<p>Hi everyone!
What are the advantages of going to CALS or CAS for Biology or Biology and Society majors? Which school is for which person?</p>
<p>I am definitely interested in the biological sciences, but I am not a hard scientist (like an Engineer, so I think Engineering school is out of picture). I'm also almost sure I want to go into research/medicine. So which might be a better choice?</p>
<p>Some stuff about me to judge the fit:
I am really really really involved in lab research now, and am specifically working on biomedical/tissue engineering (awards at big competitions, etc).
Lots of science EC's - Sci. Olympiads, Math Hon. Society, the common stuff.
But also have knack for writing (essay contests), interested in politics of science (formed a club for this), and still like to see the general picture of the context of my research. Hence, I have also taken interest in epidemiology (and the big competition associated with it).</p>
<p>However, most of the courses you take in college are outside of your major.</p>
<p>You will likely take a greater proportion of your other courses in the college that you are enrolled in. Each has its own distribution and in-college course requirements. Arts has a foreign anguage requirement.</p>
<p>In CALS your requirements will include bio, (I think) calculus, etc. In CAS your requirements will include courses in various distributions--all boiling down to you taking some language courses, history, math/science, etc. In CAS you can sample the offerings of every other college on campus with no limitation; in CALS you are limited to a certain # of out-of-college credits.</p>
<p>I'm not sure that bongoboy is correct about CAS students being able to sample the offerings of other colleges without limitations.</p>
<p>CAS has a requirement that 100 of your credits must be in that college. APs don't count. Unless you can handle schedules of much more than 15 credits per semester, this means you are pretty much limited to 20 out-of-college credits.</p>
<p>As a practical matter, though, this may not bother you much. You can major in biology in CAS, and the Science, Technology, and Society program, which would probably interest you, is also CAS. About the only thing you might want from CALS that CAS doesn't offer is some writing courses in the Department of Communication, and I doubt you would take more than 20 credits of those.</p>
<p>On the contrary, I am sure that I am correct. As I stated previously, there are no limitations on where you take your courses in CAS. You may opt not to take more than 15 credits per semester in order to take more courses outside of CAS or your schedule may not allow for it, but the fact remains that Cornell places no limitation on your so doing. This is in contrast to the policy at CALS which states an actual limitation.</p>
<p>I believe that you are allowed 21 credits from CAS if you are in CALS. Then for every additional credit you are charged 1000 on your tuition. But I don't think there is a limit.</p>
<p>You need 120 credits to graduate from CALS. At least 55 of those credits must be taken from among the classes offered by CALS. You may take up to 55 credits from the endowed colleges (A&S, AAP, Engineering and Hotel), with no limitation as to credits from any specific endowed college. In other words, you can graduate by earning as many credits in A&S as you did in CALS with 10 additional credits earned from either Human Ecology or ILR, if you choose to do so (assuming that somewhere along the way you take care of your distribution requirements). If is a major within CALS that interests you and you are a NYS resident, that's a fantastic deal.</p>
<p>In terms of admissions, it seems like CAS favors more well-roundedness and CALS favors focusing on more specific academic interests. (I got this impression at an information session while visiting last summer.) Also, CALS may let you know your RD decision earlier, because they admit on a rolling basis --- I was admitted in late February. I am pretty sure that the reason that I was admitted so early was because I was a really good fit, having focused heavily on biology, ecology, and environmental activities in high school. (Of course, my grades and test scores were extremely solid, although I wasn't otherwise amazingly spectacular --- no Intel Science Fair or calculus in eighth grade. As a comparison, I was admitted to MIT and UMich honors, but rejected at Stanford.)</p>
<p>WOuld you consider CALS, then, to be more for people who know solidly that they want to go into bio., and CAS for people trying to decide if they want to go into the arts or the sciences?</p>
<p>THis is going to be a tough choice for me... although I am not fully a science person (with my political/writing side, and all), I HATE spanish/memorizing foreign language...lol...and in my financial situation, I think CALS would be a bit better for me;). It seems that CALS might be better/more practical for me.
And after all, science, writing, and politics are all intricately related...</p>
<p>And is it true that CALS lets you apply to 2 majors?
Does anyone know if biology/science and society are competitive?? In relation to each other?</p>
<p>Yes they do let you apply to two majors, however you have to write an additional essay for it. You know, if everyone just looked at the freshmen booklet, a lot of these questions would be answered.</p>