<p>Someone please explain the prelims at Cornell for me. The semesters have midterms , finals etc right? Prelims? preliminary tests?</p>
<p>Prelims=midterms (no one says midterms around here)</p>
<p>wow, norcalguy, congrats on 7 hours of sleep!! LOL, that's impressive for any college student, especially at a top university like Cornell. and congrats on the quasi 4.0!!! That's awesome!</p>
<p>damn, i'm jealous! A+ in biochem! wow. the only A+'s i get are in classes that have plenty of fieldwork and papers (i <3 writing papers and working with people). i really need to cut back on my community services and leadership roles. it's starting to really cut into my studying time. and maybe not be a crazy person and take 20+ credits every semester (i'm not trying to graduate early!)</p>
<p>i can't wait for next semester, i'm only taking 20 credits and another 3 or 4 credits in research! wow, going to be a fun semester! (/end sarcasm)</p>
<p>that's a little intense :\ Do you get 7 hours of sleep Quynh? lol</p>
<p>"only" 20 credits lol</p>
<p>I'm taking a slightly less rigorous schedule next semester (although it includes genetics w/lab and biochem). Hopefully, it'll allow me to squeeze in some EC's. Right now I'm doing research and barely even qualify as a member of a few clubs (muchless leadership roles).</p>
<p>um...yeah, unfortunately, around prelim times, i tell everyone i have to pull an allnighter (like for my last orgo prelim, I had to put in 80! hours that week for cornell days, and then a ton more time for my culture show, Cafe Saigon b/c half the ppl were studying for MCATs that week too, AND had 15 hours of training for another community service i've decided to join) and what do i do? i barely studied, slept for 4-5 hours and did horrible on the prelim. oh well, everything else was a smashing success, and while I won't get a great grade in orgo, i can say that a lower grade on that prelim was worth it to help bring 3K prefrosh to cornell, put together a sold-out show, and will now get to tutor an aslylee and refugee in english. ahh, life couldn't be better. no regrets, none whatsoever. and i have only successfully pulled off one all-nighter...which was last semester for my bio final...which i ended up acing...i really should do more all-nighters, but considering i'm up from 8am and non-stop action/classes until pretty much 10pm each night...i can never last very long past 4am. </p>
<p>again, i might not have the most competitive gpa to get into harvard or whatnot, but i can tell you I am going to med school one day (after TFA) and currently, am a very content person and happy with myself!</p>
<p>I <3 cornell.</p>
<p>I've only come close to pulling an allnighter once (ended up getting 1 hour of sleep so it wasn't a true allnighter). Not surprisingly, I scored substantially below the mean on the final the next day.</p>
<p>This is not to say I've been just cruising through Cornell. My GPA's in the high 3.70's so I've gotten my share of B's. But it's nice to have a bounce-back semester after ending last semester with a 3.55 GPA and only taking 12 credits!</p>
<p>Wow, nice job guys! And the best thing to hear is that you have no regrets. Awesome.</p>
<p>Cool, what are good suggestions/ advices for premed? I guess to time organization, working effectively, etc all come into play. Cornell is difficult to get through as it is, and I really don't want to pull all-nighters. When I pulled my only all-nighter for school, I made sure I did not have to take a test the next day.
It's proven that the human body starts to grow very uneffective after 20 + hours of staying awake and working, may cause serious health problems too. What gives for the 24-36 hour shifts for residency programs then??</p>
<p>well. i've never pulled an allnighter and do not plan on doing so -_- (i heard it's bad in the end cuz it will substantially lower efficency and all that good stuff of one's brain)</p>
<p>i think after all, it's hard to say "oh Cornell is hard" because who knows? who went to two undergraduate schools with the same "beginning"? (that not even possible). and of course all cornellians say "every other top schools is as hard as cornell".</p>
<p>of course this kinda pharse only confuses perspective students. -_-</p>
<p>(anyway, who doesnt wanna get good grades :D)</p>
<p>Wow, quynh2007... O_o... amazing.
[quote]
You only really regret the things in life you did not do.
