<p>How difficult is it to get an A in Orgo at Cornell? Also, I am thinking of taking Orgo at Cornell over the summer or at a community college near my home, what do you suggest I do? I have to take the full year (2 semester) sequence for my major.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>do you go to cornell? if so, i think you'd better take it at cornell. but i heard that the summer professor isn't actually from cornell, so... </p>
<p>i think that orgo itself is not too hard. the grading is pretty reasonable and a number of people get A's. but that number of people also work quite hard at it.</p>
<p>It'll be fine. Especially if you take it over the summer and that's the only class you're taking.</p>
<p>Thanks for your responses. Would it look bad if I took at a community college instead? I am asking because I would like to go home for the summer and it would be cheaper if I took it at a CC.</p>
<p>Are you premed? If so, it is not recommended that you take any of the premed courses over the summer.</p>
<p>Fudgemaster is correct! If you are premed then it is reommended that you take the premed courses during the academic year and with letter grades.
As for how difficult orgo is? I personally think that orgo is easier than general chemistry.<br>
The curve for orgo is B-/B meaning that about 16% of the students get A-, As or A+.</p>
<p>Ya Godda love grade inflation at the elite schools. Where I took it, almost 50% received D or E in orgo.</p>
<p>that's because everybody was either drunk or hung over in Oswego (believe me, I live 30 minutes away and have dozens of friends there)</p>
<p>tonslawsky: grade inflation at cornell?</p>
<p>You probably don't know much about grade inflation! I feel sorry for you for not having a competion where you took orgo.</p>
<p>OH, I am sorry, I didn't realize that when the average grade for a class defines a "B", that not indicative of grade inflation. YOu've really proved your point with a personal attack. MY bad!</p>
<p>How is Orgo in the summer at Cornell? Has anyone taken it over the summer there before?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>way to post a graph that would make any statistics major freak. </p>
<p>Also, there was no personal attack there. If there was, please tell me where. Here's where my point comes from:</p>
<p>I know dozens and dozens of people at SUNY Oswego (the place i'm pretty sure you're talking about). Having grown up 30 minutes away from the place, half of my high school decided to go there. The average GPA at Oswego of 2.7 shows a lack of grade inflation, but testimonials from my friends portray an image of the school as being nothing more than the 13th grade (as described verbatim by themselves). One of my friends even transfered out because he was bored all of the time and wanted to be challenged. One thing, however, is undenyable when it comes to Oswego - the beer flows like water on campus. As an Oswego alum, I'm sure with Oswego's party scene, which is bigger than ever. After all, as one current student put it, "college isn't about learning, college is about partying." My guess is that the average GPA at Oswego isn't an indication of grade deflation or inflation, but rather unmotivated and apathetic students.</p>
<p>tomslawsky:
Who told you that B-/B average grade at elite school like cornell is indictive of grade inflation. Most of the students who take ogo at cornell are very serious about it and work their ass off to just get above the mean. I am very sure that if any of these cornell students take orgo in SUNY or CUNY schools will defineitely ace the class.</p>
<p>By the way i am not making any perosnal attack, i am just making my point. Cornell is one of the few elite universities where most of the science classes are curved from B-. Other elite colleges such as NYU, Darthmout curve their science classes from B/B+.</p>
<p>State schools are always going to be grade deflated relative to elite private schools. They have to be. THe quality of students is so much below that of Ivy League schools or schools like Duke, Stanford, etc. that if they didn't grade rigorously, their grades would mean nothing at all. A 4.0 at SUNY Oswego would be equivalent to a 2.0 at Cornell. As it stands, a 3.0 at Oswego is still not the same as a 3.0 at Cornell but it's at least semi-comparable due to the grade deflation at Oswego.</p>
<p>Yeah, I thought Cornell was considered to have grade deflation...</p>
<p>Look guys,
Grade inflation DOES exist at Cornell, you can look at the data or you can just chose to not believe it. As far as Oswego goes, the fact that the average GPA is a 2.7 actually is disconcearting to me as an alum. You want to know why? It is because in the student handbook, the grading scale is defined and unambiguous: </p>
<p>A= Superior
B= ABOVE AVERAGE
C= AVERAGE
D=Below Average/passing
E= Failing.</p>
<p>That, to me is a contract and to deviate from that is not only unethical and lowering standards, it is the definition of grade inflation. The university defines AVERAGE as a C-period. It it codified and defined. I do not know what Cornell defines their grades as, but if they define a C as average, deviation from that is quite clearly grade inflation. That is pretty cut and dry. As far as students at Oswego not being motivated, you can find them at ANY university. There are plenty of pre med/pre law/ motivated students at Oswego and the placement into grad school is very respectable. Plenty of my profs. earned their degree at Harvard, Brown, Clemson, Duke, Syracuse, Purdue, etc. The gap in brains is not as big as you would like to believe, although in general Cornell students are brighter. However, SAT scores, GPA and IQ don't tell the entire story about someone's brains and potential. Also, if you are going to judge a school's academics by it's party scene, you must have a very low opinion of a lot of very good colleges such as Florida, Florida State, Georgis Tech, Michigan, and even Dartmouth and Ohio State, all of which are strong party achools. Oh, and an anecdotal story; my organic chem prof, Dr Sylvera (who was on the ACS board who helped write the exam) had a daughter at Cornell and used to ***** about the chemistry department there. Oh, and on the ACS Standardized Organic chem final at the end of the second semester, his students averaged the top 25-20% in the nation. My personal score was I score was in that range. That, according to him was as good or better than the average at Cornell. I never confirmed Cornell's scores, but I do know that he was telling the truth about out average. So much for not having any competition in Chemistry classes at Oswego. Here is some interesting reading:</p>
<p>"While the rise in grades is part of a national trend in upper tier colleges and universities, Pomona seems to give more As than most. Harvard gives 51 percent As, Columbia 47 percent. Dartmouth and Cornell give 44 percent and 40 percent respectively, putting Pomona well in the lead among these five schools. "</p>
<p><a href="http://www.highereducation.org/crosstalk/ct0302/news0702-high_marks.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.highereducation.org/crosstalk/ct0302/news0702-high_marks.shtml</a>
"Despite this, A's and B's now account for 80 percent of all grades awarded at the University of Illinois, up from 63 percent in 1967. At Cornell, the proportion of A's has more than doubled in the last three decades, even though "most faculty would be hard pressed to argue that today's Cornell students are demonstrably better than Cornell students in the past," as vice provost Isaac Kramnick told the campus newspaper. "</p>
<p>You wrote a 500-word essay to say what? That Oswego gives out lower grades on average than Cornell? Well, duh. As I said, all elite private schools are grade inflated in relation to state schools. But then again, very few state schools (Berkeley, Michigan, etc. being the exception) are comparable to private schools. You shouldn't be comparing them in the first place.</p>
<p>So you say that IQ, GPA, SAT scores are useless in comparing the quality of the student body. What objective measurements would you like to use? More of your "anecdotes?"</p>
<p>Where did I say "Useless"? My point is that there is no good reason for the grade inflation. Cornell students today are not better students than 15 years ago, yet the GPA has increased almost 8% in that time span. That is not comparring state schools to private schools, that is apples to apples. </p>
<p>Let me ask you this: As I do not have a handbook, how does Cornell define their grading scale? Does it say that a "B-" is average?</p>
<p>Personally, I think that nearly all freshman and sophomore classes should be designed with departmental exams and everyone should be graded on a bell curve, with the average set by the university as well as the standard deviations required to advance or drop a grade from the set average. Of course the prof. would still grade all writing assignments.</p>