<p>This might be a stupid question, but I've seen that on many sample schedules for freshman there is a course called freshman seminar, what is this course, is it a writing course, or something?</p>
<p>Ok i have another question can anyone give me advice on whether I should place out of intro biology?</p>
<p>You will take two your freshmen year unless you have AP English credit, then you'll just take one:
<a href="http://www.arts.cornell.edu/knight_institute/fws/fws.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.arts.cornell.edu/knight_institute/fws/fws.htm</a></p>
<p>Bio depends on your major. Pre-med?</p>
<p>I'm a pre-med and I took the AP bio course in high school and got a 5 in 11th grade, but I don't how I would do in a higher level bio course in Cornell</p>
<p>Pre-meds usually would retake bio to have a stronger foundation, and to get a good grade in the basic course (raise the GPA)</p>
<p>There are no stupid questions, only stupid people.</p>
<p>Freshman Seminars, also known as "Freshman Writing Seminars," are writing courses required by all students at Cornell. Each student must complete two of them, usually one in each semester of freshman year. AP Credit in either Lit or Lang will exempt a student from one of the two required classes, but the AP score one must attain is different across Cornell's seven schools.</p>
<p>For a pre-med student, it's up to you whether or not you retake introductory biology. Many freshman with credit choose to retake BIOG 101/102 (for majors), but many do not. Weigh the pros and cons and make a decision based on your own personal knowlege and what others tell you who were once in your situation.</p>
<p>Does cornell give out A+'s or is an A a 4.0? Because if you need an A+ to get a 4.0 I'm really scared</p>
<p>A+ 4.3
A 4.0
A- 3.7</p>
<p>Plus is +.3
Minus is -.3</p>
<p>What % is A+, A, A-, etc? I am in Canada and Canadian school sysmtems only gives out A, B, C+, C, and C-.</p>
<p>Percents don't matter. It depends on the class.</p>
<p>A 5 on the BioAP test by itself doesn't mean anything. The AP test is ridiculously easy. Anyone can get a 5. You need to reexamine your high bio AP class and decide if you feel like you received a sound intro bio education. Did you teacher skip some chapters? Did your teacher rush through certain topics?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Percents don't matter. It depends on the class.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You mean profs only give out letter grades? Or that scaling and curving makes percentages obsolete?</p>
<p>Curving makes percentages obselete.</p>
<p>There are uncurved classes which follow the traditional:</p>
<p>93+=A
90-93=A-
etc.</p>
<p>In some curved classes you can get a 50% average and get an A. In a curved class, it doesn't matter how you do, only how everybody else does.</p>
<p>I personally would not recommend taking Bio 101-104 even if you are pre-med. I took AP Bio in high school, got a 5 on the AP, and knew the material pretty well...yet I only managed to get B+ in the course (lab and lecture, which are separate grades). The class is intended to "weed-out" kids, meaning its very hard and curved to a C+/B-. The material is redundant if you took AP Bio in high school, and the labs are ridiculously boring and too much busy work and memorization (for example, one lab we spent the entire 3 hours looking at plant seeds like pine cones under a microscope....)</p>
<p>and A+ is 95% or higher?</p>
<p>Bibsburg, please read the earlier posts. It's up to the professor and depends on the class.</p>
<p>What about placing out of other intro courses, like history or econ?</p>
<p>Intro bio is a tough class but a worthwhile one in my opinion. I had A-, A-, A, A+ in Bio101-104 so it turned out to be a grade booster. I had a 5 on the BioAP test as well.</p>
<p>A+ is usually 98% However, most professors will let you slide with 97.5% due to rounding.</p>
<p>Writing seminars rarely give A+ because grades are subjective and teachers just don't give them out. Two friends and I, each of whom have at least 4.0 after freshman year, have taken a combined six writing seminars, and have yet to get an A+ in any of them.</p>
<p>However, if you're seeking a stellar GPA, you might not want to take credit for some intro classes because you can do really well in them. I ended up using all of my credit, but I have friends who didn't.</p>