<p>Yes, many have heard of this "quote" that describes the cut-throat academic environment of Cornell. But sometimes I feel threatened by this and never thought it was THIS* competitive. Where does this stereotype come from? Is Cornell in general very competitive? Academics are very hard? Or does the stereotype come from certain schools? (Like Engineering School) Can someone please justify this? Thanks A LOT.</p>
<p>yea i've been kinda worried about this too</p>
<p>but i mean if you think about it, all the insanely smart ones go to HYP, so it shouldn't be that intense overall, but i think the hotel school (maybe) and the engineering school might be notorious for being pressure cookers.</p>
<p>oh and just a side note, people only notice that cornell's acceptance rate is high denoting it as the easiest ivy to get in, but have you noticed that cornell has 20,000 undergraduates whereas all the rest have 5,000???</p>
<p>"all the insanely smart ones go to HYP"</p>
<p>when you compare statistics of Cornell to HYP, I believe that cornell is within one standard deviation of those schools. Cornell has plenty of insanely smart ones. </p>
<p>"i think the hotel school (maybe) and the engineering school might be notorious for being pressure cookers"</p>
<p>the hotel school is known to be a walk in the park. My friend even got academic credit for shadowing a bed maker for a day. </p>
<p>The 'competitive' stereotype is mostly a stereotype. Cornell is very hard, face it. Some classes are incredibly difficult, though there are some that are relatively easy. The people tend to confuse competitive with difficult though ... i'd say Cornell is dificult but not compeititive. There have been some horror stories floating around like people tearing pages out of books (this was actually confirmed by one of my ILR professors ... it was his class), but incidents like these are certainly the minority. Most students will work together and help each other out ... it makes for a very collaborative environment and lightens up the workload as well.</p>
<p>cornell is hard, but not that hard. i know people who drink and pass out every weekend and get 3.9 gpa as a premed. remember, most classes(cept sciences and engineering classes) are not curved, so picking the right professor is very important.</p>
<p>Cornell has about 13,000 undergraduates and about 6.000 or so graduate students. </p>
<p>Cutthroat atmosphere is a stereotype. Not the experience of nearly all students (there will always be jerks who do stupid things like ripping out pages of textbooks, etc. I know someone who's lab notebook was stolen at a pricey private high school -- so there will always be some stories along these lines at all sorts of schools.) Plenty of kids share class notes, help others with homework, form study groups, etc.</p>
<p>when you say that science and engineering classes are curved you mean up right? because i've heard of some schools who curve down to deflate the grades in order to combat grade inflation.</p>
<p>well, i donno about that benandjerrys. most classes have a median grade of B+/A- cept intro science classes and engineering classes.</p>
<p>Just study, it's not like they flog you or something. Relax, a lot of that "it's so hard, I can barely pass" is a load of exagerrated crap.</p>
<p>for science classes, they curve it so the mean is a B-, whether that be up or down. I think engineering classes is B-/C+. I don't think Cornell is competitive. I think there is a lot of envy between the students who are doing exceptionally well and those who are working their butts off just to stay above the mean. Tension, stress, and disappointment are pretty prevalent at Cornell, but that should not be confused w/ competition. Harvardman, I know what you mean about people with 3.9 gpa's that get wasted every weekend. It makes other students jealous and ****ed off, but for the most part they don't do any sabotaging.</p>
<p>is ILR harder than CAS?</p>
<p>from what gomestar has shared previously, yes mojo..ILR seems to be 'harder' than CAS</p>
<p>in general, science and engineering are the hardest. </p>
<p>architecture requires the most time and sweat.</p>
<p>rest of CAS majors are easy.</p>
<p>hotel has some hard aspects, but is in general "like high school".</p>
<p>human ecology pampers you.</p>
<p>ILR has a lot of reading, but is also relatively easy, on the level of CAS humanities majors.</p>
<p>And AEM is definitely known to be the easiest major. Not hotel.</p>
<p>So there are your stereotypes. And by the way, it gets a lot harder and more competitive after freshmen year.</p>
<p>"human ecology pampers you."</p>
<p>What do you mean by that? Do they put on a diaper and spoon feed me an A and high GPA? Give little work? Because Karl really likes being babied =).</p>
<p>haha yeah... could you clarify "pampers"</p>
<p>"Give little work? Because Karl really likes being babied =)."</p>
<p>Literally made me lol. Well done karl...well done.</p>