Sage Hall @ 1AM

Sage Hall, Ithaca, NY EGADE, Monterrey, Mexico

Sage Hall (the business school) is an interesting place to be at 1AM in the morning. In my nearly two years as a student this has happened to me only a few times for groupwork and a few more times to watch NBA playoffs on the big screen TV's on the lower level. I make it a point to get home to my family in the evenings and get my work done during the day. Regardless of the time of day, you'll always find people in the building working on something.

I much more prefer working during the day in either the large glass atrium or in the library next to big windows that overlook East Avenue. However, when you work in the attrium don't plan on getting much done because there are too many people coming up and talking to you about assignments, projects, job search, or soliciting help for a survey for a marketing research class.

Although they were completed about the same time (Sage Hall was remodeled and EGADE was built in the late 90s) they definitley have different personalities. Nearly all of the teaching occurs during the day at Sage and there is an event 3-4 nights a week. At EGADE, nearly all classes occur at night. All the hubbub happens between 6 pm and 10 pm and any social activities are held at the main University Campus about 10 minutes down the road.  I must say that I enjoy the fact that Sage Hall is right in the heart of campus.

El Maestro

I remember in the 5th grade being scolded by my teacher because I said "Teacher, can I go to the bathroom?" You just don't refer to someone as teacher in English. As a Spanish speaking exchange student in Mexico I love the fact that I can say Maestro Hernandez or "Teacher Hernandez". It sounds important. I can refer to someone as licenciado (ungraduate degree), maestro (masters degree), and doctor (doctorate degree). It might be cool to be refered to "Master Rollins" when I graduate. However, my favorite is that it is perfectly normal to call someone goridito (little fat one) - though I'm still not accustomed to using that.

Speaking of Maestros, EGADE is primarily a teaching school while Cornell is considered a research institution. I have enjoyed professors at both schools. In Mexico, I have teachers who have been in their industry for 25 years teaching my class. At Cornell, I enjoy learning from teachers whose textbooks are not only used in our class but across the country as well. While most have industry experience, research is a top priority and most professors only teach one semester and are researching the rest of the year. I've know some students to overload a bit on classes in a semester because they are interested in taking classes from professors who won't be teaching the next semester.

Living next to the Drug Lords

Last week the Wall Street Journal published a story about the violent drug wars going on in Mexico and mentioned the city of San Pedro multiple times. I happen to live in this wealthy suburb of the Monterrey. Because the city is one of the affluent in Mexico, the Drug Lords can live here and flash their money just like the rest of the residents without any suspicion.

As far as I know, I haven't met any lords at EGADE, the school I'm attending. Nobody has listed drug lord as their primary occupation. I've met students who work at Pepsi, Cemex, HP, a bottling company, and one even owns 3 or 4 gasoline stations (many go to school and work full-time). Every one is very friendly and helpful. However, I haven't been able to meet as many people as I would like to down here.

One of my primary reasons of returning to school was to create a large network full of people who will be future leaders of business. Cornell's Johnson School makes networking a top priority and I can honestly say that I know 80% of my class very well (and many from the 2008 and 2010 class). I would have no problem calling them up in 5 years to chat about a business proposal or talk about opportunities at their company. Things like Sage Socials, $JSMISC, a small community, events, clubs, classes, class nametags, and symposiums make getting to know each other very easy. I realize how great the networking focus is now that I'm away from it.

100 degrees in February

So now that I'm studying in Mexico I can give some perspective on attending a different business school in a different location. I'll share a bit about the environment. First of all it hit a 100 degrees here just the other day while it snowed about 10 inches in most of the northeastern states including Central New York. Although the 100 degrees was a bit of anomaly (its normally about 75 degrees this time of year) the snow in Ithaca wasn't.

I'm the type of person who actually enjoyed much of the winter atmosphere in Ithaca. There was always plenty of interesting classes, homework, symposiums, socials, and club responsibilities to keep you busy. Additionally, because its a college town many activities exist outside of the Johnson School. Here are a few examples of what I did to keep myself entertained in the dark days of winter: Stephen Colbert comedy, an international juggling competition, the indoor climbing wall, weekly basketball, Cornell hockey games, Banff film festival, skiing at Greek Peak, Baily Hall concerts, and events at the Johnson Museum. And although I'm not a bar guy I know that plenty of students enjoy a night at nearby college town.


Hockey games are by far some of the best sporting events I've ever been to. The crazy crowds, the cheers, the color red, and the 40 other Johnson school students who attend make the outing lots of fun. Check out the Cornell Event calendar (www.cornell.edu/events) .