Friday and we started driving. Unfortunately we arrived thirty minutes after Dave broke the league record and set a personal best in the 100 yd breast stroke, essentially securing himself a bid to the NCAA meet. So we were incredibly excited for him and spent some time congratulating him and his family. Later on we watched him swim in a 400 yd medley relay (I think?) which Cornell also won. The swim team was eating at the local Macaroni Grill so we joined them, if you count sitting at a separate table, not allowed to talk to them, “joining them.” The highlight of dinner came after I returned from the bathroom to find that it was my “birthday.” The birthday boy has to stand on his chair, swing his napkin around over his head like a helicopter while a waitress sings authentic Italian music which sounds like opera.

We hopped in the car afterwards and drove to the city from Princeton. Met up with quite a few Cornell, Psi U alums and went out and about in Manhattan with them. It was a really fun night and great to see everyone. My buddy John provided great entertainment with his Nelly Furtado renditions.

Drove back to Princeton on Saturday to catch the second half of the swim meet. Dave won the 200 yd breast stroke, which he was actually not the clear favorite to win. Although Cornell was undefeated in dual meets this season they only placed 5th at the EISL meet overall. The way it was explained to me is that Cornell is a talented team but not a deep team.

I don’t want to use this as a medium to talk bad about other schools, but I have to throw this out there – I do not think Princeton is a fun place. Maybe we were just there on an “off” night or maybe we didn’t know enough people to show us the places where people hang out. We figured we would hang out for the night at Princeton and possibly take Dave and Colin (a pledge on the swim team) out for a bit. We rented a hotel room at the swim team’s hotel and then went downtown to see what was up. Not only were people walking around with backpacks on at 11 pm, they also told us that “No one has fun at Princeton.” Just had to get that off my chest. So, we canceled the hotel room (don’t ask) and drove back to the city. By the time we rolled in at 1 am it was just too late to do anything so we went to sleep.

Sunday saw us drive down to Morris Plains, NJ for brunch with our buddy Dan’s family. Another recent alum, Rick, was in the area and stopped by as well. Eggs Benedict is delicious…

I don’t have any crazy stories to tell about this past weekend – it was pretty typical as far as Cornell goes.

On Thursday Psi U had a “highlighter party,” which consisted of everyone wearing brand new white tee shirts, carrying around highlighters, and writing on other people all under black lights (which emphasize the glowing effect.) It seemed like a pretty cool idea, I have seen variations in the past including a “paint party” where people actually throw sponges dipped in paint at each other. I don’t think a paint party would fly in our nicely renovated barroom. Anyways, I had to wake up early the next morning so I don’t even know how it ended up going.

Friday was a strawberries party with Ange’s sorority, which is always a ton of fun. There are a bunch of platters of nice chocolate dipped strawberries, etc. We hang out quite a bit with her sorority so it is always a big draw – one of the few parties that the older girls (juniors, seniors) will attend. Typically it takes place earlier in the semester but either way it was a fun time.

Saturday I just sort of chilled out. I went over to Psi U for a bit and played a little ping pong. Nothing crazy – I knew I was going to wake up early on Sunday and get some work done. On Sunday I met with my group for HADM 429 (Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management) and we worked on a big assignment we have due this week. This was the second Sunday in a row we have worked on it; we spent five hours on it and it is still far from done. Crazy right? I guess this is only the beginning, I hear that for the final project we can expect to spend 1-2 weeks straight working on the project, pulling multiple all nighters along the way. Yep, this is my Senior year…

I just watched An Inconvenient Truth, the Al Gore movie about global warming. Pretty intense, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who had not yet seen it – liberal, conservative or somewhere in the middle and confused (like me.)

Here is a shot of our barroom

“Just when I thought you couldn’t get any dumber, you go and do something like this… and totally redeem yourself!” Harry, Dumb and Dumber

This sums up how I felt with respect to one Cornell University yesterday. Let me back up a bit.

I took Ange out to Valentine’s Day dinner a day early on Tuesday night and as we left for the Heights the weather channel was flashing severe weather warnings starting at nine p.m. Our reservations were at seven and as we sat down to eat there was a fluffy, light snow falling. When we left the restaurant at nine a couple of inches had already accumulated and it was snowing much harder.

