Any Questions? (and a look at my first semester)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
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<p>Sparty, you should also pay a visit to Alta and Sundance while in the Park City area. They're much less crowded than The Canyons and Park City and have more in the way of expert slopes (if that's what you're looking for). It's a bit of a hike to get there but its well worth it if you're a skier (which I assume you are because you're going to DV). I've heard Snowbird is also pretty nice but I've never been there myself. Overall, I'd say Deer Valley is the best and The Canyons is the worst (wreckless snowboarders there destroy the moguls on double blacks). </p>

<p>Thanks to Cornell, my winter break in Vail will be consumed by other college applications. :(</p>

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<p>I am leaving for Whistler Sunday...I should be ecstatic but they've hardly gotten any snow while the US Rockies have gotten bombed. Oh well, should still be pretty fun as long as they can keep 100/200 trails open all week.</p>

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<p>Yeah I already got advised to do that by the guy in the hockey shop who fitted my sweet new Bauer Vector XIV skates. But I'm with the fam and they don't want to head out there. It's my first time out west so I think i'll be content with a mere 3 western resorts. Also, FYI pugachev, it's reckless not wreckless. I look like a dick for saying it, but i say it so people doing go around looking foolish spelling words wrong. I would expect you all to do the same for me.</p>

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<p>
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but i say it so people doing go around looking foolish spelling words wrong

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<p>do you mean don't, not doing, mr. dictionary? I'm just playing, you were probably typing fast or something like that.</p>

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<p>lol, yea, I once corrected someone for being illiterate and he went around and picked out my typos</p>

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<p>It's amazing how people figure out what you meant when you make a typo in an unedited stream of consciousness internet forum post, but still insist on correcting your typo ;)</p>

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<p>haha, I love when people do that, especially when you express genuine concern for their level of literacy</p>

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<p>1.how should we prepare for the intensity of the cornell academic curriculum? 2.how do you the current students manage your time?
3. is there an honors program?
4. how do you get a crushy job as a libraby assitant or something similar?</p>

69

<p>You learn in your first semester. If you have trouble sitting down and doing work, I recommend budgeting time in your day for work. So every day at X:XXPM start your work, and budget 1 hour per class. If you finish early the time is yours.</p>

<p>The academic rigors as freshman are really just going to class, and staying up to date on readings. Studying and stuff go unsaid. Putting off work is tempting, but when you finish it last minute, your satisfaction will be slightly diminished because you will always say to yourself "that would have been so much more pleasent if i had done a page a day instead of a page per hour all last night."</p>

<p>To prepare...stop worrying about competition, and people being better than you. Everyone is as scared as you are, and none of them are THAT much better than you. They might have advantages in knowledge in a particular class, but that doesn't put their intellect above yours. All cornellians are capable of doing the work. There's not much preparation to be done except getting ready to have an awesome time.</p>

<p>Current student techniques include budgeting regular hours or specific hours depending on the week day...going to a special, removed work place like the library or, in the fall and spring, the botanical gardens, etc. Just somewhere where you will work until you are tired and not get distracted.</p>

<p>I swore off the internet in my dorm room for the last month of the semester. Only for academic purposes could I use it. The only times I could use it for fun were when I was ahead (which was never) or out of the room (which was when i was at work). It worked well.</p>

<p>Just don't get behind...my best advice...there's nothing too hard that i've seen at cornell.</p>

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<p>1.can you get a medical for swimming?
2.will you really not graduate if u don't fulfill the swim test?
i'm asking because i never swim, i don't know how to swim, i don't even go near a pool or swim for recreation. i don't even want to take a class on swimming. it will be a big waste of time for me because i will never get in a pool or ocean, only if i have to for the cornell swim test</p>

71

<ol>
<li><p>Yes, but you have to take some alternate course/write a paper or something. And it's a medical exemption...if you have working arms, eyes, and legs and a sound mind...</p></li>
<li><p>Yes...it's a requirement...requirements are things that need to be filled for graduation.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>If you have never swum, it makes sense that you can't swim. You don't go near pools now, but you will be near water for the next four years. One day you might be successful and own a house with a pool...it'd be nice to know how to use it. Swimming is a life saving skill that's great to have. Since it's a requirement for cornell graduation, you might as well not try and fight it.</p>

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<p>what are the freshman writing seminars like? do we read books or is it more like expository writing?</p>

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<p>sparticus, but there's got to be people with like GPAs under 3.0 right? Or does pretty much everyone who applies themself, goes to class and does the work have a 3.0+ GPA?</p>

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<p>I can not speak for the other colleges, but I know for engineering it is not true.</p>

