Life at Cornell

<p>My post is addressed to parents of current Cornell students and students themselves. Do students at Cornell manage to maintain balanced lifestyle? In other words, do they have time, for example, to do sports or spend their time with friends? I know that, for example, Harvard students always have pale faces and are stressed out regarding their workload </p>

<p>Cornell students definitely have time to go out at night with their friends and participate in all sorts of extracurricular activities, be it sports or music or whatever. Students often get stressed out when they have prelims or finals coming up, and I think they know when to take a break from going out all the time. But I think students also know when to take a break from studying too hard and find solace in clubs or hobbies or friends.</p>

<p>I think it also depends on the student’s major. Engineers have it the roughest.</p>

<p>I am currently a sophomore engineer and have managed to take 17 credits each semester. I am able to manage my extracurriculars, social life, and education. I am very involved with residential life including planning programs for my dorm as well as being a part of Residential Student Congress. I also managed to be in a show this past semester, as well as having enough time to be with my friends. I do get stressed around prelims but I manage and am enjoying my time at Cornell. If you want to make something work, you can. Just don’t try to do more than you can chew. Start off small and add in things as you feel you can handle it. </p>

<p>DreamingGirl, </p>

<p>17 credits are equivalent to what amount of courses? </p>

<p>Your advice will help definitely.) Thank you </p>

<p>4 </p>

<p>As an engineer it was 4 courses plus small a one credit seminar and a PE class(I find PE classes to be a great stress relief). Most science and math courses are 4 credits. Some classes are 3 credits and some of the intro level language classes are 6 credits. </p>

<p>Same here, sophomore engineer - partied HARD and still pulled 3.4. If you’re a social person, whether you drink or not, you will not be bored trust me. And then yes, you have to pull a couple (okay, more than a couple) all nighters to make up for hangovers.</p>

I echo the previous sentiments that it varies based on your major. With that said, I know architects (who have it even rougher than engineers) who have great social lives and still get high grades. It’s very much the stereotypical “work hard, play hard” mentality at Cornell. If you can get your work done ahead of the due date so you’re not stressing out the night before, then you’ll find that you can go out more often at night. There was a period of time I was going out 4 nights a week first semester + I was doing all the clubs and extracurriculars I was involved in. I still made Dean’s List. It’s all about time management.