<p>how can a whole university, esp. one as large and diverse as Cornell, get a rep for giving lots of work? doesn't that hinge more on the teachers you get? what sets Cornell apart from the other ivies? i'm sure their workloads are comparable, if not the same.</p>
<p>its like this...
since i'm an engineering student, my view would lean more towards the engineering side...</p>
<p>Cornell tends to be very rigorous in terms of course-load.
Just compare Princeton's Electrical engineering and Cornell's ECE corseloads: Cornell's makes Princeton's look like High school stuff (not exactly...but u get the point...)</p>
<p>the courses are more rigorous...thats it...</p>
<p>give me a moment...i'll try to post the actual course of the 2 univs and u'll c for urself</p>
<p>so you're saying it stems from the courses-pre-semester count only? i'm still pre-frosh, but my understanding is that Cornell students take 4-6 a semseter like everyon else.</p>
<p>these are the respective hand-books for ECE at Cornell and P'ton...
if u might closely look at it, u'll find cornell covers more than p'ton does.. (i'm saying that because i had to read every nook and corner of these 2 books before choosing an apprpriate ED school)</p>
<p>The issue is that Cornell has widespread grade deflation while many of the other Ivies practice rampant grade inflation.</p>
<p>oh, that makes sense.</p>
<p>is there a known reason for it?</p>
<p>Well...I think it's partly true. People definitely work hard at Cornell for lower grades than they are probably used to. But it's not like everyone is failing.</p>
<p>Median Grades for the past several semesters: <a href="http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu/Student/mediangradesA.html%5B/url%5D">http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu/Student/mediangradesA.html</a></p>
<p>You'll notice that it varies from B's to A+'s as a median grade. I don't know how this compares to other schools, and I suppose it depends on what you think of as a poor grade.</p>
<p>I can think of a reason for it. Cornell is a place where either the faculty choose not to (or are told not to) follow suit with much of the rest of the ivy league in constant back-patting of their students.</p>
<p>the workload is very heavy compared to the other ivies. The "hardest to graduate from" is a reflection that Cornell students will work alot harder to get the degree with good grades vs. all of the other ivies. </p>
<p>Cornell is also known to have grade deflation vs. all of the other ivies. For instance, at Penn, 56% of the grades given out are A's. Give me a break!</p>
<p>Cornell students are proud of being the hardest workers in the ivy league. Dont worry about not doing well, though it's not like half the kids fail or anything.</p>
<p>Maybe the hardest to graduate EARLY from. I was planning on graduating 1 semester early but after looking at the requirements, I said, "forget it."</p>
<p>Accelerants must complete a or b:
a. 60 credits before beginning their last four semesters in the college
b. 48 credits in College of Arts and Sciences courses numbered 300 and above</p>
<p>Hmmm...this means if you plan to graduate in 3 years (6 semesters) you have to average 30 credits/semester for your first two semesters???!!! Option b isn't much better. Through 5 semesters I have a whopping 11 credits in 300+ level courses in A&S (although that number will double after this semester).</p>
<p>Maybe less inflated than other Ivies but still looks pretty inflated in my book. Maybe the workload is heavy but anyone cries about grade deflation is simply a crybaby.</p>
<p>that's because the majority of Cornell students work tremendously hard to get good grades. duh. Cornell is more known for the workload than for the grade deflation.</p>
<p>i just find it interesting the workolad would be heavy across the board, as opposed to on a teacher-per-teacher basis. could it be that they're instucted to follow certain standards? would a CAS professor coming from another ivy amp up the busywork just because it's Cornell?</p>
<p>I dont think Cornell is really that hard to graduate from. If you choose easy majors, you can do very little work and graduate with a pretty decent GPA. However, if you are engineering, architecture or hard science students, you will have to work your ass off for the median grades.</p>
<p>Agreed. Most of the humanities classes are grade inflated. I've yet to get lower than an A in any non bio/chem class I've taken (and I've taken classes in anthro, spanish, asian american studies, history, english, math, stats).</p>
<p>
[quote]
Hmmm...this means if you plan to graduate in 3 years (6 semesters) you have to average 30 credits/semester for your first two semesters???!!!
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You're forgetting the possible 20 AP credits. Without them, it would be practically impossible to graduate early at all.</p>