<p>I have friends that work very hard, more than me, and are barely earning a 3.0, in fact they will be happy if they get a 3.0. The intro courses for engineering are all pretty much curved to either a B- (2.7 gpa) or B (3.0 gpa). This means that if you got average in all your intro engineering classes, meaning you beat out 150 out of the 300 students in all of your classes, you would still have a gpa between 2.7 and 3.0. I can't speak for other colleges at Cornell, but for freshman engineers, I would say on average 1 out of every 2 freshman engineers will have lower than 3.0. This doesn't mean like a 1.0, but probably around 2.8ish.</p>

<p>However, there are some people who don't work hard and are still able to get a good gpa in engineering.</p>

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<p>psquared, maybe this is a dumb question, but just what is so difficult about engineering at Cornell? Is it just because of the curves used for grading or whatever? Or is the material just incredibly difficult? </p>

<p>I guess I just shouldn't worry about it...it will be what it will be. 98% or something of engineering graduates either get jobs or into grad school, so I guess all I can do is try my best.</p>

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<p>How is that GPA curve possible in a major like AEP where you are required to keep a B- average (2.7) in all math, physics and aep classes. Wouldn't half of the students in the major be forced to leave it after each AEP class starting in junior year as those are generally made up of all AEP students...</p>

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<p>hoteliegirl: they're writing seminars, not reading seminars. You may read books or materials or listen to stuff or watch movies, but the goal of the course is writing. I happened to learn a lot of blues history/anthropology along the way. The focus of the mainstream courses is to improve your ability to write an academic/pursuasive essay. I think some of the more sciencey writing seminars work on how to write well in the lab report style perhaps, but either way, the focus is more on writing, even if you write about a topic.</p>

78

<p>
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but just what is so difficult about engineering at Cornell? Is it just because of the curves used for grading or whatever? Or is the material just incredibly difficult?

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<p>It is the people you are "competing" with that make it difficult. It isn't like high school where there were maybe 5 kids out of 30 in your calc class that were good. In math 192, for example, you are in a class where everyone got a 5 on the BC exam, many people have already taken a 192 equivalent, and almost everyone has gotten an 800 on the SAT 1 math, or SAT 2 math. Then you combine all these intelligent people and grade on a curve, where only the best of the best get an A. The material is not difficult, they teach it to you VERY well. However, the tests are designed to separate the class, meaning the tests are very hard, and to do well you have to know the material very well, not just know it well, b/c everyone in engineering knows the material well, it is just the people that know it really well, that exceed. And yes, the curve makes it hard to get an A, but professors do say if everyone performs at an A level, then everyone gets an A, but I've never seen that in an introductory course. One last thing about the toughness of courses, I am only speaking of the prereq introductory courses. I have heard from upper class engineering students that as classes get smaller, it becomes easier to earn a good grade. The reason they push you so much as a freshman is so you will be able to handle the upper level classes, and seeing as how well regarded Cornell engineering is, this formula must be working.</p>

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How is that GPA curve possible in a major like AEP where you are required to keep a B- average (2.7) in all math, physics and aep classes. Wouldn't half of the students in the major be forced to leave it after each AEP class starting in junior year as those are generally made up of all AEP students...

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<p>AEP is the best program in the nation at what it does. As so, it expects that the students wishing to pursue an AEP major be the best students in the nation at AEP, that is why they can expect a B- average. Also, if you work hard enough you should be able to get at least a B- in your introductory classes (however, some people don't). I also believe, but i have no facts to pointn to, that AEP only graduates something like 40ish students a year. It is a relatively small major, probably because it is very tough and demanding.
You said wouldn't half the students be forced to leave once they get to AEP classes: Like I said above, as you get into higher level classes it becomes easier to get an A, and probably easy to get at least a B-, so if you are able to get through the prereqs in AEP (in which you are recommended to take the honors courses) you should be fine.</p>

<p>I believe Shizz, who comes on this board, is an AEP graduate, so he would be able to give better information than I did, or to confirm anything that I said.</p>

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<p>So it sounds like their philosophy is to pound the stuff into you and make you compete for a good grade in your early years but then, as classes get smaller and more personal and whatnot, it becomes more subjective (IE not a set curve)? I guess it would make sense to drop the curve in upper-level courses especially since one of the most important aspects of engineering is learning to work as a team (and if everyone was at eachother's throats fighting for a high spot on the curve that would discourage this)...</p>

<p>Thanks for the answer though, that helped explain a lot. It sounds like there is a curve but its not the end-all god of grading...as in if you earn a high grade but just ended up in a class with a bunch of really studious geniuses, they can knock something like a B up to an A- if they think you earned that?</p>

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<p>Do you have to take a writing seminar? If so, do you get to choose a particular type?</p>