<p>Ho, I'm an international student so I don't quite know what the norm is
in the US when it comes to universities.</p>
<p>Assuming I can get into Cornell for a BSc in Biochemistry, I read somewhere, I don't even
remember where (and I didn't find the Cornell website to easy to find this info on), that
during the first two years you take courses that are general and not related to the field
you are interested in studying, is this true?</p>
<p>Can someone reference me or tell me how long it takes to
complete a degree and what the actual study schedule is,
and if I'll need to take courses not related to science?</p>
<p>Also if this is the norm in US universities or it's like that only in Cornell?</p>
<p>thank you</p>
<p>fyi, most of what I’m about to tell you is probably very Cornell-specific, since I don’t know enough to speak for US universities in general.</p>
<p>to study biochem at Cornell you would major in Biological Sciences and then select a program of study in Biochemistry. here is the website for the office of undergraduate biology, where you can find out more about that major. if you click on “academics” you can see even more about what actual courses you would take.
[url=<a href=“Biological Sciences | CALS”>http://biology.cornell.edu/]Home[/url</a>]</p>
<p>at Cornell, if you want to major in Biological Sciences, you can either be a student in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) or in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). the requirements for the major, and your studies of biochemistry, would be the same in either school. there are different requirements for each school. for example, there is a language requirement (studying a language besides English) in CAS that there isn’t in CALS. it is worth looking at the requirements of both schools to see which one fits you better. there are also other considerations, such as the fact that if you choose to double major (take two majors) you can only do that in majors that are in the same school as your first major.</p>
<p>you will undoubtedly need to take courses unrelated to science. everyone needs to take two freshman writing seminars which can be on a wide variety of topics. you will also need to take math courses for the biology major. you will need to fulfill some distribution requirements which means you will take some social sciences and humanities courses as well. this general concept is quite standard and American universities, and at Cornell at least CALS has relatively few of these requirements compared to many other places (based on what I’ve heard.)</p>
<p>you will not just be taking general courses from two years though. most freshman who are bio majors will take an intro bio course, general chemistry, and some math in their first semester. they will probably take bio and chem again in their second semester. you probably wouldn’t take any actual biochemistry courses until sometime in your 2nd year, or maybe first semester of your 3rd year, but you would be taking plenty of sciences in preparation for that.</p>
<p>I was a bio major, just graduated, so if you have any questions I believe my info is current enough that I should be able to help you out.</p>
<p>thank you very much!</p>
<p>The total amount of time to finish a degree is 4 years right?
Also, can you tell me where I can find out more information about the courses I will need to take if I apply for CAS/CALS?</p>
<p>And also, are there different entry requirements? do you apply for one of them in advance or once you are accepted to Cornell (Assuming I will) you chose which one you go to?</p>
<p>thank you again</p>
<p>the total amount of time to finish a degree is indeed four years.</p>
<p>the general requirements for CAS are here:
[Degree</a> Requirements](<a href=“http://as.cornell.edu/academics/degree-req.cfm]Degree”>http://as.cornell.edu/academics/degree-req.cfm)
you’ll probably need to follow some links from that page to find all the info, but it’s a good start.</p>
<p>the general requirements for CALS are here:
[College</a> Distribution Requirements](<a href=“http://cals.cornell.edu/cals/current/registrar/current-students/cals-graduation/distribution.cfm]College”>http://cals.cornell.edu/cals/current/registrar/current-students/cals-graduation/distribution.cfm)</p>
<p>all the courses from Cornell come from the overall Courses of Study, so you can check there if you get a course name like “CHEM 2070” and you want to know what that actually corresponds to. [Cornell</a> University - Acalog ACMS?](<a href=“http://courses.cornell.edu/]Cornell”>http://courses.cornell.edu/)</p>
<p>there might be some slight differences in entry requirements.
here is CAS: [Freshman</a> Requirements](<a href=“http://as.cornell.edu/admissions/requirements.cfm]Freshman”>http://as.cornell.edu/admissions/requirements.cfm)
here is CALS: [First</a> Year Applicants | CALS Undergrad Admissions](<a href=“http://cals.cornell.edu/admissions/apply/first-year/]First”>First Year Applicants | CALS)
to be honest I never really debated between the two schools, so I don’t have a good feel for the differences. (I chose CALS without much thought because because I live in NY state and so had cheaper tuition.)</p>
<p>you have to apply directly to CAS or CALS. you cannot just apply to Cornell University as a whole.
actually, in CALS, you need to apply directly to being a Biological Sciences major. in CAS, you just apply to the school as a whole, and you declare the bio major later (even though you started taking bio courses right from the beginning.)</p>