<p>One of my friends was telling me horror stories of sabotage at other elite universities and I am wondering how intense Cornell competition is. Current students, do you find it stressful? and if so, are classmates friendly and helpful? I don't mind intense studying and working hard for my grades...all that I can handle, I just want to be around friendly folks who work together and aren't obsessed with beating eachother....what kind of place is Cornell?</p>
<p>Better be prepared to throw away other peoples notes and whatnot. Thats what they are gonna do to you, so you better stay ahead of the curve.</p>
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Better be prepared to throw away other peoples notes and whatnot. Thats what they are gonna do to you, so you better stay ahead of the curve.
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<p>WOW... That sounds really scary...</p>
<p>Does this apply to all schools or just certain ones? I've heard that the engineer school is especially competitive.</p>
<p>I think he's being facetious, I highly doubt people throw away each other's notes.</p>
<p>You didn't catch the sarcasm, I guess.</p>
<p>It's not like that. Most people would be willing to help you. I haven't run across anyone that would blatantly try to sabatoge someone else's work. The worst I have met was one girl who wouldn't explain to someone else how she got an answer on a problem set. But even in this instance, it seemed that the girl was just annoyed with the other person and didn't have the time to give her an explaination.</p>
<p>Yeah, so there is stress, especially around exam times. And there is competition; there are many bright people here, but we're all in it together, and we're not out to get eachother.</p>
<p>There's different strategies for different classes:</p>
<p>Lab classes-You can be really creative in these. Sometimes you "accidentally" spill some of your 15M HCl into someone's reaction tube. And they wonder how they managed to synthesize all that purplish gunk!</p>
<p>Science classes-These are truly tough b/c of all the premeds and requires a combo of strategies: notestealing, feigning ignorance when asked questions, disseminating incorrect info. I highly recommend forming study groups in these types of classes. Instead of misleading fellow students one by one, you can do it as a group!</p>
<p>Humanities courses-You better be a good writer in these courses. There's nothing like plagerizing someone else's paper and then warning the professor that you think someone copied YOUR essay.</p>
<p>hahaha, funny....i really hope ur kidding norcalguy! lol</p>
<p>I don't see how "people can sabotage other people's stuff," and I haven't heard too much about it either</p>
<p>I've heard about an alleged quota on the number of A's profs can give, particularly in science classes. This, I think, is what fuels that rumor about sabotage and cutthroat competition, since everyone wants to be in the small percentage that can qualify for A's (or B's). Fact or fiction?</p>
<p>It's called a curve and just about every college in the country has them. There are a few uncurved classes though.</p>