A Day in the Life of a Cornell Engineer
On a typical weekday, I spend the morning and early afternoon attending my online classes. After those are over, I usually make a sandwich or some other quick food for lunch and enjoy eating while watching an episode of Arrested Development. Once I’m finished eating, I work on some assignments for my classes. I like to get my assignments done a few days in advance of when they are due, which is why I tend to work on them earlier in the day.
After an hour or two of solving problem sets, I take a scoop of pre-workout and head to the gym; I’m very much into weightlifting, so I go to Teagle Down for my workouts. After my workout, I drink a protein shake and then work at the gym for a two hour shift as a fitness monitor. Once my shift is done, I head back to my room, shower, and either make something for dinner or grab food from Collegetown. While I eat dinner, I facetime my family (including my dog) to update each other on our day.
I am a part of many groups outside of classes, including the Richardson Lab Group, Engineers for a Sustainable World: Biofuels, Class Councils, Engineering Ambassadors, and Cornell Energy Systems Club, so I have a meeting for one of these activities almost every evening, usually after I eat dinner.
When my meetings are over, I spend a couple more hours working on my assignments for the week before spending some time with my friends that live in my building. I tend to do most of my work for the week on Monday and Tuesday, so I have more time to spend with my friends later in the week. Finally, around 11 pm, I watch some tv and go to sleep.
—Niki, operations research and engineering