<p>I'm a second semester freshman in engineering (Operations Research) and I don't think the curriculum seems extremely challenging, but at the same time it's quite different than the other colleges and schools at Cornell so they are kind of hard to compare. For example, most classes in Hotel, ILR, CALS, and A&S require a lot of reading and paper writing and AAP students spend a lot of time in the studio. Although these tasks are rather easy, they are quite time consuming. </p>
<p>Engineers, however, don't do much reading or paper writing, but instead have problem sets that are, in general, due once a week. My friends often joke around with me and say I'm in the easiest school at Cornell, simple because I don't spend as much time working as they do, even though when I do work it's probably harder than theirs.</p>
<p>My schedule last semester was quite similar to most freshman engineers:</p>
<p>ENGRI 116 Modern Structures
MATH 192 Calculus for Engineers (Similar to Calc III at other schools)
CHEM 207 General Chemistry I
HIST 126 FWS: American Indian - Colonial Relations
and a PE.</p>
<p>Last semester, I spent more time on my FWS that any other class, but chemistry was the most challenging. I also feel I didn't have to work that hard to get a 3.97 GPA my first semester. So, in the end, I'd say Cornell Engineering challenges you, but by no means stops you from having a life outside the engineering quad.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I think what Ameechee is saying is that for most Cornell Engineers the intro material isn't that difficult, however getting a good grade in those intro classes is difficult because of the caliber of the Cornell Engineering students.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Wrong. It's not difficult to get a good grade in intro courses. In fact, it's not difficult to get a good grade in just about ANY engineering course. The intro material is incredibly basic. The classes and prelims won't challenge you at all.</p>
<p>Some engineering classes are widely known as "fluff" classes because they require almost no studying or work. These are Chem 211, math 192, the entire physics sequence (112-213-214), Nanotechnology, etc etc etc</p>
<p>eh. . . I took chem 207, bio 101, math 191, and a writing seminar. Although math 191 (engineering calc) wasn't the most time consuming class in terms of problem sets. . .the prelims were very difficult with the exception of the first exam.</p>
<p>Well, it is obvious that Ameechee is just stirring up trouble, because no credible person could believe his arguments. As proof, the logic that it is easy for any Cornell student to get a good grade is obviously false. The reason being that all engineering classes like that are curved. So if you happen to be in a classroom where you are a math genius, but so is everyone else (Cornell Engineering in a nutshell), then your grade is not a reflection of your ability or improvement. It is merely a ranking based on the performance of the rest of class, which may fluxuate based on what semester students take the class (ie Math 192 in the fall is FULL of students who got 5's on AP Calc BC, where Math 192 in the spring is not so much at all).</p>
<p>Dave (Ameechee) from an earlier post (in which we all consoled him):</p>
<p>"Anybody know about, or have taken the CS 100M (intro to programming in Matlab and Java) exam? I've heard it was a comple b&tch and that it is uncurved.</p>
<p>With my amount of CS knowledge so far, I'm hoping for a D-"</p>
<p>He brings up material that most engineers don't even begin. They walk into 191, 192, and in a few cases, 293. None of these classes are cake classes by any means. But, not incredibly difficult either. I'd say the same about the intro to physics classes either. As long as you go through the problem sets, meet up with TAs as need be, you should be fine.</p>
<p>But the freshman engineering classes aren't what makes cornell known for its difficulty. It's the classes you take later on, in your specialized fields, that will make you struggle. I don't care how smart you are, the point of college is to struggle and push yourself with material that interests and challenges you. And that's what cornell professors in engineering do. With intro classes, you've had some kind of recognition to the stuff. But once you start taking classes where the material is really new to you, it's a completely different ballgame.</p>
<p>Having completed my first semester as a Cornell engineer, I can say that I felt very challenged. The material was manageable... physics 112 and my intro engineering class were not that hard. I've pulled off 90s on all of my prelims and already secured As in physics and my writing seminar. On the other hand, I really struggled with the last chapter of math 192. I thought I was on track for an A in that class too, but I think I failed the final. Moral of the story: as long as you make sure you understand everything and put in the time to do the homeworks (I saved everything for Saturday, so I spent 7 or 8 hours every Saturday doing everything), you should be fine. And be a smart studier. I thought that the math final would cover everything we learned, so I placed equal weight on every chapter when I should've been focusing on the last one (circulation, flux, etc).</p>
<p>you won't find anyone else in cornell engineering who will back up what he says</p>
<p>and yes hotelies what they do is good...but theyre just asking to be made fun of by engineers sometimes when they complain about theyre problem set...which is a few times a semester if that...and i remember my hotelie friend told me 30 percent of his grade was showing up on time....and that lab was following the maid around alll day in the hotel(maybe even getting paid)</p>
<p>but in their defense im guessing those are like the extreme sides of the easy parts...i don't know, i cant speak intelligibly about hotelies/hotel school because i am not part of it, but just what i hear and understand from being on the outside</p>
<p>but no amachee i don't know why he is saying things like that...even if it was true, it would only be for him, and he would know that everyone else is struggling working on friday and saturday nights...and problem sets for me take min 4 hrs, and more often up to 9 hrs or more each..multiply that by 4 problem sets a week, give or take, plus what 20 or so hours of class each week, plus prelims practically weekly and ON TOP OF CLASSES, AT NIGHT, and often the teachers will give problem sets, assignments, due during that week when the prelim occurs as well, and again times 4-5 for number of coureses you take</p>
<p>i havent posted on here in what, years? or once a year? i sometimes just browse a few things every couple of months on my downtimes(breaks), but amacheee got me so concerned that i spent 3 minutes guessing my password and signing on and correcting it.</p>
<p>like i said, good luck finding ANYONE to confirm amachee's ********</p>
<p>classes aren't like extra hard or anything but due to # of classes esp when science related takes time. so less free time = yea. harder in terms of difficulty? depends on you. id say if you came from a really good HS u should be fine.. a friend of my said the multi he took in HS is harder than engin multi in cornell.</p>
<p>he went to same public HS as i did. i took multi and differential equations (though it was mostly flows and dynamics for differential and it was the biggest killer ever, 100% proofs nonstop lol) in my senior year. A freshman took multi and diff in his 1st year and went on to upper college lvl math in the nearest college.</p>
<p>haha yes, to both. i had stern for multi and diff @.@ multi was okay, manageable if not paying attention since half the class is sleeping. but diff is another story =D 100% lost if you sleep in class lol. i see we have another stuy person here =O!</p>