Wikipedia:Peer review/Cornell University/archive1

Cornell University

I've significantly overhauled this article over the past year with the help of a few other Wikipedians. By this point, I feel that we are caught in a rut and would like to see some comments on how to improve from some fresh perspectives. Hopefully, the article will someday be as good as the University of Michigan article. Thank you for any input!--Xtreambar 18:34, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

• References are more important than external links -> place higher.
• Something's wrong about the layout of the Cornell Uni template. Bigger font for links? Would be a start. Perhaps break up into smaller templates, like "academic departments of Cornell" etc.

The whole thing reads too much like a yearbook/prospectus. Make it interesting and engaging, not pandering to the whims of its current population! Specifically, I wonder if it could be made shorter without losing its thunder.

At the moment, it reads like "aren't we great?", and lacks integration into the reality of the world. Needs a more sober tone. For instance, the intro dwells too much on the history, needs to focus on what the university presents today.

Suggestion:

Cornell University is a research university in Ithaca, New York offering both undergraduate and graduate study programmes. It was founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White as a coeducational, nonsectarian institution. Its annual research budget is..., and it has campuses ... (in this place and that place), as well as international collaborations with the universities of... It consists of 150 departments offering 80 majors and 5000 courses" etc.

Samsara (talk • contribs) 16:10, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Response:

I concur that there are far too many factoids. I have placed as a "to do" to par down the history section to a fewsuccinct paragraphs which would cover the entire history of the university.

I've fixed the Cornell template to have all the article titles be 100% sized.--Xtreambar 16:52, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

I've parred down the history section and will now expand to include the rest of the history. --Xtreambar 03:15, 11 March 2006 (UTC)