<p>What’s up with this?</p>
<p>does not seem reasonable or even truthful</p>
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<p>It’s probably still true that most intro courses there will be structured a big lectures+ small recitation sections. This is part of the classic "big U vs. Lac "tradeoff, the good part being having many more courses to choose from, especially upper level courses, more majors, more of everything.</p>
<p>That particular course, psych 101, has iconic status at Cornell , it is famous. It is probably the university’s most popular and loved course. Prof Maas is rated among the university’s best professors, and has been teaching this course for over 40 years. I hope D2 gets to take it, before he retires. Just because there is a big lecture does not necessarily mean it is bad, and this course is a case in point. Though evidently that guy didn’t like it.
[Lining</a> Up to Get a Lecture - A Class With 1,600 Students and One Popular Teacher - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/17/nyregion/lining-up-to-get-a-lecture-a-class-with-1600-students-and-one-popular-teacher.html?sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=1]Lining”>http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/17/nyregion/lining-up-to-get-a-lecture-a-class-with-1600-students-and-one-popular-teacher.html?sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=1)</p>
<p>The weather is cold, in the winter anyway, that’s true too. But it’s just fine, and beautiful, in the Fall, Spring and summer.</p>
<p>And it’s a big school, it can feel impersonal. Until one develops one’s network
to make it functionally smaller. On the other hand, its larger size keeps it from being boring or claustrophobic.</p>
<p>People experience these things differently, cup half empty etc, but the guy wasn’t lying or anything.</p>
<p>I attended Middlebury for undergrad and Cornell for graduate school. I have to say, for me, that while Cornell has a great reputation and a beautiful setting, the difference in quality of education between the two schools was huge! What I didn’t like about Cornell had little to do with the size of the school since my graduate department (considered one of the top three in the country) was quite small. I simply felt that I didn’t learn a lot and that the professors were not devoted to educating their students the way they were at Midd. To be fair, comparing grad school and undergrad is sort of like comparing apples to oranges. However, I did not get the impression that the undergrads (many of whom I taught as a teaching assistant) believed they were getting the education I got at Middlebury. The other thing I found slightly off-putting (beyond the fact that I was certainly a number in the eyes of the administration) was the fact that everyone at Cornell thinks it is simply the best school in the world without equal. </p>
<p>Yes, the general population will be impressed with the Cornell name, and it IS a great school, but the people who matter will be more impressed with the Middlebury name.</p>
<p>I too was a grad student at Cornell, and also an undergrad there. I found the experiences between being a grad student and an undergrad there to be starkly different. As a grad student, the breadth, depth and diversity of the university’s offerings, academically, extracurricularly and socially, were of little consequence to me.</p>
<p>As for "people who matter will be more impressed ", you’ve got your own blinders on there, IMO.</p>
<p>go to Middlebury!!! In a FORBES ARTICLE Cornell is ranked really low in the 100’s. they explained that Cornell is just riding on its name among other things.</p>
<p>Midd pumps out tons of GRAD APPLICANTS and the majority get in (there are also special councilors designated for each type of grad school at campus you can meet). so you are on the fast track to grad school at Midd.</p>