[/quote]
Well I read that on some other thread, but I guess it's true!</p>
<p>norcalguy- as a biochem TA, I will say it's extremely rare to get an A+ in biochem. I think he gives only 1-2 out of the whole class.</p>
<p>And just how big is the BioChemistry class may I inquire?? </p>
<p>I read somewhere cornell has relatively large classes (especially intro classes, survey courses etc) compared to some other top schools / Ivies. If there are a 100 students in the typical lecture classes for biological sciences/ premed courses, then the curve must be brutal , only 1 or 2% of all students get A+, man oh man , i'm no genius child, i guess even one A+ (4.3!!!GPA ) is .... just about impossible.</p>
<p>Neutral, "he?" I have Professor Tye for BioChem 332. </p>
<p>Shawn, there is slightly more than 250 students in biochem332. Only a few students are going to get A+'s. I got the high grade in the class on the first prelim (2 std. dev above the mean), 1.5 std. dev above the mean on the second prelim, and 1% off the high grade (again 2 std. dev above the mean) on the third prelim. We're actually allowed to drop our "worst" prelim which for me would be prelim #2 so there is a good chance I'm at the top of the class based on my first and third prelim scores alone.</p>
<p>Hey!, I'm all for dropping worst grades and extra credit work:) It's a pleasant surprise hearing such a rigorous a school as cornell practices the "dropping your lowest test score" policy in certain classes. </p>
<p>However, out of 250 students, only a few can get A+. If 1% get A+, it's still only 2.5 students. The odds are not good at all. I believe students with GPA above 4.0 are very rare at cornell, though i heard cornell doesn't recognize a Valedictorian, so even if a super genius kid has a cumulative GPA of 4.3, he may be ranked #1 , top 0.01% in the class but not be technically called "valedictorian" because the president speaks at the convocation (other unis call it "commencement" what other unique cool words do cornellians use? like prelims, convocation, more?) . </p>
<p>Also, does Cornell rank its students like many high schools do , #5, or top 10% of the graduating class etc? If so, does ranking occur within each of the seven undergraduate colleges only or throughout the entire cornell university? That goes onto the official cornell transcript right? as long as grad schools see or know them, i'm confident i can get into the higher percentages , at least above 50% of my graudating class.</p>
<p>For certain purposes, I know Cornell does rank. For instance, to graduate with honors from the College of A&S, you have to be in the top 1/3 or 1/4 of the class (based on GPA) as well as write some sort of dissertation.</p>
<p>As for dropping the lowest test score, sometimes it doesn't help since everyone is allowed to do it. I was allowed to drop my lowest test score from Evol. bio last semester and still ended up with a B. My lowest and my second lowest scores were about the same, unfortunately. As for extra credit, I have yet to encounter any of that.</p>
<p>those are sort of depressing news. In my IB history class, two thirds of the students have A's , which i think is too much A's given out, because i held #1 spot in that history class for quite a long time and very often. The IB history teacher CARES MORE about STUDENT GPAs than us students. He gives out two grades : A or B, unlike some teachers : Pass / Fail.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, my comment about honors at Cornell was not entirely accurate. For the College of A&S, whether or not you graduate with honors depends on your department.</p>
<p>As a bio major, my "department" is biological sciences. To graduate with honors, I must complete all BA degree requirements, have a min 3.0 GPA at Cornell, min 3.0 GPA in math/science courses, complete an independent research project mentored by a faculty member (preferably involves staying one summer at Cornell to do research), be accepted into the honors program, participate in honors research seminars senior year, and write an acceptable honors thesis. Degree of honors depend on the final GPA and the quality of the thesis.</p>
<p>Those are some serious requirements. No wonder only 8% of Cornell students graduate with honors compared to 94% at Club Hahvahd, if i remember correctly. what honors are there? the regulars? cum laude? Magna cum laude? SUMMA cum laude? </p>
<p>Cornell is the EASIEST ivy to get into, but the HARDEST to get out of:(
I love the school, but the school truly deserves better.
(that means almost no chance of me transfering to princeton, , harvard later on right?, EVEN IF I can handle their less rigorous courseworks? )
On a fairly accurate ranking, yale maybe on par in difficulty with cornell, but princeton ranks slightly below, and Harvard not even in the top ten. </p>
<p>As for Harvard, the HARDEST part is getting accepted in, and the rest is heaven compared to Cornell's deep h___ gorges.</p>