Great opportunities, very stressful - Graduate Student Cornell University Employee Review

4.0
Aug 20, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Many academic opportunities, great place to explore academic interests. Supporting environment, lots of support for personal interets. The university has diverse programs and offers top academic programs, in many varied field which you might not find anywhere else. The phyiscial setting is great, lots of green space, nature views, the university is obviously committed to the environment, with change made all the time. While some might find the lack of parking annoying, it encourages the use of mass transit. I found my time there to be positive overall, many aspects of which I didn't appreciate until I had completed my time there.

Cons

The academic environment can be very stressful. Many times, it can feel like you do not measure up to their standards or cannot succeed there. Support from the faculty, especially in acadmeic programs can be lacking, though some are more supportive than others. This is greatly depenant on one's indivdual academic supervisor. There is a sense that you never can escape work, and that you are never truly off the clock. Ithaca is an isolated place. Though there are many positive aspects to the town, it can be difficult to get out of town, as the closest major cities (New York and Toronto) are 4 hours away.

Explore other reviews about Cornell University

5.0
Jul 2, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

great place to work. Beautiful campus

Cons

out of no where location.

2.0
Jun 25, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Time off, subsidy for children for college, small grant for childcare, and remote work ability.

Cons

Heavily bureacratic, top-down structure with zero creative ability unless it's around AI. No performance reviews from the bottom-up tell you a lot. Cornell is going through very tough times and employees are overworked, underpaid and have no room to grow or advance and heavy negative sentiment regarding all of the changes happening and further budget cuts. You need to move to another unit and apply to a higher position that way to get any type of promotion, despite your performance, goals and achievements. We get annual SIP that is below inflation and never any performance bonuses.

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