How do you know they are easier?
I have taken courses within different departments here. This is from my first hand experience
Hey @SuperAzn69
Just curious about your background? I noticed from your profile you just joined College Confidential recently and have only visited the site twice. yet you decided to post short notes attacking CWRU in 10 different threads. What set you off to do that? Did an exam not go well? Did you get caught violating an academic policy? Did a girlfriend or boyfriend break up with you? Can you speak to what may have motivated you to jump in with so many posts in such a short time? Its not like you have been following along.
@Wizard2 It wasn’t any of the above that you mentioned that got me into posting on those forums. I’m not attacking CWRU, I’m offering my personal opinions about Case, which are based on MY OWN PERSONAL experience. Since I have had an experience here, I have better ability to make assessments about the university as opposed to hearing “word of mouth” experiences from others.
I mostly chose to go to Case because I’ve heard from others that it was a “great” school with tons of opportunities to pursue a challenging education, volunteer, shadow doctors, and work in labs. However, once I got here, I realized that the quality being offered at Case was not at a level I had expected. For example, the computer science department is small, understaffed, and has horrible faculty. The coursework offered at Case is nothing special compared to other great engineering schools like Purdue, Illinois, Michigan, or even Ohio State. Volunteer and research opportunities at colleges are commonplace and offered by all universities. For example, CWRU’s SOURCE office is similar to Michigan’s UROP or Ohio State’s Office of Research. Pretty much all hospital offer volunteer options for college students. Overall, I have not been impressed by CWRU and its offerings because it is nothing really special, and lots of state schools offer programs that are at the same level if not better than those of Case.
So what type of activities have you become involved in at CWRU? Did you personally take advantage of shadowing in the hospital? Or the source program you mention above for example? Did you have a computer class and what was it like?
My S at CWRU has had a great experience. While he has had a few not so great professors he has benefited from his relationships with other faculty and students. I would imagine at other universities such as Purdue, Illinois and Michigan that there are also some under par professors and experiences. Comparing “rate my professor” at these schools and CWRU I find similar ranges from low to high in the STEM field. I did not examine the humanities but I’m sure most universities have professors that are not quality teachers.
Nevertheless the disillusion OP has while valid for him will not necessarily be the same for most. I’ve read many posts of disillusioned students at a wide range of colleges and what helps most is how are you planning to rise above the difficulties that you face. If plan A doesn’t work as expected what are your plan B,C,D etc… Success at college, career, relationships and life is making lemonade out of lemons.
One example my son faced a few semesters ago was a conflict of having a schedule with one of the worst Calculus teachers versus one of the best. During the semester there would be three or four times when another required class had a conflict during the time frame when the best math professor had the class. This was due to a strange way CWRU had at the time (and no longer does) where the other class held exams outside of class time which occurred during that math professors class. First he contacted the one professor about taking his exams at another time which he would not accommodate citing an unfairness to the other students. Next step was contacting the better math professor about missing those known dates and making sure to have work done and turned in when he would be absent and of course learning missed material. I believe that math professor agreed and allowed him in her class due to his diligence in working out a solution. I know this is a specific situation but he made lemonade out of lemons and worked very hard to fulfill his commitment to both classes.
Yes CWRU may not have been the best option for the OP but you will always have in life situations that are not what you expected so make a plan to make your situation ideal for you.
As a followup to all this my S has enjoyed his classes in Weatherhead as well as in engineering. He has been proactive to get into the economic and STEM classes he wanted and found a way to get the higher ranked professors. Planning and communication made that possible.
Yes, I have been active at Case. I have done their CCEL volunteers, worked in a lab, tutored children at a church, and I have taken computer classes here. The things that I’ve done here are nothing special and are a continuation of what I’ve been doing since freshman year of high school.
In economics, the concept of utility measures the satisfaction received from a consumed good or service, which in this Case is the education received at Case. My utility differs from other people’s utility. Some people can enjoy a school like Cleveland State or University of Akron while for others Vanderbilt isn’t enough.
Yes, I obviously have alternative plans to make sure that I will have the best possible college experience out there.
My son (class of 2016) minored in economics at CWRU , and won a SOURCE grant, these are competitive at CWRU, and limited to undergraduates at CRWU, to work with the Federal Reserve Bank on a health related economics project the summer after his sophomore year at Case Western. With that, the economics department at Case does not offer a PhD program, and that might mean that there are less very high powered economists at Case Western, but the positive is that they are all there for the undergrads and business school majors. The Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland works with Case Western students, who want to do that, my son did that. Also, he found UPPER LEVEL humanities classes in philosophy, religion, music, history and other departments are amazingly challenging, but you do need to pick the right classes. I disagree that any professors at CWRU are “horrible” in CS. My son got personal recommendations from CS and physics professors for grad school and summer positions and got accepted to those schools and positions. He ultimately majored in physics and math, with an economics minor.
Also, state schools will not allow undergrads to use graduate classes to satisfy B.A or B.S… requirements. CWRU will allow that. My son took graduate level physics and math classes to get a B.S. degree in physics and math at CWRU.
@Wizard2 I don’t know about the disgruntled poster, but my son at CWRU took four CS classes and all were
good, maybe a little easier than my other sons classes in CS at Georgia Tech, but I would say the Case Western students in CS, friends of my son, have good west coast job options and there are good career fairs at Case Western, compared to Georgia Tech, where the career fairs are huge, populated with HR morons, and a waste of time. Because CWRU is so much smaller, all CS students get jobs, which is truly better than a large state school. I would say all CS departments across the USA are a bit understaffed, CWRU included. So class size is a bit bigger in CS than physics, but so much smaller than Purdue, or Georgia Tech, so one can really get to know professors. Not all will be nice. But thats life. Not all bosses will be “nice” either. I don’t know for certain that UIUC and Purdue offer the career fairs with the morons, but I bet they do. The reason for that is simple, ranked schools have huge career fairs and all good companies must be at those schools. In some ways, thats the beauty of Case Western, its through faculty relationships that students get job options, not a free for all like the state schools offer.