<p>i'm thinking of changing my mind now because of soo many ppl complaining about the heat. i hate heat.!</p>
<p>omg you're kidding me?? zainuu, the lounges and libraries are air conditioned and everyone always goes there to study. Don't let something as small as the weather keep you from attending this amazing program.</p>
<p>zainuu: It's only in the dorms that heat is a problem. The community center and dining hall are all refreshingly(sometimes to the point of chillingly) air conditioned, as are all of the libraries and classrooms, so if you stay out of the dorms other than for sleeping, you should be fine(and, really, who wants to stay in a tiny dorm room all day?).</p>
<p>i seee. but how do i manage do bring so many fans to cornell? i need to sleep as well you knw. =p</p>
<p>Those mini clip fans will do swell- like..slip 2 or 3 of them on your bed posts for surrounding breezes :D</p>
<p>I'm from southern california and most of the time I had a jacket on cause I thought it was chilly... It definitely was not HOT to me... it was too humid though.</p>
<p>also, about the heat, it depends on your room as well. I was on 6 floor donlon facing the west on one of the wings. Sunset always shone on my bed, but that didn't matter since I was always in the arch studio anyways. But my friend, who was facing the west on the other wing at donlon, was a complete diff story. her room was basically.... impossible to survive... IMPOSSIBLE even for me and I'm from socal O_O so it really depends. and you could always request room changes.</p>
<p>whatever you do zainuu, don't change your mind about cornell. they're not lying when they say "it's the best summer ever"</p>
<p>Zainuu.......... even i am planning to enroll for business world program at cornell uni.im an intl. student livin in india...Idoont know how it would be.......but lookin at the reviews i feel it wld b good.....</p>
<p>nicee.. im from pakistan. =P
good to know sumone will be there who speaks the same language.</p>
<p>My kids' experience was the exact opposite of mike's & shorty's (but mine didn't do Arch). Kramnick's TA's were grad students & post-docs, and extremely helpful, always available and willing to conduct extra study sessions.</p>
<p>Last year, they had a huge increase in internationals (due to increased recruiting efforts), so you'll have plenty of international company if you decide to attend.</p>
<p>Re: fans: you can rent a box fan (or two) from housing services; you can bring extra from home (ship UPS/Fedex ground); or purchase one at Target in the local mall.</p>
<p>re: competitive admissions - with the exception of RABS, a B+ will usually do it. Class enrollment is first-come (and paid)-first served except for RABS. Also, true of dorm assignments.</p>
<p>thanks, i was really beginning to worry about making the cut for the program, but now it seems like my worries should be more about paying the program as soon as i can so i get my classes and making sure i pack some fans for the nights.</p>
<p>did anyone undertake any particular fundraiser for this program?
i'm not sure which is the best way to go about getting money for this if i'm accepted.</p>
<p>also, shorty08 mentioned that financial aid wasn't very helpful...if you don't mind my asking, i was wondering about how much they gave when you attended Summer College..</p>
<p>Anyone else applying this year?</p>
<p>I know the financial aid was actually pretty helpful for a lot of people. One person I know actually got a full ride...but I'm sure that's very rare. I did the three-week program and they gave me about $3,000. They have an alumni base that contributes to summer college (they asked me to write thank you letters to the donors).</p>
<p>I have applied and all ready been accepted so you better hurry if you want good financial aid. Oh by the way, Cornell says that they give more fin. aid. to 6 week programs if that's what you are considering. I don't have my fin. aid package yet, so I can't tell you what they gave my family.</p>
<p>I did the architecture program and I have slightly diff views from Shorty.</p>
<p>FINANCIAL AID & COSTS: Yea, Shorty's right, they don't give any to arch kids which is a pain because you have to pay the tuition, buy all the materials, and constantly stock up on your materials. Parents, I know it seems like a lot, but I would say that it is worth it. It's a good stepping stone and learning experience. Also, the work you produce can be used for your portfolio to give it more breadth (since most kids just paint or draw with pencils), adding in 3D architectural work (portfolios are A CRITICAL PIECE in the admissions process for arch. programs).</p>
<p>GETTING INTO CORNELL: Many many people say that doing this program will increase your chances. If you look at the statistics, the admit rate for non-summer college applications vs. the admit rate for summer college alumni applications is approximately the same. This is probably due to the kids who take calculus or whatever over summer. If you take the arch course over summer though, few people will outright argue that it does not help. It will either directly help you if your work is noticed by the profs (because some of the arch faculty are on the decisions committee) OR it will indirectly help you because you need to write an essay later on during the admissions process talking about WHY ARCH and WHY CORNELL? Plus, the projects really add to a portfolio (I had all my final projects in there, ~5 projects).</p>
<p>WORKLOAD & FUN: YOU WILL HAVE A LOT OF WORK IF YOU TAKE ARCH. No lie. BUT, it doesn't mean you won't have time for fun. Part of the fun is being in the studio late at night chilling with your friends... well, not so much chilling as freaking out together. However, don't expect to go to all those bonding activities at the dorms. The Summer College knows that arch kids get a little crazy and can't participate in the intramurals or whatever else they have planned. When I was there, they surprised us by bringing the party to us! They came with ice cream at like 11 at night to the studio. HOWEVER, if you can manage your time well and focus, then you'll never have to pull an all-nighter (or sneak out to go to the studio... it's 24 hrs for the college students who decide to take a pre-college arch class). I had to pull an all-nighter once because I decided it would be cool to make a project as tall as I am (err... yea... but I only stayed up till 4 so that was half-an-all-nighter). I went to bed every night at 12 or 1 (11PM was check-in, then i just girl-talked w/ my friends), I ran every day for 30 minutes, I played both capture the flag games (haha it was great) and I'd go out every weekend sooo... I would say time management is difficult, but once you get into schedule, it's alright.</p>
