<p>I was invited to the Diversity Hosting a few wks ago (which I'm going to) which also seems to mean I'll be getting into my major of Natural Resources (which was changed to that a month ago after Cornell reccomended me to in an email and asked me to change from Enviro Egineering to Natural resources, probably the right call by them since I suck at math.
I would like to know if anyone, namely current Cornell Students can enlighten me on some outside details on the major. I already know the jist of it, I would just like to know some things like how difficult are classes/competition level for the major and how do I decipher the differences among the 3 concentrations- Applied Ecology, Resource Policy and Management, and Environmental Studies, along with any other additional comments about the major that would be of interest or importance for me to know. I would greatly appreciate it, thanks.</p>
<p>The only thing I know about natural resources is that the classes within the major are relatively easy, averaging about B+ or A- median grades in the NTRES classes. Friends I have who are this major seem to like it a lot.</p>
<p>Where’d you get that info, modelgeek? I read somewhere that the median grades are actually lower. If you look at this infographic, it appears that it’s more or less middle of the road:
[Visualizing</a> the Median Grade Report](<a href=“http://www.astro.columbia.edu/~msalem/courseGrades/]Visualizing”>http://www.astro.columbia.edu/~msalem/courseGrades/)</p>
<p>To the OP, I think you’ll find a lot of outdoor field work no matter which path you choose. Since Natural Resources is both about the hard science and the social application, it’s very cross-disciiplinary, ranging from economics and philosophy to chemistry and biology. Learning and understanding the functions of hundreds of different plant and animal species is not easy but they design the major so you can mix it with other programs across all schools. If you want to be a journalist you could minor in Communication or English or take some enviro engineering courses or if you want to work in urban environments, City and Regional Planning.</p>
<p>The biggest difference in the concentrations is basically whether you want to work in an office or out in the field. If you want to focus on directly managing or researching a wildlife, forest, or aquatic ecosystem such as making the direct decisions to manage wolf populations or restore a fish species to a body of water, do the Applied Ecology focus. </p>
<p>If you want to set or oversee policies at the broader local, state, or federal level, do the Resource Policy and Management focus. That track focuses more on law and how to deal with institutional dynamics rather than on wildlife or vegetative populations. You’ll still learn the basics of ecology so you know what you’re talking about.</p>
<p>If you don’t know what path you want, do the Environmental Studies focus and then make a decision later.</p>
<p>@applejack – according to your link, over 60% of NTRES classes have a grade median of A- or B+ and I meant easier compared to the other science majors at Cornell.</p>
<p>You’re right; I meant I saw some chart somewhere else that had its average grades surprisingly low in relation to other fields. In the link I provided it looks like its median is pretty middle of the road. It’s definitely not a pure science field, but pretty much every field in that graph - from physics and bio to several engineerings and computer science - had a significant percentage of median grades between B+ and A, meaning Natural Resources doesn’t appear to be significantly out of line with other fields (unlike a few, like Education, AEM, Human Ecology, and Music, which skew much higher than most).</p>
<p>Anyway - I’d never seen that graph before. Pretty cool.</p>