<p>What exactly are the differences between College of Agriculture and Life sciences and College of Arts and Sciences if I'd like to major in biology (not agriculture-related) and hopefully will be able to conduct research? Would College of Arts and Sciences give me a better opportunity to pursue my interests in social sciences/humanities but fewer opportunities to do research?</p>
<p>It’s mainly the difference between tuition. In-state residents (NY) will pay lower tuition because CALS is technically a land-grant college with funding from SUNY. CAS students pay more because it’s private. In terms of research, you will have exactly the same opportunities. I don’t think any professors care what college you’re in.</p>
<p>First, the schools at Cornell only come into play academically … all campus life and activities are campus wide … the dorms, dining halls, etc are for all Cornell students.</p>
<p>The difference is academic and mostly would involve whatever the differences are in the basic requirements for both schools … when I was there A&S has a foreign language requirement and I believe CALS did not (not sure if this is still true) … so I’d suggest looking up the distribution requirements for both schools and see if one appeals to you more than the other.</p>
<p>I knew a boatload of NY residents who were biology majors in CALS … because it saved them a ton of money. If you are not from NY this cost differential goes away and you’re back to the difference in distribution requirements.</p>
<p>Look up the distribution requirements, and requirements as to total # credits that must be taken within your own college, and think about how you would want to fill them in each case. Also consider that if you change your intended major what are you most likely to change it to. As far as I know the only major they both share is Biology.</p>
<p>It seems to me that if I chose College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, I would limit myself within the realm of science because even the minors are very science-oriented. Is this perception true?</p>
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<p>Not if you consider such fields as communication, applied economics, development sociology, or the like to be ‘science-oriented’.</p>
<p>That and most minors are offered to any student in any college.</p>
<p>I think A&S distribution requirements are a bit more heavy-handed. If you don’t speak a foreign language well enough to test out of the requirement or well enough that you only need to take one more class to fulfill it I would recommend CALS, just so you can have more flexibility in your schedule with regards to that. Otherwise, figuring out a back-up major is not a bad idea, I know a lot of people who have changed their minds about what they originally wanted to study, although I don’t think transferring is hard except into engineering maybe.</p>
<p>^What if I’d love to learn a third language while I am attending college? Should I pick A&S then?</p>
<p>common app question! for the cumulative gpa do i put average of grade 11 and 12 or average form 9 to 12 ?</p>
<p>^that is a very out-of-place question americanschools. better to ask that in the common app section [Common</a> Application - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/common-application/]Common”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/common-application/)
or if it’s Cornell-specific, search for the information and if you don’t find it, you can start your own thread.</p>
<p>OP:
I’m pretty sure your research opportunities are equal in either school. you have all the bio office resources at your disposal either way, and I don’t know of any instance where a professor would need to only hire/advise only CALS students or only arts students. where did you get the idea that research would be limited being in A&S? (I’m not being critical, just curious how such a perception might have arisen.)</p>
<p>if you choose CALS, you can take lots of credits outside of the college. you wouldn’t be able to have a double major in a language but you could definitely take the intro/intermediate sequence of one without trouble.</p>
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<p>You can take language courses in any college. Only if you want to major in the language would you have to be in Arts.</p>
<p>Your minors are not bound by your college. You can minor in anything that’s offered as such by any college (except for engineering “minors” and econ minors which I think are only offered if you’re in ILR? and maybe a couple other things). What you can’t do is double MAJOR cross college which is annoying.</p>
<p>You can take courses out of your college, even minor, but you have to be mindful of the college’s rules for the number of credits you have to take IN your college, and figure out that there is enough you will want to take there, which will fit in your schedule in addition to all the out of college courses you plan to take.</p>
<p>I know my son was looking at Hum Ec, there’s one, but only one program there that he was interested in, their total in-college requirements seemed extremely reasonable, but then when he really looked at how many courses those would be and what he would actually have to take to fill up that requirement, it started looking less appealing. Based on his particular interests only, not generalizing here.</p>