Behind the scenes: college finances and college success

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Glenn

Last Wednesday’s Rose Café focused on how to navigate through college, some facts about endowments and also included some tips for succeeding in college. The most important thing that I took from the lecture was just to take classes that have great professors because they can make the material interesting to you. I think that this is great advice but it is not something that can be done all the time because there are some required courses that are taught by the same professor in the fall and spring. When it does work it’s great. I’ve had friends tell me, “You should take that class in the spring case it’s easier”

I thought that the part of the lecture that focused on the finances behind college was interesting. I learned that Cornell has a $6 billion endowment and in one particular year Harvard’s endowment increased by the total value of Cornell’s endowment. I also learned that although colleges with higher endowments have higher cost of attendance than public colleges, they actually turn out to be cheaper. Prior to coming to Cornell I used to think that international students won scholarships from their respective countries and that’s how they were able to afford studying in the US. At the Rose Café event I learned that is not the case and that a lot of international students come from pretty wealthy and powerful families.

Good stress advice but not sure how to put into practice

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Glenn

Last Wednesday I attended the Rose Café event on stress advice and meditation. I learned how stress affects people by hearing the experience of other Rose Scholars. I thought that the advice given was great but I wasn’t too sure about it being realistic for me. I feel that some of the advice was stuff that I’ve heard before but never really put into practice. I’ve heard about planners before but I think that something always comes up and I don’t really stick to my plan. Sometimes I just don’t manage my time well. One of the things that stuck with me the most from the event was hearing how we need 9 hours of sleep each night. I don’t think that this is something that I can realistically accomplish because I usually take2-3 hour naps after I eat dinner just so that I can study until 3am. Then I sleep maybe 5 or 6 hours. I’m not really sure how meditation would fit into my schedule cause I tend to finish all of my responsibilities that don’t include studying by dinner time so I guess I technically consider my nap time to be meditation time. I’ve heard the advice regarding exercising in the past and I usually try to do that in the morning before class but sometimes sleep gets in the way because when I’m just too tired I don’t feel like getting up early in the morning and just choose to sleep instead of exercising.

Tennis knowledge and the recruiting process

Posted on March 30, 2016 by Glenn

Last Wednesday I attended the Rose Café event featuring coach Silviu Tanasoiu and I thought that it was very eye opening and informative. I learned that one of the main ways that coach Tanasoiu motivates his athletes is by constantly reminding them that there are very few tennis players in in the world and it is therefore a privilege to be playing in the Ivy League. I learned that at the beginning of every semester the tennis players design a schedule that includes all their academic time including studying, sport time, and free time. In order for the athlete to be successful both in the classroom and in the court he must follow that schedule religiously. I was really amazed at how much stuff goes into the schedule and thought it was really amazing that the gpa for the team is a 3.6.

I thought that recruiting was perhaps the most interesting part of the talk. Coach Tanasoiu said that he always tries to look at the athletic ability and character of a potential recruit. He then gave an example of how he had his eyes on an athlete for a couple of months but when he went to check out the athlete’s performance at a tournament he noticed that he screamed at his coach. Coach Tanasoiu then said that after that he eliminated that athlete from his recruit list because he thought “If that student screams at the person that is with him in every moment of a competition giving him support, what makes me think that he is not going to do the same with me?” I thought it was interesting how sometimes potential recruits from other countries are not interested in going to college because they plan on going straight to playing professionally. I then learned that the US is the only country that offers students the ability to play a sport at varsity level in college.

Overall, I thought that the talk was great and I learned a lot about the recruiting process and just how much effort goes into balancing academics with sport time.

DREAMing about a better future.

Posted on March 23, 2016 by Glenn

Last Wednesday I attended GRF Esmeralda’s presentation on the DREAM Act, DACA, and the controversy that surrounds those topics. Being Hispanic, these are some topics that get featured a lot on Spanish news. Though I had some knowledge on the topics based off from what I’ve watched on Spanish news before coming to Cornell and during school breaks , I must say that I found Esmeralda’s presentation very informative.

DREAMers are basically students who were brought to the US illegally by their parents when they were young. They’ve spent their whole life here but they can’t apply for financial aid because of their legal status. Besides education, DREAMERs face other limitations due to their legal status such as: getting a driver’s license or an official ID. I think that the limitations that DREAMers face should be things that citizens should not take for granted. One of the the things that gets stressed a lot in Spanish news is how a lot of Hispanic students don’t make it to college mainly because they can’t get financial aid. Both the DREAM Act and DACA ( Delayed Action for Childhood arrivals) are a step in the right direction to helping out DREAMers. Opposition to these laws basically classifies them as amnesty. I don’t know too much about amnesty but the last time I heard it was in middle school and my understanding back then was that undocumented immigrants who came to the US at a certain point in time were forgiven for their “crime” and granted a legal status.

