<p>Current Cornell students, do you have any tips and advice to provide incoming freshmen about what they should do once they are at Cornell?</p>
<p>What is the first most important thing to do? Ensure you have housing? Take a good class schedule? Find volunteer positions and jobs?</p>
<p>I am going to be going to Ithaca from Cali, so I will be in a completely new environment, where I will be unfamiliar with all of NY's stores and even restaurants. Any good options for on or off campus dining perhaps?</p>
<p>Basically, where and how should we start getting involved in the campus w/ clubs, sports, undergrad research and all the good stuff.</p>
<p>ok first off, im glad to read that you arent regretting cornell anymore. because if you still are...you are going to have a very LONNNNNGGGGG 4 years ahead of you</p>
<p>housing will begin in april and will go until may something. DO NOT wait until the last minute to fill out that form online! a few freshmen were screwed because of that and have to live in the transfer apartments or even some random program house that they didnt apply to. if you can, get a single. i had to make the long and hard decision to do that and im glad that i did. you dont have to worry about waking up a roommate to being sexiled when their bf or gf is over. </p>
<p>as far as the class schedule goes, i have always given this piece of advice to EVERYONE: even if you CAN go straight to the 200 level class...DONT. its a BIG MISTAKE (and everyone who has done that truly regrets it). take the intro class. it gives you a chance to get to know the department and relearn what the department wants you to know, even expanding more on what you know from an AP class already. dont think that getting a 5 on AP Calc BC means that you know all of the math. you dont. you learn a hell of a lot more in college...your AP Calc class was only maybe half of a semester...if that. if the 100 level class seems "easy"...ok whatever. you have an easy class. good for you</p>
<p>before you start off finding jobs and volunteer positions, allow yourself to ease into college and get used to the workload. it can be really overwhelming if you came from an easy high school, or even a hard one (like mine), to go straight from high school work to college work. everything here takes twice as long and ten times more effort to get a grade you want. </p>
<p>off campus dining...thats in collegetown and the commons, easily accessable by walking or bus, respectively. there are really good restaurants all over (the nines, taste of thai, etc.) and a new starbucks in collegetown :). but one thing i noticed is that a lot of people eat on campus because the food is amazing. </p>
<p>if you have any other questions, feel free to ask</p>
<p>I agree with everything laurastar 07 said above.</p>
<p>Yes, zixif you can take classes in any other school at Cornell except maybe Architecture because of limited enrollment.</p>
<p>And the prices of good are pretty moderate. I think the campus food is a little expensive but you pay with Big Red Bucks so it's not really really money per se. Besides that everything within Ithaca itself is pretty moderate and you can find bargains all the time.</p>
<p>A lot of people think rooming with a friend from heigh school is good in the beginning, but in the end you might end up hating each other and the freindship will be ruined. I've heard horror stories and soccuess stories but it's a risk. In my opinion, you should just do random assignments and hope for the best. Or get a single (much easier if you'e a girl).</p>
<p>My roommate and I found each other in the 2011 Roommate Match Facebook Group, and it worked out beautifully. While almost everybody I know who found a roommate that way had a great experience, when you really think about it, we totally judged each other based on Facebook profiles alone. As such, I felt like we probably deserved it to work out badly, haha. I would absolutely pick a roommate on Facebook if I had to do it over again, but it's still kind of a tossup.</p>
<p>look for jobs early, like first or second week of school. on campus jobs are plentiful but in high demand so start early. uportal has a section for student employment. generally when classes start it fills up with job opportunities. volunteer organizations are a dime a dozen and always looking for people. from my experience with freshman year here were my primary concerns and they worked out pretty good 1) meet people/make friends 2) get comfortable in classes 3) get a job. other stuff will come over time and besides people are constantly shoving information and stuff to do down your throat when you're a frosh.</p>
<p>laurstar, why on earth couldn't someone take a 200 level class during their freshman year? That's ridiculous. Tons of people do it and are happy.</p>
<p>Generally in science/math classes there will be pre-requisites, which anyone should probably abide by, but in any other field, anyone should take what appeals to them. Why would you restrict yourself to 100-level classes just because you're a freshman?! Again, lots of (probably most) people do this every year and are fine with it...</p>
<p>lianri: im just advising against it. do what you want. but its just a good way to think of courses. do the intro course before diving into a class "meant" for sophomores or juniors, certainly people more knowledgeable and experienced in the major than a freshman is</p>
