<p>Hi. </p>
<p>This month I was accepted by both UC Berkeley and Cornell University. School of Industrial and Labor Relations for Cornell and the College of Letters & Science for UCB (Probably Psych and Rhetoric Double). I am very honored to have the chance to go to both schools. I am quite surprised Cornell took me since almost nobody gets into Ivy Leagues via junior colleges.</p>
<p>Just some background on myself. I was homeschooled until age 18 and then I went into my local junior college. Was looking to get an AA, but later decided to transfer out and get my BA and hopefully a professional degree in the future.
GPA: 3.9 B in art class :(</p>
<p>From what I can tell, ILR is a very focused program. I am very interested in the subjects taught, but I am afraid if I am not that into it when I get there, I am stuck. Are there ways to transfer out into things like Government or Psychology?
Berkeley is good in that respect since I think it teaches me a more general platform. </p>
<p>I think I am an OK student, but Cornell is notorious for giving rather low grades. Is this bad in terms of trying to go to a good grad school, like Columbia, U Penn or something? </p>
<p>I know from my cousin who goes to Berkeley in engineering that the professors at UCB are a bit full of themselves and aren't usually helpful. How are the professors in ILR? Lots of Teaching Assistants? </p>
<p>Apparently, since I never took a calculus class, I have to take some math tests and a stats course at Cornell. How hard is the mathematics? Aside from art, math is one of my most dreaded subjects, so I'm hoping its not like pulling teeth. </p>
<p>This next question is somewhat subjective. Are the students in ILR friendly? Is it a cut-throat environment where everybody is trying to out-compete each other?</p>
<p>I apologize if these questions are a bit dumb. I have never been to Cornell or know anybody there and I have to submit my intent to register in a few days. </p>
<p>Thank you in advance.</p>
<p>have you already taken labor economics? that along with stats might kick your butt…</p>
<p>ILR is VERY transfer friendly…about half the graduating class each year is transfer (many from comm colleges). </p>
<p>i think berkeley will give you more flexibility in terms of wanting to transfer to government (not sure though) but ILR is very distinct here from the college of letters and sciences (arts and sciences here).</p>
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to transfer in to ILR then transfer out to another program can be tricky. The good news is ILR is very diverse and flexible. You should have no problem taking numerious government or psychology courses in Arts and Sciences. In addition, the org behavior department in ILR is very rooted in worker psychology anyways. Your first semester will have your classes selected for you (they are pre-recs for most other classes, so it’s good to get these out of the way), but after that you will have flexibilty.
notorious, but still unfounded. A look at the median grade report will show that Cornell is no harsher in grading than any other college. The students are, on paper, much smarter than the average student at any average college and thus the standards may be set higher for Cornell students, but the evidence shows that Cornell does not give out lower grades.
I’d be more worried about the UC budget woes, but I have heard this about Cal professors. For ILR, I had really fantastic professors. They all had an open door policy and were excellent instructors. I even still keep in contact with some. The same applies to the administration. TA’s are not big in number but are there to help out with the introductory course lectures. They don’t teach, rather hold small group discussions once a week with students (they might do case studies, group work, small projects … all in conjunction with that week’s lecture topics). And frankly, my TA’s were awesome. All of them. </p>
<p>And ILR stats isn’t hard, it’s all theory based and not numbers based.
yes of course they’re friendly. Nobody is cutting each other’s throats or tearing pages out of library books so others can’t get the notes (this is grounds for expulsion in the code of academic integrity). In fact, in the notoriously hard ILR class, the professor even expects us to work together and share results on assignments.</p>
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<p>That’s not true at all Gomestar. (Well, the part of it not being hard is true.) Having taken ILR stats as well many probability/statistics courses in the math department, ILR stats is much more applied.</p>
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<p>Indeed. Cornell faculty (not just in ILR) are extremely open and accessible, much moreso than many of Cornell’s peers.</p>
<p>perhaps I should have clarified. Applied, yes, but what I mean is it’s not like a traditional math class. One’s ability to calculate numbers is not a critical pre-rec; rather, analysis is more the focus. Running numbers was not the focus when I took it, rather data generation, explaining why a given distribution is important, showing why something is statistically significant, how explain the finer details of a bell curve, etc.</p>
<p>Labor econ has more numbers math involved (you will need things like algebra)</p>
<p>I’d actually have to agree that ILR stats is very easy, it is completely theory/non-numbers based</p>
<p>back to the OP: </p>
<p>how many credits do you have? have you already had them evaluated by ILR?
depending on what courses transfer…you may or may not have flexibility. </p>
<p>i know that those who transfer in as juniors have to focus on getting their ILR major requirements and might only have room for 1 general elective per semester(outside the ilr school). </p>
<p>the professors at ILR are nothing but the best. most ILR classes dont rely on TAs as they are small (except for your required courses (stats, hr, org behavior)). </p>
<p>in general you will have MORE flexibility at berkeley in terms of flirting with majors…</p>
<p>at cornell’s ILR you will be stuck for at least 1-2 semesters before you can considering transferring…and u have to have maintained a 3.3 gpa (which is tough at cornell).</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses. </p>
<p>I received an estimate from ILR and I will get the maximum 60 units transferred in. I think I have the basics knocked off, like Micro and Macro econ. </p>
<p>I have another question. I looked at the research opportunities listed in the ILR site and they seem quite interesting. Do any ILR students here have any experience with the fellowships?
Also, is the Honors Thesis commonly done by most students?</p>
<p>Thanks again.</p>
<p>i’m not too familiar with people doing formal fellowships…i know some who worked with professors doing research but not in a fellowship…</p>
<p>more common has become the semester abroad in ireland…and or other places…</p>
<p>one tip i can give you is not to look at the course catalog of ilr classes but the actual course roster of the past 2 years to see what courses are ACTUALLY being taught…</p>
<p>i find that there were always semesters where the courses you wanna take end up being in the same time slot…and they’re only taught once a year! </p>
<p>sometimes you have to settle for courses you’re not interested in :(</p>