<p>I dunno, before I came here I heard of how rigorous Cornell is... but as of now I have a 4.2/4.0, with three of my four courses being upper level ones. And it's not like I don't have a social life either; I go partying at least once every week (although some of my friends party from Thursday until Saturday), and I have plenty of time for extracurricular activities.</p>
<p>And believe me, I am not a genius or anything...</p>
<p>dude, *** are you taking? Also, upper level courses don't have curves that stop at B-. I seriously hope you're not an engineer.</p>
<p>lol I'm gettin scared of it. At the college I'm at the one class I got tested in (like real tests, instead of the other classes all being essays) was curved upwards for everyone lolol [still hard tho...It's curved cuz no1 ever even gets in the 90s originally...so I LOVE that curve hah]. And my mom just told me that her friend's son who goes to Cornell got his first C this semester at Cornell (he's a Freshman) but he had gotten ALL A's in highschool and is really smart so I'm kinda scared lol.</p>
<p>eos, you're not the only one. But, I'd suggest taking more than four classes if it's too easy. I took six classes this semester and finished with 4.28 (though one class was one credit, and it was my only A). </p>
<p>I too party at least once per week, take at least two others off entirely (no work at all), and have time for extracurriculars, and am working on an internet startup with a few others guys.</p>
<p>Of course, this kind of stuff is only possible within certain majors/schools. I've never heard an engineer say his/her classes are easy.</p>
<p>I'd like to add, I'm a sophomore (I was a transfer student), and not an engineer - I'm pre-med. I presume AJKates you are a freshman (hence you are able to take 6 courses)?</p>
<p>Oh and I had 16 credits this semester.</p>
<p>4 classes in an easy major will be pretty easy to rack in above a 4.0</p>
<p>It really does depend on major. Though I'd venture you are at least above Cornell average in intelligence if that 4.2 is from pre-med courses...
BTW AJKates is a sophomore as well...a very smart sophomore in AEM...</p>
<p>As for Cornell in general, I think the perception of difficulty comes from the multitude of genuinely hard majors that Cornell offers, as these seem to be harder than the same majors at other schools.</p>
<p>u 2 with the really good grades how often do u study? Truthfully, do u hang out with people for a couple hours everynight or do u hit the books every night? I want to know for when I transfer how to handle all the work yet still get such great grades. I know wat u do do thats fun, but wat do u do do thats work. Any ideas?</p>
<p>Yes, I too am a sophomore with 16 credits this semester (one credit was SX). Thanks for the compliments towerpumpkin <em>blush</em>, but there are many students at Cornell with intellects far superior to my own, and most of these students have far worse GPA's. </p>
<p>Like I said in another thread, GPA depends far more upon work ethic and chosen major than intelligence. If a student is a Cornell engineer and is taking 20+ credits each semester, there is almost no way in hell that individual can have higher than 4.0, I don't care if he/she's one million times smarter than me.</p>
<p>In the three semesters (and one summer) I've been at Cornell, I've taken classes in many different schools and majors, and have changed my major once (as many students do). I began as a biology major, and I didn't find the pre-med classes exceedingly difficult either. The CALS/CAS/HumEc/Hotel classes that I took were all pretty easy, but I do believe certain majors are more difficult and more competitive than others.</p>
<p>My entire suite is interested in business, and if I may say so, very intelligent. There are two AEM majors (myself included), one econ major, and one Operations Research engineer. The difficultly scale (if you couldn't guess) I would say is AEM < Econ < OR. Though we all spend about the same amount of time doing schoolwork, the two AEM majors have 4.15+ cumulative averages, the Econ major about 4.0, and the engineer 3.85ish. I believe that if our majors where switched, the GPA's would be as well.</p>
<p>So, eos, my advice to you (as it was given to me) is to find something else to occupy your time. I don't like to normally take more than 17 or 18 credits, and there are only so many extracurriculars that turly interest me. I also don't like to party every night, since you can only go to so many frat parties before getting sick of them. So, I founded an internet startup, and school has been far more fulifilling since. So, if the prospect of more schooling doesn't interest you, perhaps you can find something else that tickles your fancy? It's just a suggestion, do with it as you may.</p>
<p>ahhh...the grade thing makes me really nervous lol. i think we should start a support group! haha.. ;) can someone give an example of a normal week...just so we can develop a sense of what to expect...nothing too complicated, just an estimate of how time is allocated between studying and socializing and things like that! thanks ;)</p>
<p>Ya that would be cool. How is ILR in ranking in that scale? lol. After my first semester I have 25 credits so should I take 4 classes when I transfer there sophomore year? I'll have 40 credits by then (At least I think...APs and Summer courses at other colleges all count asd 3 each right?) I think taking 4 will help me adjust..</p>
<p>Alright, since Figgy and Acerbic both want to know, I'll give you my normal week. 'm not so sure it's typical, but it's worked alright for me thus far:</p>
