<p>Why doesn't cornell admit a higher percentage of it's class ED so that they'll their acceptance and retention rates are lower? I was just wondering because I just read that Yale admited close to 50% of its class early.</p>
<p>retention rates lower? since when is that good?</p>
<p>they probably can get only so many good enough applicants early...</p>
<p>With an undergraduate class of over 3000 (correct me if I'm wrong) it's hard to fill 50% of that from the early pool. There aren't THAT many qualified candidates. Plus more people would probably choose somewhere like Yale as a first-choice rather than Cornell, lowering the number of Cornell's ED applicants. Plus HYS are early-action and Cornell is not which may turn some people (me) off.</p>
<p>The admit rate is higher for early decision.</p>
<p>Do you guys think that Cornell should reduced its class sizes? Small classes allow for a more personalized academic experience as well as better overall ratings, but bigger lecture-type classes allows you to learn from award-winning professors.</p>
<p>i think cornell should reduce its total class size to like 2500 students</p>
<p>Yeah, but I meant the class sizes for individual courses. An example is the intro psych course that used to have about 1800 students enrolled in it before they began to renovate Baily Hall.</p>
<p>oh you want to reduce it to like 900? that will really help kids learn? Being 50 feet away instead of 100? In lecture classes it really doesn't matter how big the lecture is. As long as the class breaks into sections there isn't really an advantage to a smaller lecture.</p>
<p>It helps to build rapports with professors instead of TAs. I've done well in lectures, but I don't think it is appropriate for me to ask any of them to write for me a letter of recommendation, even if I do go to office hours. The only professors that know me enough are my academic advisor and the professor for whom I'm doing some research. I know a lot of TAs though.</p>
<p>fudgemaster, at Cornell, if u ask a T.A. for a rec, most of the time they will write you a rec, and the professor will sign it or your TA will give the professor some info about you, and will give him/her a paragraph about you. That is how you can get a rec from a famous professor without ever seeing him.</p>
<p>I know I've gotten one before, but you have to admit that it doesn't hold as much weight.</p>
<p>I got one last year for a scholarship. What ended up happening was that both the TA and the professor ended up signing a letter written by the TA.</p>
<p>ok, honestly, how many classes in your cornell career will actually be big lectures? Maybe 5 at most? This is out of about 40 classes total. Not a big deal.</p>