Why I Love Cornell: The Magic of the Arts Quad

Welcome back! As our Ithaca campus comes alive again for the spring semester, we here at the Arts & Sciences blog will begin posting weekly material once again. Good luck to all the seniors who recently submitted applications - as you wait for college decisions, enjoy senior Maddy Finkelstein's post about the beauty of Cornell's campus - even in the winter! 

By: Maddy Finkelstein '16

As the new semester begins, I’m reminded again and again of how picturesque Cornell’s campus is. As a Government and French double major, I basically live on the Arts Quad. I eat my meals at Temple of Zeus in Goldwin Smith, I spend hours in the stacks of Olin Library, and I’m constantly visiting my advisors in White Hall and Morrill Hall – and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Cornell is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen, but it’s not just about the aesthetic beauty of the physical buildings themselves. For me, it’s the sense of history that accompanies it. I love walking on a campus that I know has been here for one hundred and fifty years. It makes me take pride in my university especially when it comes to the Arts Quad, which housed Cornell's first buildings back in the 19th century.

While the new buildings like Arts and Sciences’ own Klarman Hall are nice, there’s just something magical about having class in McGraw Hall and imagining what it was like to be sitting in that same classroom a century ago. At the end of the day, getting to leave my own small mark on the large history of Cornell is worth the sometimes-unpredictable weather and the hours spent in the library. Just one glimpse out the windows of Olin’s 7th floor reminds me how lucky I am to go to such a beautiful school.