<p>Wait till you start looking for internships and jobs. Everyone knows how rigorous Cornell is, but when it comes to landing a position at top companies, a degree from Cornell, or from any great school, is still no guarantee. I used to think that once I graduated (from Cornell) I'd have every tech company banging on my door (I'm a comp sci major). The truth is that once you're here, the stress of maintaining a high GPA in high school to get into a good university is magnified 10 fold since you'll be competing with the best from all over. </p>
<p>My advice is to know exactly what major you want and stick with it. Otherwise you'll find yourself in a position where you're taking 20 credits worth of hard classes, none of which you can drop if you flub the first test, while your buddy has been taking the bare minimum 14 every semester and gotten an extraordinarily high GPA as a result. Guess who gets the job interview? </p>
<p>Also, join clubs/teams related to your major. I only know of ones in engineering, but there's a good selection to choose from regardless of what major you are. Cornell has autonomous robot soccer playing robots (RoboCup), jeeps that self-navigate through desert terrain (DARPA Grand Challenge), and submarine and airplane teams. Employers love these.</p>
<p>Just some things to think about, before you even get to Cornell. Freshman year is still as critical as any other year, make it count and nail that 80k a year job =)</p>
<p>Glad to hear you guys are going into computer science! I do have another piece of advice. When you get here and you start taking comp sci courses, you'll probably find them very boring. I mean let's face it, writing an entire object oriented compiler for 1 credit sucks (or you might be into that, I wasn't heh). The thing to remember is that what you learn in your major and what you do in your classes won't necessarily be your future job, so don't give up out of boredom like I almost did. Cornell has a great reputation in computer science engineering. As engineers, and as computer science majors, you'll have a tremendous selection to choose from when looking for a job. You could work for the tech companies (Microsoft, Google, etc), or you could go into investment banking, NASA, even the NSA or become field agents for the CIA (think Jason Bourne). Basically what the engineering curriculum teaches is how to think and how to think under pressure. Cornell subjects you to tremendous amounts of stress, and learning how to deal with that and still accomplish your goals is key. Companies look specifically for your ability to mitigate pressure (they're called "stress interviews"). Anyways, I guess what I'm trying to say here is don't give up, and you'll have a first class ticket to anywhere. Welcome aboard!</p>
<p>Hey jys, I'm interested in what you had to say about the bore level of classes.
I got into cs from enjoying theory of computation, certain theoretical areas of math, that sort of thing. Would you say that someone who is very curious and likes theory would not fit in well at the cornell major? Or are there courses that would appeal to someone who likes theory, abstract questions, etc.?</p>
<p>Oh you'll definitely fit right in. Cornell's CS major is notorious for being too much theory and little practicality. Just about all the CS courses are top heavy with theory, and while they do have programming projects as assignments, they only serve to illustrate the class material. They way it's spread out is that the 400 level CS classes are theory based, and the 500 ones are practical. If you want to jump into it right away, you should think about taking a 400 level CS course your second semester here (I wouldn't advise it for your first semester, you'll be thrown in with juniors, seniors, and M. Eng). Some courses that might interest you are CS 478, machine learning, which was a lot of mathematical theory about computation and learning, but still fun. CS 472, artificial intelligence, is great. CS 482 is computer algorithms. CS 430, information retrieval, is a GREAT class about theory of search engines taught by one of the nicest and most knowledgable professors here (Prof. Arms). The bore factor come mostly from the lower level weed out courses that you're forced to take to get to the higher ones. Once you're up there, it's like a completely different major. So I wouldn't worry about it, if you want to be a theorist and not a hacker there's more than enough to cater your tastes.</p>
Hi, I know this post is more about what happens after you get into college, but do you have any advice for actually getting into cornell? I want to study CS as well, and I’m a girl if it helps, but I’m having trouble gauging whether I have a chance at getting in if I apply ED?
Not a CS major, but my suggestion would be to network whenever possible. I’m not going to say in the case of a CS major that “it’s not what you know but who you know;” however, I do think it can be helpful to get in touch with the right people. Also, explore opportunities in fields that you might not have thought of. I am in a consulting club on campus - we love CS majors because of their skillsets and would love more of them, but they need to apply for positions.