2010 Engineer Here

<p>Hey, I am currently a freshman in Engineering. SOO any questions about Engineering or just Freshmen stuff in general let me know!</p>

<p>How doable are the engineering classes? I guess I'm just a bit scared of being completley lost and having to work all hours to just stay caught up. I know their will be a lot of work, but...you know...?</p>

<p>i have a bunch of questions:
im really scared of the whole class median / grade deflation thing. can you ease my fears?
how easy/hard is it to get an internship, a co-op, and/or a research position?
can you tell me a bit about the SWE weekend thing?
why did you pick cornell engineering over other schools? (im trying to decide between carnegie mellon and cornell assuming that they give me decent amounts of money.)</p>

<p>p.s. i didn't realize how many slashes this reply has in it!</p>

<p>hmmm..i have the same fear for hard class and low class median...
approx what gpa is needed to get into an ivy grad school and how many people in CoE have that gpa?
is it better to use ap credits for introductory courses or should i retake those courses?</p>

<p>Personally, this girl who lives on my hall stays up half the night doing CS projects. She tells me how CS 211, which is the java course, is a total b**ch and how hard it is. Math 192, which is multivariable calc I think also didn't serve her too well, same with PHYS 112, which was mechanics. I mean, her grades are good and all, but yes, the workload is definitely hard. I'm a bio major considering pre-med and I definitely had more fun than her last semester. Of course, there are some really intense pre-meds like my suitemate, but that's how most pre-meds are. If you want to be making money, go into AEM or the hotel school. If you really like engineering and enjoy the subject material, then stick with it, as long as you have above a 3.0 GPA, then you'll get a job no matter what. Microsoft, Intel, and similar companies recruit a lot at Cornell. Just gut it out, all my engineering friends are doing it, and there's one slacker dude who's in a frat and drinks too much and his GPA is still ok, and he's trying to do pre-med as well, I doubt he'll make it through...</p>

<p>Yeah, the workload is intense, you'll have long nights, but you always have the weekend to recover and first semester really isn't that bad.</p>

<p>There is a lot of grade deflation, but that's true of a lot of courses including intro bio, general chem, all of the calculus sequence, CS 100, psych 101, and pretty much any intro class. They serve as weed-out classes to kill off the slackers that aren't fit for work in the hard sciences and should be taking history or asian studies instead.</p>

<p>Co-ops are pretty easy to get, you just have to stay committed to it and keep your GPA decent.</p>

<p>SWE is just a weekend where potential female engineering come to campus and get hosted by other female engineers at Cornell. There are tours and stuff and I'm sure it'll be fun.</p>

<p>Wow, this kid above just insulted my GPA. I'm gonna kill him...And he's a slacker bio major who took a bunch of intro AEM courses where the mean is an A. I destroyed him in the hard sciences.</p>

<p>Yeah, your GPA for CoE doesn't need to be that high to get into grad school, there's more of a focus on research and your GREs as well. Just do the best you can when you get here. For intro courses, use APs if you can, unless it's essential that you take that class for your major. Such as taking chem if you're cheme.</p>

<p>And I picked Cornell over Duke, Northwestern, and Swarthmore, which all have decent engineering programs. The facilities at Cornell are amazing, the engineering quad is awesome. The professors are all good. Carnegie Mellon is in Pittsburgh, a city on the decline, Cornell provides more diversity for classes and more diversity for people as well.</p>

<p>If you organize your time, you'll be fine in engineering, just make sure you keep up the first semester.</p>

<p>i heard they got rid of crane and his 211 class. you shud count that as a blessing in the sky.</p>

<p>they didnt' get rid of crane and didnt' really get rid of 211, just changed the name to 209.</p>

<p>I'll add my perspective, although it's probably a repeat of most things:</p>

<p>Engineering is entirely doable. Sure, some nights you'll stay up doing work, but it's not like my life has been taken over. I still have a social life. Intro classes tend to weed out people who can't handle it, hence the low curves. Otherwise, the mean on classes are not bad at all. You can look at <a href="http://www.registrar.sas.cornell.edu/Student/mediangradesA.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.registrar.sas.cornell.edu/Student/mediangradesA.html&lt;/a> to find the median grades of classes. There are a lot of B+, A-, A on there, even for Engineering courses . So I wouldn't worry too much about it.</p>

