Cornell Daily Sun: “When Martin Rosenfeld was still a high school senior, his college application list included an Ivy League school in Ithaca. A few months later, he got into Cornell and decided to go there. But when he left for school in August of his freshman year, he headed for Iowa, not New York. Rosenfeld intended to apply to Cornell University, as he did to schools like Vanderbilt and Brown. However, during the highly stressful process, he accidentally applied to Cornell College, which is in Mount Vernon, Iowa. He ended up going there and he has no regrets about it.”
“Cornell College is a small, liberal arts school in Mount Vernon, Iowa. The school has an enrollment of about 1,000 undergrads. Although not as well-known as Cornell University, they proclaim themselves the original Cornell since they were founded 12 years before the University … What greatly intrigued Rosenfeld about Cornell College, however, was its curriculum design — ‘the block plan.’ At Cornell College, students take one course at a time and intensively study it for 18 class days – about three and a half weeks – and repeat it four times per semester.”
“Foregoing his acceptance to Vanderbilt, Rosenfeld instead headed to Mount Vernon, a decision that has caused confusion amongst those around him. Martin says that he faced multiple ‘outbursts’ from his peers in high school about why he decided to go to “some small, liberal arts college that practically nobody has ever heard of. His family, despite being supportive, also had a hard time wrapping their heads around this move. But according to Rosenfeld, attending Cornell College was the best decision he ever made.”
