<p>All these college guides describe Cornell as a pressure cooker with tons of work. Is the work at Cornell really much more difficult than the work at other schools of the same caliber?</p>
<p>It can be, depending on the classes you take.</p>
<p>I haven't ever taken a college class anywhere else so I really can't tell you how much work it is compared to other top schools. I'm an engineer, I'm also premed...my course load is pretty heavy. </p>
<p>But...I still have time to do other things, and I find it manageable.</p>
<p>yes, especially finals time things get stressful...sometimes more than others. There were a couple times where I just felt like chucking my textbook down into the gorge, but that was entirely because I chose to take a few difficult courses at the same time.</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry about it so much, you'll be fine.</p>
<p>What major are you planning dulce? lol Xtreme wow...eng and premed...crazy.</p>
<p>Plan to major in Spanish/Government. Definitely not pre-med/engineering.</p>
<p>You have nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>(Cornell gets its reputation from intro science classes that tend to have a low curve, and are rough on those who don't have a strong science background in high school.)</p>
<p>I took continuing spanish last spring....it was fun. Classes were small and my professor was great. If you decide to come here, see if you can get a class with Silvia Amigo-Silvestre as the professor, she's fantastic. </p>
<p>The spanish department overall is pretty strong...I don't know anyting about the government major, but I'm sure it's good too. I don't think either major will be any harder than at other top schools.</p>
<p>Cornell is heavily grade-inflated in the humanities. </p>
<p>As for the sciences, I think Cornell provides just as good an education (or even better) than the Stanfords or Harvards of the world. However, with no offense to anyone here or at Cornell, I think the quality and rigor of its cirriculum outpaces the quality of the students just a little which probably leads some students to proclaim it as being hard.</p>
<p>confine your partying to the weekends and you should be fine</p>
<p>The professors are awesome and are willing to help</p>
<p>However, I am an engineer and I still have lots of fun. </p>
<p>Pressure cooker time = final exam days and that hold true for any university in America</p>
<p>Reason behind pressure cooker = Hardcore engineering people like ChemE or AEP</p>
<p>Well, compared to the workload my friends from highschool get at their colleges, I would say that Cornell's workload is relatively more in quantity and quality. But even thought it's challenging it's very doable. As a prefrosh I was worried about the same thing but I realized that if you work hard then things will be fine.</p>
<p>My advice is utilize your weekends well. If not, then you end up playing catch-up all week =.</p>
<p>during my interview, my interviewer said that it's common to be assigned 500 pages of a very hard book between a Thursday and a Tuesday.</p>
<p>That might just be a fond memory of his he uses to impress people (since I'm not at Cornell yet I'm not sure)...but we ARE in college here. It's definitely more than highschool (No matter which top institution you go to) but if you adjust to it well it is possible to manage.</p>
<p>In some of your classes you are going to have to do a lot of reading. ILR classes are known for assigning reading. Some of your humanities classes will also have a lot of reading. For my Anthropology class I gave up reading for the second half of the semester because I had no time (was taking genetics at the same time). And, a couple of semesters ago, I took an Engl class that had so much reading I fell two whole books behind the rest of the class. I couldn't participate int he class discussions because I literally wasn't on the same page as everyone else.</p>
<p>Did you still do alright?</p>
<p>"ILR classes are known for assigning reading."</p>
<p>I would agree. In general, the work for a school like ILR isn't overly hard - there's usually just a lot of reading ... and sometimes it's that loooong hard type of reading that only people with boring lives decide to write. </p>
<p>For the most reading intensive ILR classes, expect a novel a week. Though, it may not be just one whole book, perhaps half of one and half of another and so forth.</p>
<p>I still got A's in both classes. I said they had a lot of reading, not that they were hard. Humanities classes are still a joke compared with my science courses.</p>
<p>yeah my interviewer was in ILR</p>
<p>The college guides are really crappy. Most of the kids who write up those college guides have either had really bad or really good experiences. They never present neutral material, sort of like ratemyprofessor.com</p>
<p>One of the problems with comparing work with another university is that there aren't that many people who go to two different universities for undergrad. Sure there are transfers but many times it is the Freshman and Sophomore classes that are extra hard.</p>
<p>To give you an example of Cornell's work load (I can't say about other universities):</p>
<p>I'm currently taking 19 units - a math class, an electrical engineering class, a physics class, a government class, and a research project. I graduated near the top of my class, completed 12 AP tests (eight 5's, three 4's, and one 3), and scored a 2200 on the SAT's. My weekly homework takes about 20-30 hours a week plus research stuff (which sometimes takes 20 hours a week too). It is ridiculous. I've never worked this much ever =.</p>
<p>little off topic...
dulce de leche are you Argentinean??</p>
<p>Just a hint...don't take 19 units a semester :)</p>
<p>I think it depends on your high school. If it's been rigorous, and you've spent 2-3 hours a day on homework, Cornell or any good school should seem no harder and, except for paper crunches and finals, probably easier. All of your day is your own if you want it to be. You don't have to show up for student government, publications, French Club, planning for the senior dance, after-school sports practices, etc. unless you want to do similar things (and you are not building your college application resume and searching around for hooks to create.) Frankly, you'll also learn which classes might not absolutely require <em>perfect</em> attendance. And there is lots of help if you need or want it.</p>
<p>The "school day" is no longer so structured and the useless dead time at your average high school is gone. Carving 3-4 hours of class (and a once a week lab) and 2-4 hours of studying out of 24 hours is not that big a deal. Now, if you are a varsity athlete, have a term time job, or are taking all sciences, anywhere can require good time managemnt skills.</p>