<p>Hello! I'm a rising senior, and I'm seriously considering Cornell ED. A main reason why I'm thinking Cornell over UPenn is that Cornell's class choices in terms of distribution requirements seem so much more extensive than Penn's. Is this a fair statement? I looked on the course catalog, and I was just blown away at how many courses Cornell has to offer for each of the requisite distributions. Are there actually as many as I saw...or are many of those courses not actually available to Freshmen or whatever...</p>
<p>If someone could give me a sense of how broad the course selection really is at Cornell, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks so much.</p>
<p>I can’t speak for Penn, but I’m a huge fan of Cornell’s CAS distribution requirements. Some of my favorite courses I’ve taken were ones where I searched the course catalog and found something unique that gave me a good gut feeling. Some people are frustrated because some people only want to focus on their majors, but I definitely appreciated the liberal arts education and there really are a plethora of options for each requirement. Of course, I ended up graduating with two majors and two minors, so I prefer being all over the place.</p>
<p>haha. I want to be all over the place as well!! When you say “a plethora of options for each requirement”…how extensive are those options? If you had to give a rough number, how many classes would you say are available for a standard distribution requirement?</p>
<p>This estimate is probably worthless, but probably several dozen to maybe low hundreds…</p>
<p>WOW!!! See THAT is the extensiveness that attracts me to Cornell. Did you find it hard to choose which classes you wanted? Do you have advisors who will guide you at the beginning of the process?</p>
<p>I enjoy searching the course catalog, so it’s not really all that hard. It also depends what will fit into your schedule in a given semester. When it comes to distribution requirements, your advisor isn’t all that helpful. Your advisor is mostly there to help with filling your major requirements and perhaps guiding you to courses outside your major that will complement your major well (for example, I think most Government advisors tell their students to take at least 1 semester of statistics, even if the major doesn’t require it). If you really wanted to talk to someone about the distribution requirements, I think you’d have to talk to the registrar/your advising dean. Realistically, for at least some of them you’ll probably choose classes with your friends.</p>
<p>For some requirements, you may be qualified for fewer classes because you don’t meet the prereqs. However, for example I had AP biology credit, I actually took a 2nd-year science class even though I was a social science major. I’m pretty sure I was the only non-science major in the class though.</p>
<p>Got it. I’m falling more and more in love with Cornell everyday.</p>