<p>LIVING: I live in Asia so I'm used to the hot weather; so, I thought it was perfect even without the fan on. Unfortunately, getting a dorm room that faces the sunset = HOT. If you are unfortunate enough to get that, just hang out in the grouprooms or downstairs. Oh yea, it gets cold (to me) at night, so don't expect to be okay with just boxers + shirt... buy a Cornell hoodie or something and bring flannel long pj bottoms. In addition, since I live in Asia, I'm also used to having a maid. A lot of the teachers at my school laughed and asked if I had a hard time with laundry-- I DID NOT! Laundry is easy and I am super anal about ironing and folding clothes so there. Most kids did 2 loads of laundry every week... I didn't sweat that much so my loads were always smaller (sometimes I shared a load with someone who had ~1.5 loads and washed my stuff with their stuff to save money). Honestly, the laundry machines are too expensive!! It costs like $3 in total every week! Uaglkaf.. that's why I shared a load with random people. Oh and another thing, I was forced to do laundry because I run so I end up running out of underwear after a week-- which sucked (but it was okay in the end because there is a Victoria's Secret nearby haha).</p>
<p>FOOD: Food is good and you're really spoilt for choice but they go on a cycle so one week you may get baked potatos, then potato wedges, then mashed potatos, then mashed potatoes mixed with corn... you know? They have a TON of ice cream. A LOT!! Like, 6ish 7ish choices every single meal!! Only thing I'd complain about would be the lack of water fountains and how small the cafeteria glasses are and blah blah so bring a Nalgene.</p>
<p>TRANSPORT: Walking is easiest because you know where you need to go... but bus is easy (BUT FREAKING SLOW, you have to wait like 30 minutes between each bus) to get to places like the mall or the Farmer's Market or downtown (not really downtown if you come from cities like Singapore, Shanghai, or LA... more like the village square). Uhm I don't know how my friends happened to memorize all the bus stops (cuz some of them don't even have bus shelters or any sort of demarcations) but there is a tcat website-- I think. Buses are soooo not useful for getting to class because there is a long waiting period and this summer, the main bridge was under construction so the detour was freaking long. Riding a bike is useful for getting around campus.</p>
<p>Any other questions?</p>
<p>are the double dorms spacious? internet access?</p>
<p>INTERNET ACCESS: there's wireless in most places. Obviously, there is wireless in the dorms, the studios, blah blah... I even got it to work on this bridge out by Beebe lake. Most kids brought their laptops; I think it's super useful... even thought arch kids didn't have to type up any papers or whatever. When using it in your dorm room, you have a wire that you can connect to your comp so the internet is faster than wireless.</p>
<p>DORMS: There is an all boys dorm, an all girls dorm, and a co-ed dorm. I've never seen the all boys dorm (in Ujaama). The all girls dorm has a cool hang out place upstairs and their rooms have 3ish 4ish beds and they HAVE CEILING LIGHTS!!!!! It's spacious to me (but remember I lived in asia most my life... so... yea). 6-weekers get to stay in the co-ed dorm (Mary Donlon) shaped like a thong... (I don't know how else to describe the shape... a squished triangle??). The shape means that if you get stuck at the points, your room is a weee bit smaller. I got a dorm near the middle so it was lop-sided and slightly bigger. What I got in my room was: a desklight, a desk with a small shelf and some cubbies, a bed, a mattress, some sheets, a pillow, 4 trashcans (not recycling is against the law! :D), closet, chest of drawers. NOTICE HOW THERE ARE NO CEILING LIGHTS!! ONCE IT HITS 9ish PM IT GETS FREAKING DARK!!!! My room mate and I didn't spend that much time in our room because we were both arch kids (always at the studio) so it didn't bother me much, but I highly suggest bringing some extra lights if you plan on doing some intense studying (which you will need to do if you're taking stuff like calculus, literature, blah blah).</p>
<p>DORMS (cont'd): my friend had a single at Donlon and it was the same thing as the double... but the dorm's other "set" would be replaced by an armchair.</p>
<p>and any big difference between staying 3 weeks or 6?</p>
<p>6 weeks= more awesome fun :D</p>
<p>..but really, 6 weekers get to earn more credit obviously because of the time. I'd say that's the major difference. Other than that, 3 weekers usually live in a different dorm with eachother.</p>
<p>6 weekers get to experience all the activities and extra "college workshop" classes that are offered. They have different topics each week and they don't repeat them for 3-weekers. It's stuff like writing the perfect essay, acing interviews, blah blah.</p>
<p>if you do 3 week, you will be so sad that you're leaving and everyone else is staying. people cried cause they were leaving early and you wouldn't wanna do 3 weeks...ever! unless your schedule won't work out.</p>
<p>if you're worried about paying, they denied me financial aid.. and we have pretty low income O_O so their finaid is not cool. however, after we paid in full, a couple weeks later they send me another mail telling me that they're gaving me $5200 in scholarships outta the $8000 I'm paying. so that was good. so I think there are chances that you'll get a scholarship for whatever program you're doing. don't worry about the money right now, I'm sure there are ways you can talk to your parents and others about it.</p>