<p>Hey I've basically decided that I will be enrolling at Cornell in the fall. I am planning on majoring in biology. I was choosing between Amherst and Cornell but after looking more into the program and professors, Cornell just seemed to offer me to much. My only concern is class size. I was wondering what the class sizes were like for the different classes in biology (and chemistry) from the intro classes, which I assume are very large, to the upper level courses for only people majoring in biology. I sat in a multivariable calculus class a couple of weeks ago and it had about 20 - 25 kids which I thought was a manageable size so I was happy about that but I'm not entirely sure how many kids usually take that class so I don't really know if that's normal or large for a typical class. I do understand how intro bio will be large but I'm more interested in the size of the bio major courses. Also, how strict is Cornell about prerequisites before taking a certain course. For example, if I wanted to skip into Multivariable Calculus without taking Linear Algebra even though the course catalog says it is a prerequisite, would that not be allowed (just using this as an example). Thanks a ton!!!</p>
<p>for bio i would definitely go cornell. it is a top research institution and you will have a ton of opportunities to do research on campus and be taught by top tier professors. intro bio/chem is approx 400ish with 20 person labs. then by the time you do upper level courses they are generally 15 to 25. some really specialized classes have ten. </p>
<p>sometimes for upper level courses you can work around prereqs but you usually have to follow them (for a reason).</p>
<p>i think cornell is fairly strict interms of prereqs but you can ask the professor to be placed in. ive known people who enrolled in classes without prereqs because they asked teh prof and they let them in. </p>
<p>like you said the class sizes are big. as you get higher, it mostly depend on which higher level courses you want to take. as a Biology major, you aren’t required to take really high level classes. intro bio has maybe 700-800, evolutionary bio (another required course) has maybe 200±. microbio (not required) also has 100-200. you wont really see small classes, 25 or less, til perhaps jr/sr year but it depends on what you take. you might never see a 25 or less bio class if you only take the required classes. I know all the classes I’m taking to finish my bio major are in big lecture halls.</p>
<p>Welcome to Cornell!</p>
<p>You would generally be able to skip pre-reqs provided you clear it with the professor beforehand. For instance, I took neurobio 221 without ever taking intro biology. And I took an upper level evolutionary behavior course (a great course with only 15 students) without taking the evolutionary biology course intended for bio majors. Taking Math 222 before 221 is generally pretty common as there isn’t much overlap (if any) between the two courses. </p>
<p>Other times, you definitely would need the pre-requisite – for instance you would need to take general chem before taking orgo.</p>
<p>Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t there still a biology autotutorial? Which is basically a class size of one.</p>
<p>You can also get a good idea of class size here:</p>
<p><a href=“http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu/Grades/MedianGradeFA08.pdf[/url]”>http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu/Grades/MedianGradeFA08.pdf</a></p>
<p>Don’t know how cornell is restructuring intro bio classes. I heard from my TA last year that they might want to get rid of intro bio and just break it down to specifics… Don’t know how that went or if the idea was dumped. Some people take orgo with gen chem at the same time because there are barely any overlaps.</p>
<p>The I stand corrected!</p>
<p>I wanna major in biology, but I want absolutely nothing to do with plants. Can that be done? haha. It’s sad, but a serious question nonetheless.</p>
<p>its possible if you have Bio AP credit to skip bio 101-104. because those classes cover plants</p>
<p>but plants are very important dude…</p>
<p>you could try animal science…but i’m sure they have to learn about plants (i.e. metabolism in animals)</p>
<p>plants are important to our lives but not that important to bio majors… they are more important to plant science majors</p>
<p>how do Cornell’s class sizes compare with UCB’s?</p>