<p>Just my reflections as an engineering student finishing his first semester:</p>
<p>I came here expecting it to be soul-crushingly difficult. If you look at the Facebook group "Cornell: Where your best isn't good enough," you hear everyone talking about how it was the most difficult experience of their lives, and how they fought to get a B in their classes, it makes it sound like hell.</p>
<p>However, seeing that most classes are curved to a B (at least in Engineering, which I'm in), you just have to be average to get a B, and if you're better than a reasonable number of people, you can even get A's. Hell, I don't consider myself to be a genius and I've got my fair share of A's now.</p>
<p>I actually feel kind of inferior to my friends at colleges back home in Canada, where I hear stories about how their courses are uncurved and average 58%, resulting in half the freshman engineers dropping out. Also, my friends are taking about 7 real classes (like graded ones with exams and everything), compared to the first semester norm of 4 at Cornell (I'm taking 5 next semester, at 21 credits considered to be a heavy load).</p>
<p>So is Cornell actually just coddling us? Or is there something I'm missing here?</p>
<p>I have to agree with the OP. I coasted through Cornell and now that I'm in med school my sloppy study habits are starting to catch up with me. I only went to 1 out of the 40 lectures tested on my 4-hour test today (should be interesting to see what the score ends up being ;)). At Cornell, I basically never attended classes that started at 9 AM or earlier (this is bad news because med school classes always start at 8 AM) or Friday classes.</p>
<p>The mean for MATH 1910 prelim I was 36%. However, this is completely irrelevant, since if you got 36%, you got a B. 50% was an A. </p>
<p>I admit, the tests are difficult. However, it doesn't make any difference since low percentages still equate to high grades. You could probably get about a 19% on this test and still squeak by with a C-.</p>
<p>yea but ever thought about those kids who are below average? They get below the B and thats almost 50% of the kids.. </p>
<p>This completely depends on what classes and what major you are and of course what kind of person you are. I have a friend whos taking on avg 26 credits a semester and hes triple major and his gpa this semester is over a 4.0. He also does 3 hours of club activity at night everyday. He also wasn't that fantastic in high school. </p>
<p>If you are taking easy classes with easy schedule of course it will be easy if you are smart. If you study a lot, it will be easy as well but a lot of people don't study hours a day, they want their free time as well and it costs their GPA but they tihnk its worth it (like me =D). Also scheduling is a big deal! If all 6 of your finals land in a period of 4 days or so and each one of them is worth 40% of your GPA, that will not be good even if the classes aren't extremely hard.</p>
<p>How easy and well you do depends on your own opinion. Some people i know are not satisfied with As and aim for A+ in every class.. to them a 4.0 might be considered not so great and a class that gave him/her a A to be hard.</p>
<p>In the social sciences (e.g. government, economics, sociology, ILR, Comm, PAM, AEM), it is definitely pretty easy as an upperclassmen. Especially as there aren't stringent paper requirements like there are at some other schools. (e.g. Princeton)</p>
<p>Freshmen year at Cornell is pretty tough, no matter what discipline. You really need to hit the ground running.</p>
<p>
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Boy if that's the case, things have certainly changed. Still remember those days when the average calculus prelim grade was a 38..
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</p>
<p>But if the course is curved to a B, then that 38 is a B. What's more, because grades are curved for the entire semester rather than for each exam individually, if you should happen to get a really high grade (say, an 80) on one prelim in a course like that, you're pretty much set for the semester.</p>
<p>Cornell feels difficult, but I think that some of that feeling is an illusion. Most of us parents have gotten the "Well, I just failed a prelim" phone call from our kids at least once. But then, a week later, the kid discovers that the 60 they got on that prelim was actually a B plus. It just felt worse because they are not accustomed to being graded on a curve.</p>
<p>How many classes per semester does a Cornell student usually take? At NYU, most freshmen seem to be taking 4...I took 4 1st semester and got 18 credits (4 credits per class, plus a 2 credit lab). At some colleges I notice they take like 5 to 6 on avg which I thought was crazy, until I realized that they're classes are shorter and fewer credits. And how long are the classes generally?</p>
<p>Cornell, like life (sorry to be maudlin) is what you make of it. My D works very hard. She is an ILR major (sorry CRed it is not easy if you want A+) and an Information Science (computer) minor. She has 3 jobs, including being a TA for a computer course, and is a leader in a few campus activities. </p>
<p>She told me the slackers aim for B. (In many other schools, I teach at a state college, this would be a C or D) She wants an A or A+. This requires hard work.</p>
<p>If you are bright enough to get into Cornell, you can pass the classes w/ okay grades. If you want to stand out/be superior, you have to work hard.</p>
<p>"If you are bright enough to get into Cornell, you can pass the classes w/ okay grades."</p>
<p>This also would represent a change.
When I attended, there were some kids who were bright enough to get in, but could not, actually, pass the classes with okay grades. I knew several people who flunked out, including my freshman year roommate. A good friend of mine was on virtually perennial probation the whole time he was there.</p>
<p>I'll be attending Cornell this January as a new transfer, and to be honest, I'm not nervous at all when it comes to their grading. I've done very well in college so far, and I'm pretty confident I'll do the same at the ILR School. If you've always done well academically, it shouldn't be a big problem. All it'll take is more effort than usual. Just stay positive, not negative. Besides, Cornell has a very high percentage when it comes to students staying at the university after their first year: 96%. That probably includes those who just decide to transfer elsewhere for other reasons. How bad can it really be? :D Sure, it's lower than the other Ivies, but 96% is still very high.</p>
<p>I found something neat online about the median grades earned for each class at Cornell for the spring semester of 2008. It basically shows how students averaged in every class offered. It should give you guys a huge confidence boost! Tip: Chose the courses with the highest median grade. :D</p>
<p>Well, past experiences tell me that classes I earned higher grades in were probably due to a greater interest in the class, or the good quality of the professor's teaching. I notice that other classes where students receive lower grades are usually due to either the professor's poor ability to teach, or too much work that only tortures students rather than help them learn. Their student feedback is usually pretty negative. I don't fully recommend students to pick the easy classes at CU, but if you're the type that is worried about a low GPA and nothing else, then go for it haha. Of course I'll be taking several difficult ILR courses, there's no way to avoid them. I've taken many hard courses in the past, and done very well in them. And besides, the topics at ILR are always interesting to me. :)</p>
<p>Wow, so many freshman engineers on here - including me. Classes aren't as mindbendingly hard as I thought, but hey, it's freshman year. I still had to work hard and I don't know about you, but it's HARD to get that A in math. Anyone else think that 1920 final was a killer? >_></p>