When I woke up the next morning to walk to class at 7:30 a.m., there was at least a foot on the ground and none of the roads, sidewalks, my front steps, etc. had been cleared. There was a state of emergency warning in effect for Ithaca and a non-emergency travel prohibition for Tompkins County. Yet, Cornell stayed open and I had class (although for professors to get to work it was clearly extremely treacherous travel.) I don’t know why Cornell hasn’t had a snow day since ‘93 (since everything, including stores, around us was closed) but I can only assume it is driven by monetary factors…

Alas, when I returned home at nine a.m. I got an amazing email:
“Classes will be cancelled from 12 p.m. on today.”

What proceeded to take place was nothing short of legendary – Cook St. turned into the place to be and about 50 people gathered at the top of the street to sled down. People came with real snow boards, people came on skis; they even built a massive jump. I saw a skier attempt a back flip and land on his head. Four of us tried to sled down on a mattress, if only our stupid landlord provided us with slicker mattresses it might have worked. Later in the day we took Jason’s SUV out and attempted to drive down Buffalo St. to get some food at Wegman’s. We did make it, but spun out quite a few times; it was definitely scary.

It really was a reenactment of every snow day from our childhood and each Cornell student was trying to relive that one last time. What a fun day, and definitely one I will remember forever.

In keeping with our recent road trip hobby, Nick, Jason and I hopped in the car at 3 p.m. on Saturday and drove to New York City. While nothing is close to Ithaca, nothing is too far away, including a bunch of fun cities. The reason we took the trip was that Jason’s parents were staying at the Carlton in Midtown for the night since in the morning they planned on going apartment shopping for Jason next year. And yes, that is buying an apartment for him to live in…

We had dinner with them at the hotel restaurant, exchanged some funny stories with his parents and Jason’s dad told us a few off color jokes. After that we went down to Soho to meet up with a Cornell alum who was in Nick and Jason’s fraternity. Spent some time there, then came back to the Greenwich Village and hit up a few more establishments. It was a pretty fun night; me and Nick stayed over at his parents’ apartment at NYU. They are actually faculty in residence at NYU Law School although I think they usually stay at home in Massachusetts. It’s all very confusing to me, but either way we had an empty apartment to stay in.

I had lunch with an old friend today which was a lot of fun and then me and Nick walked around Chinatown shopping for fake Louis Vuitton briefcases (we didn’t find any, unfortunately.) Met up with Jason and drove back home.

I’ve had a lot of fun this week in general – have been going out quite a bit with the guys I live with. We went to a place on Wednesday night called the Crooked Board. It is over in Slaterville Springs (15 min. drive) and is famous for all you can eat wings, best flavor – garbage (all the flavors at once.) Thursday night we headed down to Ithaca College stomping grounds where I saw a kid I went to high school with and we watched a great cover band. It has been nice not having too much work pile up yet. We will see if that continues through the semester…

This would be soooo much cooler to carry to class than my North Face back pack…

Alright, so I have been looking for a summer job. I am trying to land a position at an investment bank in a summer analyst position. Let’s just say it has not been easy. These programs are typically reserved for juniors who usually work for the summer and then come back full time after they graduate (if they are extended an offer.) So it has been a stretch since I am a senior and I have this whole unique situation with ROTC and whatnot.
To the banks’ credit I actually received quite a few interviews, usually about 350 kids drop resumes for 20-30 interview slots. The fact that banks took a chance to interview me was an honor in itself. However, after the interviews I haven’t had much success. Possibly it is because I am unprepared, come across poorly in an interview, but most of the feedback I have gotten from people who have interviewed me is that the uncertainty of my situation has hurt me. Basically, some of the banks only extend 2 offers from that pool of 20-30 and when I am stacked up against the other highly qualified candidates I cannot blame them for choosing a junior over me.

