<p>is it true that cornell and dartmouth are the only ivies that dont curve the grades to help the students, and that its all based on mean grades, making it ultra competitive. this is what i've heard.... im considering cornell and georgetown at this point, and i dont want to be stuck in a school where all ill ever do is work. i want to enjoy my undergrad years.</p>
<p>a curve makes it fair…if you are somehow manipulating grades to “help” students, that’s just grade inflation. curving means your grade actually represents your performance in the class relative to your peers who are also taking the same class at the same time. I think that’s a good thing.
I have no idea about the other schools though. also, I should say that enjoyment of undergrad years is not completely contingent on having excellent grades. I have a potpourri of grades from As to emphatically not As and I’m having a great time. I’m not saying you should go out there and get a 2.0, but you don’t need a 4.0 either.</p>
<p>yeah so is it true that cornell is the “hardest to get out of”?</p>
<p>and i think we’re confused about the great time part of this lol. i just want to be sure that i dont have to work my butt off just to get a C or something. hence leaving me no time for fun. </p>
<p>and its good to hear that youre having a great time, because i’ve heard alot of negative htings about cornell lately. how its too stressful and unenjoyable and what not</p>
<p>cornell does curve grades to help students. look at the cornell median grade list, you can see there are many A- and As as well as Bs and B+, only 1 or 2 have median in the Cs</p>
<p>yeah, there are lots of courses where evidently most of the students receive As. </p>
<p>I see what you mean about working for the C, because you do want to pass. I have never (as a bio major) experienced Cornell quite that difficult.</p>
<p>Considering many of Cornell’s classes are curved to an A- or B+, I don’t see how Cornell’s curves are harsh or unfair. Heck, Cornell, unlike most other colleges, even publishes the median grades for their classes to help you choose easy courses. There should be no complaints about Cornell’s grading.</p>
<p>i think it’s possible to get a B at cornell with a fair amount of work (3hrs study for every hour spent in class per day) </p>
<p>but to get an A requires soo much more work (3-6 hours for every hour spent in class per day)</p>
<p>Campuscsi, you seem you repeatedly generalize your own individual academic capacities to all students. The vast majority of students who’ve been admitted to Cornell would not need the exorbitant amount of study time that you suggest. Different individual students come in with very different pre-college educations, aptitudes, time management skills, and academic efficiencies. Also, different programs can have very different levels of rigor required to succeed in getting grades predominantly in the A range. If you wade through these boards you’ll be able to find many students who report a much more handleable curriculum – and less time required for success – in regard to achieving academic high standing. I wish you well in resolving your collegiate challenges, but a sizable portion of the student population at Cornell describe a very different, and less flustered, experience than you.</p>
<p>As a parent I think it is misleading to discuss the grading system or the medium grades. Each of my sons have taken classes that have a published A- mean grade. The only thing that means is that is what the mean is. It is not a reflection as to how easy or difficult a class is. For example there may be students majoring in that particular area who have a great crasp on the subject or you may be in a class with students who spend every single waking moment in the library and have no life outside of their books. Therefore to tell anyone that the curves are there to make it possible for everyone to do well, is just grossly misleading. </p>
<p>Whenever I read posts by some other Cornell alumi who post about the ease of grades I want to ask them what their genious I.Q is. Cornell is not a walk in the park. My sons (engineering and hard science/premed) work their butts off and yes they are sometimes competing with students that NEVER leave the library. If you choose Cornell you are choosing it because you WANT a wonderful education but be prepared to work.</p>
<p>My feeling is that regardless of which college a student chooses to attend. They are only going to get out of it what they put in.</p>
<p>Regarding difficulty. Well any place a student attends that affords them a great education is likely to be difficult and should be difficult. Afterall, when you graduate and go work for an employer, they see the name of that school and it is supposed to mean something.</p>
<p>Sometimes I get so tired of hearing about how tough Cornell is, or how they should make it easier or less stressful or whatever. For the most part, I think the Adcoms are pretty good about deciding if you are Cornell material or not. If you are accepted to Cornell, it is because there is a presumption that you will do well. Certainly they are not going to be admitting a lot of students who are going to fail.</p>
<p>But please don’t think it is going to be, or should be easy. It should be what it is. A challenge for the majority, easier for those that are at a level that most of us never will be and impossible for a small minority.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No one is saying whether Cornell is easy or hard. This is a discussion of whether Cornell’s curving is FAIR and whether it’s out of line with the curves at other colleges (read the original post). The answer is that Cornell’s grading is not different from the grading at peer colleges and that its reputation for being extremely hard is undeserved. Your son’s experiences reflect solely his experiences. Some people had an easy time at Cornell. Some people didn’t. The only objective measure we have are the grades that’s given out.</p>
