<p>Are there any? I know the swimming test is required, and the writing seminars. But is there a required PE course? Is this true/anything else required?</p>
<p>yes true, and theres a distribution requirement of courses. the information should be available SOMEWHERE on academics.cornell.edu</p>
<p>Good luck trying to make sense of the CAS requirements. I'm 3 semesters in and I'm still not sure of the requirements. I just pick classes that have the most symbols next to them (ie they satisfy the most # of requirements simultaneously).</p>
<p>hahaha good idea norcal...yeah I was going to explain the requirements, but then I realized after reading them for 30 minutes the other week I didn't understand them any better than what I said to Scott</p>
<p>Don't worry. They'll explain the requirements to you during a CAS assembly during orientiation.</p>
<p>You will not understand their explaination. But at least they will try to explain.</p>
<p>sweet, cant wait</p>
<p>hope i'll make sense of all the requirements too, and i thought IB/Ap requirements were difficult, heck even my hs district's were pretty confusing , good thing i was exempt from some weird courses in hs. </p>
<p>Current cornellians, plz tell us inexperienced fledglings (pretty redundant i know, but we're really just Cornell colts) what to beware of , because unpleasant surprises like the swim test requiremnt takes the wind out of me.</p>
<p>i think the only only way a swim test could scare someone would be if they didnt know how to swim...its 3 laps...</p>
<p>this is all I can find. Someone please help</p>
<p><a href="http://www.arts.cornell.edu/curriculum.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.arts.cornell.edu/curriculum.asp</a></p>
<p>found it, thought id share:</p>
<p>oh yeah, but can we understand them is the issue.</p>
<p>" think the only only way a swim test could scare someone would be if they didnt know how to swim...its 3 laps..." --sparticus
The swim test scares me, i can swim barely over half the length of the pool (though that was last summer and i havent tried it again after i became stronger and increased vital capacity--finished a marathon (26.2 miles of jogging/walking/running) and that is all on lung vital capacity and whatever puny muscle power i have. A repost of my old concern on the swim 3-laps requirement , </p>
<p>"I'm ashamed, I can't swim two thirds of my way across the pool, okay I swam a third to a half the length before, after I learned about many Ivies have the "swim test" last summer so I practiced a little, but I have never swam across a full sized , regulation pool on one account before. I like to jog so my lung vital capacity is good and I can hold my breath long enough to swim that far now. I think I understand the mechanics, but swimming isn't something you can learn by reading an instruction manuel. Btw, if you are wondering , I grew up in northern China, near a desert, with almost no water body unless you consider a small pond and little stream one, and the public facilities in my hometown don't amount to very much, so no free, public swimming pools. I live in Phoenix, AZ now, not much water here either. I'm working on how to change my breath while swimming now so I don't have to hold the breath while swimming under the water across the whole pool. I'm afraid my lungs would definitely burst. It's only a few months to Cornell if I attend, any quick tips?"</p>
<p>dont worry, just keep paddling, you're basically pushing yourself up/forward against the water. </p>
<p>If you try and swim alot this summer you'll be fine. For an athletic/coordinated person, it shouldn't be that hard. I mean, 6 and 7 year olds can learn it in a few months. However, theres no shame in not having learned it, especially if it would have been a superfluous skill. </p>
<p>Just be safe when practicing; make sure ppl know you're not a strong swimmer and that you're not swimming alone. Practice in "the shallow end" and just keep swimming. Learning to breath while swimming is not difficult, but is essential. Breast stroke is easiest to get the breathing for. If someone teaches you, I doubt you'll have trouble. Your cardio-stamina is phenomenal.</p>
<p>The complete CAS requirements are here:</p>
<p>My friend just edumacated me on the distribution requirements (1 day before Course Enroll) so I should be good to go.</p>
<p>that was such a chore when i was in CAS, thankfully, i just took classes i was interested in rather than to fulfill any distribution requirements. then, when i transferred to Humec, all my courses that i had taken suddenly became distribution. outside of fulfilling a stats course requirement, i'm done with distribution and am taking whatever i want with no worries about # and @ and foreign languages. it's such a shame when many CAS students take a certain class they have no interest in to fulfill requirement, kinda defeats the purpose of ANY study. if you can find instruction in any study, then why are you forced to take this one to fulfill requirement?</p>
<p>the college of arts and sciences sounds like a misnomer too, "The College of Arts and Sciences awards [only] one undergraduate degree, the Bachelor of Arts degree" Bachelor of Arts in biology or in chemistry etc. just doesnt sound right.
but you can ignore the above useless comment. </p>
<p>My QUICK QUESTION is about foreign language fulfillment. I am extremely fluent in mandarin Chinese, my native language, the language i've been using for 18 years too, constantly reading, writing, listening, speaking etc. I consider my English on par or just slightly worse than my Chinese (Verbal SAT: 710)
I've taken three years worth of Spanish, from HS freshman, summer class, sophomore years. I consider myself somewhat fluent in Spanish, though I may be only shaky in that since i never took any standard test in that like SAT II or AP, IB. </p>
<p>Can somebody please fill me in on foreign lang. requirements? In IB, I got exempted from Spanish as foreign language because of Chinese self-study. Will a similar thing work for Cornell? </p>
<p>Sorry, i didn't feel like reading through all the distribtution requirements yet because of a few reasons. Any current Cornellians plz fill me in.</p>
<p>I see "The following language placement and advanced standing tests are scheduled at the beginning of each semester:
* Chinese (yeah), Japanese, and Korean (schedule available from the Department of Asian Studies, 350 Rockefeller Hall); "</p>
<p>My new questions are" How difficult are the placement tests? If I do well in Chinese, can I just test out and not have to take any class at all? I'd hate to spend my time and money taking a class I don't want to take. </p>
<p>ALso, I saw in some ranking scheme that places Cornell (NY), (Libral Arts study) as the fifth hardest college ranking in the US. MIT ,Caltech, Yale , and one other school supposedly dish out more work to their students than Cornell does. Cornell students work harder than all the rest of the schools , including Hopkings (10th hardest) . Generalizations exist, but my question is : Libral arts seems like sucha vague term , generally speaking, so what does cornell libral arts entail? i'm not entirely familiar with the conept of libral arts education. plz comment on libral arts in relation to cornell</p>