Cornell University

Date: Dec 31 1969
Major: Communications (This Major's Salary over time)
Now teaching, I can safely say Cornell was the worst of my four institutions. Not only was my department hostile towards basic principles of quality education, the graduate school - supposedly your safety net in grievance - was a great source of sympathy, but little else.

I'm likely not to receive a PhD, even though my dissertation's been written and on people's desks for over a year now without serious review (in 2005 alone, they've completely screwed up the feedback cycle twice, and passed me off to an associate - who did do his job - only to reject the associate's findings.) The Graduate School, charged with grievances, did nothing about this, even though they had two years advance notice of the whole problem boiling to a head.

A complete disaster. Avoid at all costs, unless you have an absolute guarantee your special committee is God's gift to the universe - they control everything you do, and if they're incompetent or suddenly become hostile, you're screwed, because your arranged appeal process will simply back them up.

Frankly, it's not worth the risk. Go anywhere else. You deserve better.