<p>good post #10.</p>
<p>Look, nobody should be telling you that if you come to Cornell you should not expect to work hard. You probably will. If that’s not your thing, don’t come. </p>
<p>But the joke will be when you’re putting out at Georgetown just the way you would have been at Cornell. Which of course is unknowable. But the idea that some other top tier school is going to be so much different simply does not pass my smell test. Where there are top students, seeking top goals, there is going to be a certain amount of effort required, that’s just how I see it.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>perhaps urrite…but i have always heard teachers and professors say that you should be working 3hrs for every 1 hr spent in class…</p>
<p>i personally need to work more than that if i want an A in my classes…not sure about anyone else. but notice how i listed the minimum of 3hrs as what those with As might study for. </p>
<p>if anyone studies less than this per hour spent in class then they are genius!</p>
<p>thanks for all the input guys. its really helpful </p>
<p>and monydad, im not afraid to work hard and im definitely ready to handle it. but just hearing so many negative things about how cornell is just a pressure cooker raised alot of doubts in my head. </p>
<p>on a side note, do any of you guys feel like studying to get good grades gets in the way of you enjoying your life at cornell. just wondering.</p>
<p>IMO you should go to Georgetown.</p>
<p>If you go to cornell, the first time you meet with the slightest bit of academic adversity, you’ll be saying “see I was right”, complaining to everyone around you about how onerous the workload is and what a drag it is,poisoning the waters for everyone around you and whipping out the transfer applications.</p>
<p>That’s what it sounds like to me, anyway.</p>
<p>When the same exact thing happens to you at Georgetown, you will say “well if it’s this tough here at least I didn’t go to cornell”.</p>
<p>Your preconceived notions/ concerns would color your experience.</p>
<p>Your would-be classmates at cornell do not need or deserve a budding malcontent in their midst.</p>
<p>People should go in to a school excited about the opportunity that awaits them there, not focusing on some preconceived notion that it is going to be horrible.</p>
<p>For you, it probably would be horrible. You’re certainly teeing it up to experience it that way.</p>
<p>IMO.</p>
<p>depends on how you plan ahead madhukar…</p>
<p>if you dont have plans to go out on thursday night but then your floormates set something up…will you go? </p>
<p>is your work schedule such that you make time for these random social happenings? </p>
<p>i’ve heard this being said by cornell academic counselors - </p>
<p>“it’s easier to keep up” at cornell than it is to “catch up”</p>
<p>At the person above, you make it sound like cornell is hell. I have lots of friends who are freshman at cornell eng and find it mediocre compared to our hs rigor. Either your kids F’d up at cornell or you feel happy in telling other people that they might not be able to do well.</p>
<p>I say go to cornell, you won’t regret it. Even the engineers at cornell have lives…at least on the weekends. Just do your hw, study after school and pay attention. If you don’t understand something go talk to the TA’s. Thank god for easy grading TA’s at cornell (some)</p>
<p>according to wiki</p>
<p>Stuyvesant High School (pronounced /ˈstаɪvɨsənt/), commonly referred to as Stuy (/stаɪ/),[3] is a New York City public high school that specializes in mathematics and science. The school opened in 1904 on Manhattan’s East Side and moved to a new building in Battery Park City in 1992. Stuyvesant is noted for its strong academic programs, having produced many notable alumni including four Nobel laureates.[5] U.S. News & World Report ranked it thirty-first in their 2009 list of America’s best “Gold-Medal” high schools</p>
<p>i’m guessing your school is a cornell feeder? not everyone came from the best high schools in the country :shrug:</p>
<p>The stuyvesant students in my classes were much better prepared for college than I was.</p>
<p>"it’s easier to keep up"than it is to “catch up” is absolutely true in college, and it’s something these kids already knew that I had to learn the hard way. Study/work habits are absolutely the key to success in college. and afterwards.</p>
<p>It took me too long to catch on, and my undergrad performance suffered for that. But the habits I was forced to develop there served me well thereafter, ultimately, and led to outstanding results in grad school, and better performance in the workplace than would otherwise have been the case.</p>
<p>Years later, when reviewing resumes, we knew that a Cornell degree meant something.</p>
<p>Cornell’s reputation for being stressful and for pushing students to work hard only to get mediocre results almost deterred me from coming here. Thank god I chose Cornell anyway, because I quickly realized that none of that stuff was true. </p>
<p>For the record, I’m a premed sophomore, and have not gotten lower than an A- in any class (and not lower than an A in any science class). I’m not brilliant - I work hard. But I have a life and a lot of fun here too. The point is that you can do very well at Cornell without sacrificing your social life (and anyone who claims the opposite didn’t work nearly as much as they know they should have during their time at Cornell, and so they are simply making excuses for their poor performance). So put any fears you have about Cornell’s grading behind you - they’re completely unfounded.</p>