<p>I picked Cornell because of the incredible engineering program here and because it's well-rounded in all subjects. And I can take a variety of classes within the College of Engineering and outside. </p>

<p>I agree with meestasi and say that use AP credit where you can but you may want to retake courses that are in your major. I'm majoring in MechE and decided to take Phys 112 (Mechanics) again, but I definitely got out of stuff that I didn't like, like Chem. AP classes and college classes are quite different and may cover different subject material, so it may be dangerous to use AP credit and move on.</p>

<p>PCW (Prospective Candidates Weekend) for SWE is an event like Cornell Days where you stay overnight with a host and learn about Cornell. It's definitely good to visit Cornell. I'll be a host for the PCW weekend for SWE =D</p>

<p>btw, hi JR, meestasi, CornellECEGirl, and ragingmen...</p>

<p>don't belittle crane. it's the class, not him.</p>

<p>Hi, I'm thinking about applying to Cornell Engineering next year. How are my chances?</p>

<p>SAT: 1600 (new SAT, would have been perfect on old SAT LOLOLOL)
what are SAT 2's?</p>

<p>GPA: 2.4/4.0
Rank: Top 100% of class</p>

<p>Extracirriculars/Jobs:
- Backup guard for JV basketball team (Grade 9)
- President of Starcraft club (Grade 9-12) <---a lot of commitment
- I help my Dad with housework sometimes, which he pays me for (does that count as a job?)
I don't do much extracurrics b/c I think they are dumb.</p>

<p>Please tell me something nice. I really, reeeeally wanna come to Cornell b/c I heard the Starcraft scene is really big there. </p>

<p>Also, are Cornell Engineering girls hot?</p>

<p>Thanks for your help!</p>

<p>hahahahahahha</p>

<p>ha.</p>

<p>I am thinking of double majoring (AEP + ChemE). Is this possible?</p>

<p>It's possible. But it might take a while. AEP is known as the most difficult major and ChemE follows not far behind. Furthermore, I don't think the two have much cross-curriculum so you'll be taking a lot of classes. You'll be looking at 5 years to 6 years to graduate.</p>

<p>Is it doable? Yeah. Is it going to be extremely difficult? Yes.</p>

<p>


</p>

<p>Actually ******* the mean in AEM 120 was a B+.. I just destroyed the curve, that's all :)</p>

<p>Yeah, you destroyed me in the hard sciences, except for the fact that I know how to convert between Kelvin and Celcius :D</p>

<p>cheme and aep, if you want to stay in school for a long time and you like to study more than you like to make friends or just hang out, then for all means, go for it. However, the workload would be amazingly intense. I hope you're just kidding with it because the average workload for an AEP major is like 50-60 hours a week, and it's not far behind for cheme. And you still have to go to classes and maybe have some extracurriculars and eat as well and sleep. Yeah...over 100 hours a week just for homework, and the doesn't include studying for tests...</p>

<p>lol, yo jrcho how the f do u take pedro tests? did you suck his co$k or something? i got a 38 on the 120 prelim and still got a A with the curve. Holla.</p>

<p>Basically, you guys will be fine, you got into Engineering right? There are plenty of resources to help you if you're struggling, like free tutoring, TA office hours, Academic Excellence Workshops, so make sure you take advantage of those things.
About the SWE PCW: It's going to be excellent! I am a member of SWE it's a great organization. You get to meet some of the leaders of SWE, admissions people, tour labs, and get a chance to stay overnight. Basically, it is a special program within Cornell Days that gives extra engineering information and encourages women to come.
And to the ChemE/AEP dude--you crazy. Try a minor...it's only 6 classes and fulfills the technical elective part of your major requirement. Only a few majors within engineering are condusive to double majors and even then you can look to about 3-4 MORE credits than normal each semester. So yeah, make sure you're realistic about what you can do, and get involved in some extra curriculars/research, something, it makes your life more fun!!</p>

<p>Do you guys know any people who are in the AEM major? I know the top of the bell curve is around a B- or so, but is there as much studying to do in that major as opposed to the engineering or biology ones?</p>