<p>I think most of you misunderstand the difference between competitive and cutthroat.</p>
<p>The nature of your college grading experience will be competitive. Most classes are graded on a bell curve, which means your grade is also dependent on everyone else's grade. This in effect makes you compete for your grade, and challenges you to try to do better than your peers. There is nothing wrong with this, healthy competition is always good; it forces you to push yourself academically and intellectually.</p>
<p>This does not imply being cutthroat, however. Students here help each other out. We form study groups, we teach each other what we know best, and ask them to teach us the things we know the least. We offer an explanation to the kid next to us in math who isn't getting it. You get no benefit studying by yourself when you could do significantly better by helping each other out. His/Her grade has little to no effect on your grade. </p>
<p>Cutthroat is the kids who rip pages out of library books, purposefully disseminate the wrong information, slip stuff into other kids drinks before prelims, and contemplate murder. That is a different level of competition absolutely, one that implies a bit of insanity, and one that I very very much doubt happens here. </p>
<p>So will your experience at Cornell be competitive? Yes, probably, for most courses, simply due to the way courses in college are structured, and also due to the fact that everyone here likes to be the best. Will your experience here be cutthroat? No, so don't expect it to be, or you will become cutthroat in expectation of everyone else being cutthroat.</p>
<p>Cayuga, my earlier post (which is not supposed to be taken seriously) implied that so many of the incoming freshmen are being challenged for the first time in their lives-- it is a mental struggle. I have quite a few friends who attend Cornell, and they tell me that they have never received a "D" in their entire student career, before Cornell that is.</p>
<p>I apologize for coming off offensive to you, and please take into account that I don't have anything against this great school. </p>
<p>I guess nobody appreciates the fine humor in sattirical jokes anymore-- all I get is scold and cold shoulder.</p>
<p>PS: it has occured to me that there is a thread stickied at the top of the previous page, which addresses the invalidity of my earlier post. Ha-ha, now I understand why I sounded so insolent.</p>
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I guess nobody appreciates the fine humor in sattirical jokes anymore-- all I get is scold and cold shoulder.
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<p>There is nothing satirical or funny about death, especially taking one's own life. </p>
<p>Cornell is proudly known for being demanding of its students, and more especially, Cornell students are known for being demanding of themselves. </p>
<p>Ithaca is also unfortunately known as a place where there is a rather dramatic way to take one's life. </p>
<p>The two are not related AT ALL. Cornell's suicide rate in the past decade has actually been well below the national average of college students (to say nothing of 18-24 year olds in general) and any insinuation that Cornell as an institution somehow breeds such acts will continuously get a cold should from students and alums alike, particularly this week.</p>
<p>Hey, you have nothing to prove to me, I've told you earlier that my original post wasn't intended to be taken in context, and I even apologized for what I wrote. There is no need to hammer a nail into soft soil, moreover burn a white towel after it was dropped in cold water. </p>
<p>Is there something particularly somber about this week? Perhaps something I am not knowledgeable about which would explain your inflammatory response to my comments?</p>
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Is there something particularly somber about this week? Perhaps something I am not knowledgeable about which would explain your inflammatory response to my comments?
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<p>If you followed the threads on this forum then you would know that a Cornell alumnus committed suicide on the Cornell campus last week. So naturally students and alums will not take kindly to remarks like yours...especially given this event.</p>
<p>I'm not certain whether the workload at Cornell is tougher than at any of its peer schools (and only those who have actually gone to Cornell and another school can make an accurate comparison), but the mantra used to be that Cornell was the easiest ivy league school to get into and the hardest ivy league school to stay in. My experience has shown that to be true. Cornell has never seemed to hesitate to expell students who do poorly for a second semester after being on academic probation (and I know several students who were indeed expelled for poor grades (usually too much partying rather than lack of intelligence), and who went on to graduate from other schools and go on to make very nice lives for themselves). On the other hand, other similar schools do seem to coddle struggling students a bit more, giving them several chances to get their grades up to snuff. Of course, that's merely anecdotal evidence but it is the trend that I have noticed over the years.</p>
<p>aznarkarus, when I read your comment originally, it didn't come off the least bit as sarcastic or a joke. In fact, that comment has been made many times by people who aren't knowledgeable about Cornell's suicide rates. Hence, I can see why CR2005 thought you were serious. I did as well when I first read it.</p>
<p>norcalguy, I was completely knowledgeable about Cornell's suicide rate, and I was fully aware that such rumor is false. Given that, I thought that everyone would realize the irony of my comment. I was, by no means, addressing the people who may face such hardships, moreover somebody in particular; rather the people who intend to apply to Cornell, especially the College of Engineering since it is the toughest according to my friends at that university. In straightforward terms, the "fine humor", to which I was implying to, was meant to be understood as: Cornell is so difficult, you are going to kill youself. </p>
<p>I hope that everyone now sees the sarcasm and humor I intended in my original comment. Apparently it failed. I am deeply sorry for the miscommunication, especially during such grief times. Please don't be inconsiderate of my unawareness of recent events, for I don't want to be disdained by the entire community now.</p>
<p>Aznarkarus - I'm going to quote the often quoted line from Shakespeare's Hamlet ~
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The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
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Let it go... you are coming across as too defensive - just let it go. Yes, an awful tragedy happened this week to a 33 year old alumnus, but this has nothing to do with the workload at Cornell. This thread should be locked. Mods?</p>
<p>i doth protest...to deny that the workload at cornell may not be a factor in those who might have thoughts of hurting themselves is completely preposterous...</p>
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i doth protest...to deny that the workload at cornell may not be a factor in those who might have thoughts of hurting themselves is completely preposterous...
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<p>If only they made the workload worse I wouldn't be able to hurt myself while drunk as often. /sarcasm</p>
<p>The workload really isn't bad at all. People need to chill.</p>
<p>Enough ResurgamBell. You have to grow up. You couldn't just put it to rest, could you?</p>
<p>The ulterior point is that nobody knows exactly what commits a person to taking their own life, and for each and every case there is a different set of motivating factors. Could stress or workload factors be a factor of consideration? Sure, but in the end it boils down to the individual and not the environment.</p>
<p>It's a sad, complicated subject, but to suggest that Cornell as an institution is somehow a contributing factor in these tragic events is a dangerous line of thinking.</p>
<p>Sorry to hijack the thread. Tomorrow is the deadline for the drop period. I failed the chemistry prelim, though I did pretty well on the other three exams.
As a freshman engineer, do I have to take chemistry in my first semester? Am I expected to do both physics and chemistry my freshman year? To be honest, I really want to drop Chemistry, although I guess I will have to take it at some point. Please give me some suggestions.</p>
<p>A few of my friends took physics their first semester and chemistry their second. You should really aim to finish chemistry and the first physics course during your freshman year, especially since later courses have these as prerequisites. I would try to scrape by/pass and keep moving on, but you could talk to your adviser about it too.</p>