<p>thank you so much people! ^^ now im just waiting for my official letter...</p>
<p>ehh... if i get a C and a B this semester.... what are the chances of me getting rejected......... ok that's probably a weird question that no one knows the answer to.. but im getting so scared T-T</p>
<p>ahhh stupid spanish... but guess what im gonna try to take it again in college - -</p>
<p>Well, the only thing a higher level signifies is that the course is harder. If you're up for the hard work, why not?</p>
<p>I know what you mean- it's generally good to give yourself less work as you're adjusting to college. Taking a 300 level as a freshman is definitely not common (though taking a 200 level is). I was just confused when you said that taking a 200 or 300 level as a freshman is a big mistake and that everyone who does it always regrets it. I did it and enjoyed the courses I took, as did others I know. That doesn't mean we're better at handling work than others (I don't want to come off as arrogant)- that's not true. TBH I've noticed very little difference in difficulty between 100 and 200 levels (though 300 levels get noticeably more difficult)</p>
<p>What distinguishes higher levels from lower ones is not just difficulty, but also specificity. A 100 level history class, for example, would be "Western Civilization," while a 300 level history class would be like "History of the City of Florence, 1200-1500" (I think that's an actual class). In deciding what courses to take, I'd go more by: what level of specificity do you want?, instead of: how hard do I want to work?</p>
<p>zixif: i had the same concern last year. dont worry too much, i got all b's last semester of high school and it was fine. just dont fail anything and try to stay above a D. generally cornell does not revoke admission very frequently</p>
<p>so, its ok if i go from all as first quarter to like 4bs in main subjects? i just couldn't concentrate this quarter bc i was so anxious about finding out...</p>
<p>I think the most important thing is to find a good balance between academics and social life. Most freshman fall into the two ends of the spectrum. They either party too much or they study too much.</p>
<p>As a freshman, I never set foot inside a library...literally. I had no idea what Uris or Olin or any of the other libraries looked like at the end of my freshman year. I studied 1 day max for prelims and sometimes even on the morning of prelim day. I remember trying to teach myself Greens, Stokes, and Divergence Theorems for multivar calc on the morning of my prelim. I had stopped going to class and had NO IDEA what was going on. And I lived in Donlon, not an easy place to study.</p>
<p>I lived in a 4-person suite and we had alcohol in the dorm at all times. We had two piles in the common room: beer cans and Starbucks Doubleshot cans cuz that's all we drank as freshmen. One of my floormates at Donlon had a freakin' wine rack in his room and ordered a case of wine from wine.com and had it sent through RPU. God, we were stupid. My suitemates and I came close to being JAed many times. Luckily, our RA was chill but she warned us that she'd have to write us up if she ever found those beer cans full.</p>
<p>Luckily, I didn't join Facebook until midway through my junior year or else that would've been another distraction. In retrospect, there is not a week that goes by where I don't thank God for how lucky I was and how I could've easily ****ed away my future in those first two years of college. My semester GPA dropped precipitously from a 3.9 to a 3.7 to a 3.5 but that could've easily been a 2.9 to 2.7 to 2.5. I had multiple friends who ended up on academic probation. I got my act together, averaged over a 4.0 in my last 5 semesters, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and now I'll be going to medical school. But, in those early years, my dreams were hanging on by a thread.</p>
<p>So, I would encourage all freshmen to explore Cornell and all college has to offer (including parties). But, be responsible, find a balance, don't go overboard. Not everyone is as fortunate as I was.</p>
<p>TRY to have a schedule of when to do what. I lose lots of time cause i dont plan anything and probably never will lol..</p>
<p>Randoming is okay i guess, I randomed and i landed with someoen from my High School.. didn't even know he was in my high school, too big school lol</p>
<p>Best way is to study hard, and not study hard. Dont play/party/whatever when you aren't sure that u'll finish your required homework. And dont be like me and watch anime a few hours a day lol...</p>
<p>I think everyone else here has it all covered, but I would also like to suggest that you all request an alumni mentor as soon as you can. I received a letter from the Cornell</a> Alumni-Student Mentoring Program in May or so (I applied RD), and filled out the online form a few days later. I was quickly matched with a wonderful mentor who has helped me quite a bit with courses and professors so far, and maybe even internships in the future. He completely erased any suspicions I had that Cornell was exaggerating about the strength of its alumni network.</p>