Balch Hall (all female) has lots of singles as well, as they are quite large.
According to you is a single room advisable?
I was just accepted to CHE! I was curious about the PE classes. Do people normally take a PE class in the first semester? I have some really cool ones in mind that I can’t wait to take but Im not sure when people take theirs so I don’t get behind in my major. @IndoorCloud25
@CCSenioritis My daughter signed up for sailing last fall and it met once a week for 4 hours. The class only went through Oct. 5th because of the weather potentially getting too cold. This class cost $300. After she went once, she dropped because it was hard for her to spare a 4 hour stretch of time because of all the other work she had, so she picked up bowling and loved it! She did not take a PE class 2nd semester, but will take something next year in the fall. There are tons of things to choose from and you can meet some nice friends that way, too.
@ibandcollege it’s up to you. My daughter LOVES having a single. She has never felt that it has been difficult to meet others, nor has she felt isolated in any way. There are many singles on her floor as well, so no feeling out of place or anything. On the other hand, having a roommate is sort of a right of passage in many respects. It can also be a great experience. I think your choice depends on your personality type really, and if your folks want to spring for the extra cost of a single.
@CCSenioritis you only need 2 semesters of PE, which can be done at any point of your 4 years. You could even take one every semester if your schedule permits it. Most choose only to do 2 during freshman year to get them done early.
@ibandcollege it’s up to you what you want. Living in a single will give you a reason to go meet others on your floor especially in halls like Dickson where most rooms are singles. It can be tougher in halls like Donlon where most rooms are doubles and there’s maybe a handful of singles per floor. The advantage of a roommate is that you can find someone compatible with your living style who might become your closest friend. Alternatively, you may not interact with your roommate and make friends with other people, or possibly things between you and your roommate might be awkward. I think it’s more common that you become good friends with your roommate than it is for things to get weird. Definitely try to get to know people through social media if you want to go with a roommate since it’ll prevent you from going completely random if you choose to room with someone.
Hey there @IndoorCloud25 how hands-on/project-based is the engineering curriculum? I just received a likely letter from engineering and I’m really excited, but this is really important to me. 
@sodapop027 I would say that the curriculum has a good emphasis on projects and hands on learning. However, for most classes, you go to lecture and discussion to learn the material and practice it in problems. Your pure science classes will have labs where you get to apply the material. CS has projects where you write code to achieve a specific task. Some of the ENGRI class will have final projects where you might be building or making stuff. I know for Intro to ChemE, our project was all computer based. Despite this, I still think a large part of the curriculum emphasizes lectures, problem sets, exams, and grades.
I think the true beauty of Cornell’s College of Engineering is that there are so many opportunities to do projects outside of classes. You can either get engaged in research or join one of the many project teams, which are all run by students with a professor who advises them. Topics range from sustainability, water treatment, health, app development, rocketry, space rovers, and car design. The one I’m on is called AguaClara, which is a team that designs, researches, and builds gravity-powered water treatment plants and components for rural villages in Honduras and India. Project teams are super rewarding because so much of the stuff you do is related to the material you learn, but applied in a way that either benefits others or that can be submitted for competition. The down-side is that all the teams are application based and tough to get on to. Cornell has a website with all of the project teams listed, so I’d check that out and read the webpages of project teams that might interest you and apply to a few when you come this fall.
@IndoorCloud25 - thank you so much! I am visiting in April and am really excited about the LL! I really appreciate your detailed answers–that made me feel much better since I didn’t visit before applying.
The other question I have (last one I promise) is the ability to take classes outside of the engineering school and study abroad. There is a chance I might want to minor in Spanish and go abroad for a semester/year, but I know that I would at least like to continue taking classes. Is taking outside classes/studying abroad possible (does the school allow it) and how hard is this to do since it sounds like the engineering curriculum is pretty demanding…
Thanks again it’s really nice to hear from someone who loves their school as much as you!
@sodapop027 You can take classes outside the engineering school as you please, and you kind of have to to fulfill liberal distribution requirements. If you’re minoring in something not engineering related, then you’ll definitely be taking classes out of the COE. I’m majoring in ChemE and trying to minor in Business. With planning and AP credit it’ll be fairly manageable. The ability to do it is highly contingent on how many classes you place out of, how many credits your major requires, and how well you can handle taking an 18+ credit course load for multiple semesters. The engineering program is incredibly rigorous and demanding especially early on, but it is very doable if you’re responsible and know what you’re doing. I would check out the handbook for the requirements of your desired major(s) and see what you think you can get out of and do each semester.
I know the engineering school doesn’t have as many opportunities to study abroad, but I’ve heard of engineers studying abroad in Spain. The thing with studying engineering abroad is that you don’t need language proficiency or fluency to participate since the engineering school itself has no language requirements. Overall, study abroad for engineers is an extremely small program.
@IndoorCloud25 - I know I said last question, but this just occurred to me. Does the engineering program embrace a more team-oriented way of doing work or do students tend to be competitive with each other? You mentioned the project teams, but do students study and do homework together for classes and work together inside the classroom or just more outside of the classroom? More specifically, does the engineering school use a forced grading curve system?
Thanks for all your help!
@sodapop027 So in pretty much all of your engineering classes, professors will allow you to do problem sets, lab, or projects with other people as long as the class or assignment allows it and credit is given to everyone. In fact, pretty much all of the classes encourage collaboration with other classmates with work, however, it’s up to you if you want to take that option. If you work better alone, no one will force you to join a group. If you and a group of friends want to work and study together, then great, but stay within the confines of the class instructions and code of academic integrity. Most of the work you do is outside of class, but during lab and discussion you’ll usually work on assignments and problems in groups. I would say that the environment is very collaborative and fosters team work over fierce competition.
For grading, it’s pretty much what you’d get at other universities where nearly everything is on a curve. Usually, the departments set a target mean and median grade for the class, which doesn’t vary much by semester. This means on prelims and finals an exam with an average of 50 with a standard deviation of 10 for a class with the average grade set at a B-, the middle 50% of grades represents a B-, 1 SD above gets about an A-/A, and 1 SD below gets about a C-/C. At the end of the semester professors create a large spreadsheet with all the grades, run the statistics to find the average grade, and assign a letter to the average and the rest.
Now this isn’t the case for all classes and exams. Sometimes you’ll have exams for curved classes where the average is really high. For example, my chemistry exam had an average of 82 with a standard deviation of 14. In this case, professors will either not curve or curve down. So a 90 on the chemistry exam would probably be around a B/B+ curved down. This is mostly because department rules dictate that the class adheres to the average grade, so in order to achieve that, curving down may be necessary. If the professor doesn’t curve down, they’ll usually give a much harder prelim or final to normalize grades and get close to a bell curve at the end of the semester. In some classes there is no curving at all, and median grades could be as high as an A- or A. These are mostly upper level classes, FWS, and project teams. Professors are free to choose what kind of grading scheme or point distribution they use so long as they meet the department’s grade expectation. For certain classes, usually non-required classes, you can choose to take the class pass/fail instead of for a grade.
Just a fair warning, most of the intro level engineering core requirements have low median grades, which are either a B- (2.7) or B (3.0).