<p>I want to know stuff about Cornell academics:
<em>How helpful are the teachers? Do they work with you one on one?
How big are the classes for a typical freshman? How big are the classes period?
*How many hours of HW is assigned (or should be done) each night?
*How engaging are the classes? Do they suck the life out of you or intrigue you?<br>
*What classes do you TOTALLY HATE and which do you like? Is there any teacher who just wants to fail everyone?
*Do your classes prevent you from doing extracurricular stuff?
*</em><strong>ANY ANSWERS WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED</strong>*IF YOU CAN ANSWER ONE OR MORE QUESTIONS, YOU ARE AWESOME AND SHOULD GET SOME GOOD KARMA FOR HELPING OUT FUTURE COLLEGE STUDENTS!!!</p>
<p>Please, can someone answer? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>In general, your Cornell academic experience will be different from someone else's. The types of classes and professors at Cornell vary quite a lot. Nevertheless...</p>
<p>*How helpful are the teachers? Do they work with you one on one?</p>
<p>If you go to office hours, yes. But most classes are a "lecture plus section" style, where the professor lectures during the lectures, and you discuss things or ask questions with your TA during sections. Sections in science and math are usually for problem solving (rather like class tutoring) and sections in humanities are more discussion oriented. Unless you have a really small class, or you expend a lot of effort, you won't really be able to get to know your professors one on one. Though you will get to know your TA quite well.</p>
<p>*How big are the classes for a typical freshman? How big are the classes period?</p>
<p>Freshmen classes tend to be larger, just because they are usually intro classes. The psych 101 lectures can be over 1000, the honors general chemistry is around 60, a math lecture can be around 30. It really depends on the class. Personally, I think that if it's a lecture class, the class size doesn't matter because you just listen and take notes anyway. Sometimes, I prefer the larger classes because they are better run and (for the sciences) have more interesting demonstrations.</p>
<p>*How many hours of HW is assigned (or should be done) each night?</p>
<p>Again, this depends on your major. Problem sets are usually handed out on a weekly basis. Papers every other week or so. Then there are prelims, which hit hard after the first 3 weeks of classes. But it all depends on how much you want to study. Cornell says that you should expect to do 2 hours of work for every hour you spend in class. I find that to be variable. Some will take more, some less.</p>
<p>*How engaging are the classes? Do they suck the life out of you or intrigue you?</p>
<p>I have had both. Professors make or break a class. Professors are not like the teachers you had in high school, who (at least the good ones) try to present the topic so that you will learn, and perhaps even be interested. Some professors here genuinely like students, so their lectures will be very scintillating. Others care more about their research than teaching, so you will have to rely on the textbook a lot more. To be safe, ask about the professors before you sign up for a class. (ratemyprofessors.com anyone?)</p>
<p>*What classes do you TOTALLY HATE and which do you like? Is there any teacher who just wants to fail everyone?</p>
<p>There really are all kinds at Cornell. I have had a particularly bad experience with a math class where the professor was from some ex-Soviet satellite nation and had unintelligible english and bad handwriting and no communication skills whatsoever. I have had other extremely intelligent and engaging professors. There are no professors who "fail everyone", just because the mean has to be at a certain grade.</p>
<p>*Do your classes prevent you from doing extracurricular stuff?</p>
<p>The balancing of time is always a challenge. But find an extracurricular that you love, and do it. Plan time for it like you would for any class. Most Cornell students are very involved (take a look at the list of student orgs) and almost everyone does some one thing passionately.</p>
<p>It's a Cornell requirement that math professors have unintelligible Eastern European accents.</p>
<p>Also, here's an article about academics at Cornell. It's written by a Cornell freshman; might be pretty helpful. <a href="http://admitspit.wordpress.com/2006/11/09/how-x-does-academics-x-cornell/%5B/url%5D">http://admitspit.wordpress.com/2006/11/09/how-x-does-academics-x-cornell/</a></p>