<p>Each day I have 3-4 classes. I try to spread things out so that I don't have too many hours of class in a single day. On weekdays, I go to every single lecture, and most sections. When I get back from class, I usually hang out until dinner. I read news (mostly tech news), whore CNet, watchster and some tech blogs, make a few equity trades through my crappy broker before the market closes(E*Trade), and just chill. At 5:00 my suitemates are all back from class and we go to dinner. After dinner, I get reading and written work done, and chill with my friends for the rest of the night. I also do extracurriculars and other stuff when I have them.</p>
<p>I probably spend an overall average of 2.5 hours of doing schoolwork each day. When I don't have prelims coming up, I probably spend less, and when things are busy, a bit more. I usually don't do work at all 2-3 days per week when things are slow. On Friday I rarely do work, and almost always go out at night to parties. On saturday I spend the morning doing work if its busy, but if things are slow I sometimes take Saturday off as well. I usually do relaxing stuff with my friends saturday, like go to dinner and watch a movie (quite often) and such. Sometimes Friday and Saturday are switched, depending on who's having parties.</p>
<p>I do all of my schoolwork in my room. I almost NEVER go to a library because I have a single, and it's much easier and more convenient to do work in my room (often in bed). </p>
<p>So, all in all, I probably spend 20 hours in class each week, and 20 hours doing schoolwork out of class. This amounts to 40 hours total, or the equivalent of an easy full-time job. This leaves plenty of time for everything I want to do and take advantage of everything Cornell has to offer.</p>
<p>I hope that's the kind of answer you were looking for.</p>
<p>Thanks AJkates that sounds cool!!</p>
<p>OK that sounds good. I can manage that, I maybe do a little less than that or even to it on school days so that sounds good. I was just hoping u still got to hang out with people during nights. I'll just have to time manage. Thanks a lot for this.</p>
<p>Figgy, how many requirements are you taking next semester? also, have you already or are you planning on taking summer courses? just wondering how that would affect course selection for next year!</p>
<p>it really depends on the major...but i'd say during crunch time, everyone has to work hard. </p>
<p>generally engineering and architecture majors are known to be intense. engineering majors have difficult exams and a lot of work and architecture majors have a lot of work to do. a lot of my friends are upperclassmen engineers and they are miserable.</p>
<p>i am an architecture major and most people in studio have around a 3.5. very very few people get an A in design studio. I took 19 credits last semester and have a 3.7, but i had to work very very hard (with very little sleep) to achieve that GPA...and two of my electives were pass/fail. i'd say it depends a lot on the major because say for architecture, design studio takes up so much time it's hard to find time to study for other electives. </p>
<p>some departments may put a different weight on grades. In architecture, getting a C is like failing and i've never heard of someone getting an A+.</p>
<p>Well I took 16 credits this sem, 15 next, have 2 Ap credits (my school didn't offer many to say the least lol), and I took a Summer course a couple Summers ago. Since I have these extra credits I was thinking about giving myself an easier work load sophomore year so that I can get adjusted to the rigor of Cornell.</p>
<p>ps. Lucky you AJ. I have 3 other roomates who r insanely loud and (no offense to athletes) all admit they only got in because of sports so to say the least they don't do very much work. Study lounge is where I get most work done [and typing papers in my room suxxx lol].</p>
<p>sorry to ruin your theory AJ, but I'm a freshman engineer who's taking 22 credits and has over a 4.0 GPA. And yes, I party at least once a week and do nothing on weekends (until sunday night of course). </p>
<p>it's not overrated per se, it's just about the priorities you set, and the amount of mental effort you are willing to put in to get a deeper understanding of the material. people come here wanting to fulfill the college stereotypes they see on screen and at schools like Arizona State, whereas cornell is just not the place
for such stereotypes. sometimes i feel this place is just like a big, impersonal state school, which is why i want to transfer, and it is due to all these misguided other kids that i attribute my 4.1. treat cornell like what it is, set your expectations high, put in that extra work to really understand things, and i guarantee you will have success.</p>
<p>1337hax0r, congrats on an awesome first semester. That's quite impressive. I hope you can keep it up! Having 4.0+ one semester and graduating with that in engineering are two very different things, as some of my engineering friends found out the hard way.</p>
<p>But, I understand your sentiments. I'm sorry you feel that way about Cornell (though I don't disagree entirely), but I wish you the best of luck wherever you wind up.</p>
<p>My freshmen year, I had a 4.0 both semesters, taking 18 academic credits my first semester and 16 my second. I put in a decent amount of work, probably about as hard as I worked in high school. Then sophomore year, I took 18 credits again my first semester and put in more work because I knew orgo would be hard. My GPA dropped quite a lot. Ever since then, I've been getting about the same grades as that semester, even though I've worked harder and harder to bring it up. </p>
<p>All I can say is, I'm glad you're all doing well so far. But if it's only been your first semester here, don't expect that that will be the norm.</p>