It has been an exhausting week and a half of interviews though. Each day is anywhere from 1-4 interviews and each night is a dinner meet and greet with the banks that interview the following day. This is after going to all the company presentations last November and spending hours writing cover letters. I watched my roommates go through the process and never quite could feel their pain until now. Getting a job is tough! It has been a great experience though going through these interviews and getting a sense of what they are like. Great practice.
In other news, you guessed it – Ithaca is COLD! I mean like the frostbite-on-your-cheeks-thaws-in-class cold. Yeah, that type of cold. When I woke up for my 8 a.m. class the other day it was like 3 degrees and almost 15 below with the wind chill. I don’t feel so bad knocking on good ‘ole Ithaca when the rest of the country is freezing their butts off too…

If you are interested in getting a banking job, this sucker is your bible…

So, the guys I live with have been joking around all semester about at the drop of a hat packing up and driving to Montreal for a night. Once Friday rolls around we usually start in with the challenges to each other of, “You won’t drive to Montreal…” About a month ago Nick and Jason decided to try driving but upon second thought went to Pennsylvania to buy fireworks instead. Said fireworks have caused plenty of trouble, but that is neither here nor there…

Last Friday we decided to finally do it – drive to Montreal. We left at 6 pm which we figured would put us in Montreal around 10. However, the snow was unbelievably bad, freezing rain actually. Jason was driving Nick and I in his huge SUV but he was still too scared to go on. We had made it to Syracuse so we decided to spend the night there, hanging out with people at SU. We went out to eat at Dinosaur BBQ (http://www.dinosaurbarbque.com/), a pretty famous upstate New York joint. The wait was around an hour (which is actually not bad for there) and the pulled pork was to die for.

We checked into the Sheraton which is right on the main strip where SU students typically hang out. We went out on the town for awhile, spent a lot of $ and hung out with a few of our friends in our hotel room. All in all, it was a fun night and a good change of pace from the typical weekend night at Cornell. I highly recommend all types of road trips even if they are only mini-road trips.

No one truly likes the first week of classes. Alright, well maybe some people do, but not anyone I know. Especially if you have just come off the fun that encompasses rush week. I guess there are some positive aspects – namely, classes are just getting started so there is no real work yet and people tend to socialize quite a bit before they get hampered down. However, waking up for that early (yes, early) 9:05 class is never fun. Especially when the frostbite you get from the walk to class inhibits your note taking ability (O.k. no more weather jokes, it’s my fault anyways for not wearing my mittens like my Mom has always told me.)

My classes this semester should be interesting. I am taking:

• HADM 429 Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management

• AEM 460 Security Trading and Market Making

• GOVT 318 United States Congress

• NAVSCI 402 Leadership and Ethics

This is only 13 credits, which is one credit over the minimum required to be a full time student. I really only need about 5 credits to graduate so I suppose I could’ve pushed myself extra hard last semester and graduated early, but what fun would that have been? The US Congress class is a history requirement for ROTC and the NAVSCI class is required for ROTC as well. The two finance classes are upper level, quite challenging classes.

I still need to take a second physical education course in order to graduate… so, I guess I should get on the ball with that one. Any suggestions? Should I do: rock climbing at out Lindseth climbing wall (shameless plug: largest natural rock indoor climbing wall in North America) Alaskan dog sledding, whitewater rafting in the spring, Swedish massage, swing dancing… The possibilities are endless. http://www.pe.cornell.edu/physed/

So, you know it’s cold in Ithaca when your whole body gets so chapped and dried out that you need to apply liberal amounts of PURE VASELINE to your body twice a day just to keep your skin from cracking. I know that is probably a description and visual you all enjoyed but I just can’t believe how cold it is here and it has me disgruntled.

I have written before that Ithaca is hit or miss weather-wise. My freshman year, it snowed in like October and never stopped. Sophomore year, no snow all the way through first semester (December) and only limited amounts when we came back at the end of January. Junior year, somewhere in the middle. This year, as many people know, through December many areas of the country were reporting record high temperatures. Ithaca was no different – even in early January it was hitting freakishly high temperatures (think: 60 degrees.) But guess what? That didn’t last. When I got back in late January, not only was there plenty of snow on the ground but it was hovering around 10-15 degrees. If you are familiar with Ithaca, you know that it can get pretty windy here as well. The combination can drop temperatures, with the wind chill, to far below zero.

Sorry for all this negativity about the weather – for what it is worth, the weather is the only complaint I ever really do hear Cornellians make. If you are from the Northeast, however, Ithaca is not much different than what you are used to. If you are from California or something along those lines, it will take a bit of acclimation.

Very popular bumper sticker…