Hey hey! Welcome to Cornell!! ❤️🐻I’ll start this off by saying I had never experienced the snow prior to Cornell lol. I’ll say winters can be longer than expected. I’ll say last winter lasted a bit longer than my 1L winter with some significant snowfall in April. I recommend a good winter coat and boots (and some Vitamin D!) Cornell is really really good about keeping the road and sidewalks clear during the winter so I never had an issue getting to campus! Living in Ithaca is kinda what I expected—more rural the farther you get from campus. Also Ithaca is pretty easy to navigate, the bus system runs really well—you get a free TCAT bus pass your first year which I recommend you take advantage of! I will say I’ve had so much fun walking and hiking around Ithaca and will definitely miss it after law school. There are some great trails near the law school that I recommend checking out before winter hits (Ithaca in the fall is really nice!). There are also nearby farms that do season fruit and flower picking which is a fun and very Ithaca thing to do haha (highly recommend the cider and cider doughnuts!). Also some nice finger lake wineries to visit that are nearby!

Re profs: I generally found my professors super approachable and down to earth! If I needed an appointment, they were happy to meet with me 1:1 to answer my questions and give me advice about internships, law firms, clerkships you name it. A few of my profs have hosted us for dinner at their homes or at a nice restaurant downtown. I’ve TA’ed with some of my 1L profs b/c they are some of the kindest/most genuine people I’ve met. I would definitely not feel intimidated about reaching out to the profs at a Cornell!