Ask A Current Freshman

<p>I just remembered how much I appreciated it when a student would answer questions, so here I am. I'm a freshman in the Arts and Science school. I applied to Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Cornell, Columbia, Duke, Northwestern, Georgetown, Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, and UOP. Ask me anything I might be able to help you with.</p>

<p>Hi! I'm a freshman in Arts and Sciences, too. So I don't know - if you guys have questions, I can help answer them too.</p>

<p>which of those school were you accepted to?</p>

<p>I want to play ask the freshmen too, haha, I'm in CALS, but only applied to Cornell.</p>

<p>hey ask, u can ask me as well </p>

<p>i am a freshman in the college of arts/sciences</p>

<p>i was accepted to Northwestern/Chicago/Rice/J Hopkins/Duke as a freshman btw</p>

<p>ask away</p>

<p>Any of you fence (or know someone who fences)? I know they have what seems like a very active club mens team (wish they had a varsity team like they do for the girls) and definitely plan to fence epee if I end up there.</p>

<p>How tough is the workload in engineering? How competitive is it? How friendly is everyone at Cornell?</p>

<p>Thanks for taking the time to answer!</p>

<p>um..ppl are very friendly. The workload for engineers is tough, but the engineers on my floor do not do that much work, but they are all very smart.</p>

<p>Ask me too: Freshman, CAS, music department.</p>

<p>ColorfulPig: I have a friend here who fences; any questions for her?</p>

<p>BlackEyedSusan: My engineer friends say it's hard work and that it'is competitive, for sure, but that the environment is not cutthroat or opressive for the most part. They can still party as much as others. People in general are very friendly, even upperclassmen to freshmen. I was floored by the friendliness of the upperclassmen at the orientation week house parties in collegetown.</p>

<p>Thank sparti: Maybe you could ask her what the men's team is like? From the info I can find they seem to be very active (looks like they practice 10 hours a week!) and go to a decent number of tournaments. How much coaching attention do they get? Do they have to provide their own equipment?</p>

<p>Another question: To a non-music major, how available are piano practice rooms (and what quality are they)?</p>

<p>There's no distinction between majors and non majors...after all, nobody in CAS is ACTUALLY in a major until 4th semester.</p>

<p>You can get into the music building at any time of night for $20. for $60 you can reserve up to 12 hours at an upright, and for $80 you get keys to the baby-grand rooms. You can almost always find a piano open except at the really peak hours of the afternoon (this is without reserving). also, there are pianos in the res halls. I have a steinway baby-G almost directly below my room.</p>

<p>Thanks sparticus - is there anything like a yearly concerto competition at Cornell?</p>

<p>My son has applied to the Architecture school. My son plays drums. Assuming that he gets in - what opportunities exist for him to continue playing drums? He may not be able to carry his elaborate drum sets to the dorm???? or is there a way that he can get some space through the music department? What do other students do that play drums?</p>

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which of those school were you accepted to?

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<p>I got in Early Decision, so I didn't apply anywhere else besides Cornell.</p>

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What do other students do that play drums?

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<p>There are all kinds of student-run musical groups and things like that. He could perhaps take part in one of those; there's a list of Cornell's student-run groups at rso.cornell.edu.</p>

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How competitive is it?

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<p>It really depends on what class you're taking; some courses are more competitive than others. </p>

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How friendly is everyone at Cornell?

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<p>In general, the people here are very friendly. The good thing about Cornell is that because it's so huge, there is no shortage of new and exciting people to meet.</p>

<p>ColorfulPig: I don't know about that, I haven't looked into it, but i'm sure if not you could take the initiative to organize either that or a more friendly group performance with others and publicize it...make it a charity event or something. student group performances are big here. a cappella is huuuge, and some of the dance groups are very good.</p>

<p>Panantha1: There are drum rooms (by approval--i.e. you need to demonstrate you can play and aren't some jerk who will destroy them) in the Music building. You get a key to them, and you can go practice at any hour of the night. Because the sets are limited in use only to competent musicians, I'm sure they're of high quality. I have seen the drum room of the guy who teaches drums (including african style from ghana which is AWESOME! he did it in my tonal theory class, so cool) and his room is pimped with every type of percussion instrument imaginable. If your son moves into JAM theres a possibility people wouldn't mind him having the set in his room. (it would be a double, that's chancy.) In my opinion kind of a bad idea. He could bring it cased up too, and just keep it in the closet except for performances. But as you know, you can practice just as well with 3 toms and 2 crash cymbals on your set as you can with 10 different drums and 7 cymbals sitting in front of you. Having all the variety in the set is more for performance, do you agree?</p>

<p>Thanks sparticus. Do you know anything about the Cornell Tradition scholarship or the Meinig scholarship? A couple of weeks back I received a brochure about these scholarships. I called the finaid office to find out more about it. I was told that the colleges you apply to process the applications and select the applicants that they think may qualify for these scholarships. Then a final decision is made by a committee from the pool of sponsored applicants as to who gets the scholarship. Do you know if everyone gets these brochures or only those who qualify for the scholarship get this brochure?</p>

<p>Is there a rifle range in Cornell?</p>

<p>I was in the school rifle team back in England, but had to drop shooting upon returning to Korea since civilian ownership of firearms is illegal here. Would love to take it up again, if my deterioriated eyesight would allow it.</p>

<p>i am a Cornell presidential research scholar, one of these scholarship things</p>

<p>panantha1: I didn't qualify for FA, and wasn't a particularly outstanding student. I pretty much ignored anything relating to scholarships so I don't know about if everyone gets them. I do know that they're pretty competitive.</p>

<p>heythatslife: I don't know if there is a range on campus, but you can take shooting for your Phys Ed credit requirement. They will take you to the range. If you have your own guns you can keep them on campus. They will be registered and living with cornell PD, and you can go check them out for your class or whenever else you want to go shooting.</p>