Campus life is decent, but since I planned to graduate in 1 year I did not explore all the options. There are various activities and events happening on campus regularly and if someone wants to engage in such activities you will find plenty of opportunities.

I was living off campus. Although hardly 500 meters from the campus. I had a room mate and we rented a 2 bed room apartment for $1295. Plus $55 for wifi and ~$30 for gas.

Good news for students is that there is Wifi everywhere. Many sports clubs are there with me myself being a part of the badminton team. Research infrastructure is too good particularly the DeFrees hydraulic laboratory where I have conducted experiments.

I stay in an apartment. Housing is but difficult to find as Ithaca is far away from the city. But if one plans in advance it shouldn't be a problem.

Cornell is an Ivy league and hence there are no doubts of sports facilities. There are ton of clubs to join. I am part of Cornell Cricket Club and at the same time was part of Cornell Graduate Consulting Club where I served a local client for revenue models and competitor analysis. Ton of extra curricular activities to choose as well.

Cornell is in Ithaca and Ithaca is in New York due to which land is a little expensive and average rent is around $850-$900. I paid $750 but lived a little away from campus since I could drive. But still I used TCAT (bus service) since parking cost is mammoth. TCAT run all over important places. Collegetown is a decent place to live in or Maplewood if you like a little peaceful environment. My accommodation was in Summerhill Townhouses.

I live off campus. About a mile from my department. On-campus is always expensive as compared to off-campus housing, irrespective of the university. My apartment is furnished and has all the necessary facilities.

Prestige and ranking(overall and department). It is an Ivy school and ranked in the top 10 in the US for my program.

Most Ph.D students live off campus. Ithaca has pretty good housing (modern infrastructure, great water, heat, and electricity supply) since it's mostly a college town. Just make sure you get a place close to campus, there are a lot of hills, and walking more than 1.5 miles (~2.5km) can get difficult in the winter.

I ended up choosing Cornell mainly due to two Professors here (Jie Shan and Peter McMahon). Their research interests aligned really well with mine. Another, although minor, factor that affected my decision was the availability of many hiking trails in Ithaca. I really enjoy trekking and hiking, so that was a major plus.

A great network to be able to be successful in the future, allows me to extensively train for the career I want. Has a good social climate to be able to enjoy myself when I need a break from the tough work.

The dorms are very nice. However, the dorms vary in quality with many nice dorms on West Campus and many nice dorms on North Campus and many nice dorms yet to be built however there are some not so nice dorms.

It's the leading program in this field and I couldn't find it anywhere else. Very detailed and good instruction at Cornell's ILR School in Ithaca, NY about 4 hours from New York City. There are plenty of resources.

Library top-notch, many cultural organizations, many Indian students, WiFi excellent, world class research equipment

$600 per month in shared accommodations