<p>And yet they didn’t teach you any reasoning skills. I would say the school failed. </p>
<p>Curves, frats, drinking: these are realities of college today. None are specific to Cornell.</p>
<p>At Cornell, you can get a 60% on an orgo test and still get a B for the class. Despite testing 3-4x as much information, if I get a 60% on my medical school tests, I have to remediate. Cornell students are bright and did well in high school. They were rewarded with A’s in high school. Their COLLEGE grades depend on their COLLEGE performance. You don’t automatically hand out A’s like candy just because students are high achievers. You don’t give A’s for getting 60% of the questions right. Cornell is already grade inflated compared to state universities (where the median grades for science courses are usually in the C range). That’s the compensation your son and every Cornell student already receives for attending a college with high achievers. And yet its not enough for you. I suggest you stop babying your son and let him figure college life out.</p>
<p>I’m trying to think of a top 14 school that isn’t high pressure (MIT? Caltech? Columbia? Princeton? Harvard? Berkeley? Hopkins? Penn?) or that doesn’t have a fair amount of drinking/drug use (Brown? Dartmouth? Yale? Duke? Oxford? Notre Dame?).</p>
<p>WashU, Rice, or Stanford are the only ones that kind of fit.</p>
<p>And yet they didn’t teach you any reasoning skills. I would say the school failed.</p>
<p>My thoughts exactly.</p>
<p>Not only aren’t engineering classes curved to a C, but I think the curves are generous for those who do the work. Clearly when it come to engineering, not everyone should do well. If Cornell engineering allowed everyone to do well, as Cad suggests,I know I would’t want to fly in a plane, receive a medical implant, use a device, etc. from someone who graduated from a touchy/feely program.</p>
<p>“I just hope your kids never experience what has happened to those poor boys”</p>
<p>I agree, which is why several of us are trying to have an intelligent & meaningful discussion about depression. Unfortunately, at every turn you hijack the thread to talk about frats.</p>
<p>BTW, I didn’t go to a top school, there was no greek life, no curve & there still was massive drinking, drugging & (attempted) suicides.</p>
<p>Hopefully this thread can get back to a productive discussion. Thanks for your concern Cadmium & hope you have a good night.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I have no problem if they go over everything and look for some ways to make things more genteel there. The school can be quite tough no doubt about it, at least in my day, in my majors. If they can find things they can be doing that may make it more humane while maintaining their academic standards they should certainly seek to do that. No problem here, with that general notion anyway.</p>
<p>"WashU, Rice, or Stanford are the only ones that kind of fit. "</p>
<p>Scratch Wash U, i can assure you it was not considered a T14 school by anyone, at the time CR would have attended. Few schools, if any, have had as meteroic a rise in reputation (or at least ranking) over this period as Wash U has.</p>
<p>I agree completely. Various suggestions would include:</p>
<p>– Requiring all students to live in the same residential hall their freshman and sophomore year, with rush not starting until spring of sophomore year. This would help to make certain that more students can find a ‘place’ on the Hill and obtain guidance from upperclassmen. After sophomore year, students should have a much better sense of where they fit in socially and whether they would like to join a Greek house, live in a co-op, or rent an apartment in Collegetown. </p>
<p>– Implementing some sort of common curriculum for freshmen and breaking down some of the remaining barriers between colleges. This is already being seriously considered as part of the strategic planning process.</p>
<p>– Increased focus on public engagement and service learning across all courses of study to make certain that students can get “out of the Ithaca bubble” from time to time.</p>
<p>– Switch to either a midterm week or get rid of prelims and only have in-class exams. Prelims might be too much this day in age with all of the extracurricular activities that students try to do.</p>
<p>I disagree on in class exams. This removes a lectures from syllabuses, and sometimes there is just too much material and a lecture removal can really be compromising something.</p>
<p>Thanks, gomestar. I’ll send link to D - although she may already have it! When I read things like this, I realize what my D means when she says she is always busy. Sure, very busy with work but also with her sorority (gasp!) and all the campus has to offer. If she’s not studying, she’s not exactly watching the corn grow while contemplating her navel.
CR - Check out the median grade report - overwhelmingly As and Bs.
CAyuga - D would LOVE an extra week in May or August!</p>
<p>actually how about make winter break shorter. It’s already pretty insane, I recall having like a month if not more. Still, I’m sure students would prefer the summer months.</p>
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<p>it’s front and center at cornell.edu but even as a student, I didn’t check it as much as I should have. The handful of times I did, the events were excellent and paramount to expanding my education beyond the classroom.</p>
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<p>My mother found that there was a direct correlation between the frequency she sent money and the number of calls placed home. And unlike many situations, I do believe correlation and causation were related.</p>
<p>“My mother found that there was a direct correlation between the frequency she sent money and the number of calls placed home. And unlike many situations, I do believe correlation and causation were related.”</p>
<p>D1 called this Mon tell me her head was spinning, she couldn’t see too well, and felt sick to her stomach. Of course she’s got two prelims this week too. With all the talk about suicide and stress, I was calling and texting her to see how she was doing. After her last prelim today she said to me, “You know, I get sick in school, sometimes I have prelims when I am sick. This is what happens in college. I did well on my prelims, I am feeling better, but I am going to take a nap. Don’t call for next few hours.”</p>
<p>Yes, that’s what happens in college. They have stress and sometimes they don’t even feel well, but just because unthinkable happens, it doesn’t mean we should live in fear and change the way we live. At the same time, I can’t wait for her to come home tomorrow (yes, she is skipping Fri class) so I could see her for myself that she is ok.</p>