Overall, I thought that the presentation was great and I really like how it touched upon a controversial topic that I’ve followed on Spanish TV. I do think that the DREAM Act and DACA are a great stepping stone in helping out those who consider the US their home. These undocumented youths have established their life in the US and I think that being denied basic things that only citizens are eligible for is almost as though they are being stripped of something that should also be theirs.

Thinking about why we don’t always pick the best solution

Posted on March 16, 2016 by Glenn

Last week I attended the Rose Café event led by professor Garrick Blalock. The conversation centered on why we don’t always take the best solution (indicative of technological progress) and instead choose to remain with what we have at the current moment. One of the points that was touched on at the beginning of the presentation was : if we can all agree that driving a Prius or a Tesla is more environmentally friendly than our more conventional cars, then why aren’t we all driving a Prius or a Tesla? Student’s responses ranged from the cars being too expensive to them not being aesthetically appealing. Responses to the Prius/Tesla example made me reflect and realize that the underlying principle as to why we don’t all purchase these cars can be applied to other examples in life where we don’t pick the best technological solution.

Another example with the same underlying principle was later presented. It involved cooking in Uganda. The problem with the conventional way of cooking is that it is not efficient and produces a lot of smoke which can negatively impact health. A new cleaner (produces less smoke) and more efficient stove was introduced but it wasn’t really adopted by all because it was either too expensive or not as practical as the conventional “stoves”. I’m a person that thinks that health is one of the biggest priorities in life so when I heard this I just thought that it was interesting how much of an influence economics and practicality can have to make someone put their life at risk.

Overall, i thought the presentation was eye opening because it made me view decisions in life in a whole new perspective. I’ve even begun to look more closely at why I’m making the decisions I’m making and if the best solution to a problem is actually a feasible option for me.

The environment and funny videos

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Glenn

Last week’s Rose Café event was centered on environmental humor and although I laughed a lot, I didn’t feel like it was an interesting presentation. I liked the topic and it was something that I never even knew existed but I feel like I just watched funny videos about environmental humor for an hour and didn’t get as much information on the topic as I would’ve liked. It can definitely be argued that the best way to show what environmental humor is all about is through examples such as videos of commercials with environmental humor. One thing that came to my mind as I laughed was that maybe the humor of the videos takes away the severity of the issues at hand. With that said, I did have a favorite video and it was this one about a brand new ecological friendly car that kills its passenger in the hopes of reducing gas emissions. The video also showed that a lot of people were ecstatic about the new car and were already pre-ordering it and I thought that was another funny part of the video.

melancholy 101

Posted on February 24, 2016 by Glenn

Last week I attended the Rose Café event where GRF Sara presented her research on melancholy. I thought her presenting skills were really good. During the presentation I learned that melancholy is not the same thing as sadness. It’s kind of like a deeper and more powerful version of sadness that doesn’t have a definite cause (as does sadness). She mentioned that during times of melancholy people tend to be really creative and I thought that this was a fascinating fact because it’s not something that I would usually expect. During her presentation she mentioned Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Freud’s work. I was able to relate better to what she was saying here because I’m actually learning about Freud and Hamlet in my adult psychopathology class. I think that I really enjoyed her presentation because it exposed me to a subject that my usual science curriculum hasn’t given me a chance to think about.

Fun facts about the city of Ithaca

Posted on February 17, 2016 by Glenn

Last week’s Rose Café was very informative to me because I don’t really know anything about Ithaca. Since I’ve mostly been trapped in the “Cornell bubble”, Lisa Nicholas’ talk was kind of eye opening and I learned lots of interesting facts. Ithaca is one of the best places to live in but it’s quickly turning into one of the most expensive. About $15 million were spent in rebuilding the Commons. There is controversy about building a new hotel since there are already 3 downtown. when it’s time for graduation and families want to come to Ithaca, hotel rooms are around $500 per night. College town is mostly building student housing and “it would be interesting to see a hotel proposal there”. overall, I thought that the talk was great and I really liked how Google Maps was incorporated into the presentation in order to help visualize the city of Ithaca.

first time at the museum

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Glenn

Last week I attended the Johnson museum opening reception and I have to say that it was the first time in my 3 years at Cornell. I don’t really know too much about art but I really liked the paintings that I saw on that night. There were diverse painting styles and that was something that found very interesting. For example there was this one painting that was basically straight and curved red lines. I think that the painting that stood out the most for me from that night was this one of a giant question mark. I also attended this session where one artist spoke about his art and I thought that was interesting as well. In the slideshow that he had prepared for his presentation there was this awesome painting that looked like fluorescent straight lines positioned next to each other in such a way that it created the illusion that they were forming a curve. I had fun taking lots of pictures on that night.Overall I think the whole experience was great and I think that I’ll visit the museum again this semester.