<p>Hello! I have a few questions about Case (if that couldn’t be told from the title). I’ve been accepted and am seriously considering the school. I plan on majoring in Biochemistry and pursuing the Pre-Med path. I have a lot of questions, and it would be a really great help if someone could answer just a few of them! The decision process isn’t easy.</p>
<p>My three major concerns—</p>
<p>Workload:
1. There is always mention of Case’s rigorous academic workload. Could someone elaborate on that? Is it described as such because: there are so many assignments and tests from different classes to study for that it would be difficult to learn either sufficiently? The assignments are super difficult and it takes a lot to understand? A little of both or something completely different?</p>
<p>ESSENTIALLY: Will I be stressing so much about one class over another that I just won’t have enough time to sufficiently learn either? Unfortunately, I’m not one of the natural geniuses.</p>
<ol>
<li> How often does one, per se, wake up at 4AM in the morning to study? About how many hours of free time would you have per day? (Assuming I take a reasonable amount of classes. Around 12-15 credit hours, if that’s the norm.)</li>
</ol>
<p>Professors:
3. I understand that Case is a school of rather smart individuals. Does this affect the way the professors teach? Do they skim or not elaborate upon certain areas and expect you to understand completely due to your natural intellect?
ESSENTIALLY: Do they give you a solid foundation to learn upon by explaining things well? I do understand that all schools have their share of not-so-great professors though.
4. Would you say the many of the teachers are great in their subjects and research, but not very good at teaching that to those whom the subject is new?
5. And I’ve never experienced TA’s before, but I’ve heard… things. @_@</p>
<p>Community:
6. Are people at Case cutthroat? I’ve heard horror stories from other colleges about students who care so much about grades and competition that friends aren’t very nice.
7. Can someone explain the Greek system? All I’ve heard is that it’s not quite traditional/it is unique. (If I went Greek I’d be joining a sorority, if that makes a difference.)</p>
<p>Petty/NotSoImportant/BeLovelyToHave:
1. Case wouldn’t happen to have indoor tennis courts open to clubs/intramural sports, would they? I’ve been told the weather isn’t great and it’s not exactly tennis weather.
2. Martial arts classes/clubs? I’ve taken a few classes and it would be great to continue.</p>
<p>Thanks! If just a few of the questions could be answered, that would be fantastic. </p>
In one word, yes. This is college, and Case Western of all colleges. I can’t say much about biochem classes but for engineering, there has been a weed out class basically every semester here and I’m currently a second semester sophomore. Time management will be a key factor and you may have to re-evaluate your dedication to activities. Be prepared to keep open 5+ hours of time every day for school work if you want to do extremely well. I never considered myself to have much raw intelligence, so I think I do spend a bit more time than usual students. Just be aware that as a pre-med student, it may only get harder from here.
Despite my laments in from before, the latest I’ve stayed up is probably 2am and that’s because I had a really long non-academic related meeting that day. If you don’t procrastinate and really suck it up and just do what you need to do, you can avoid those early morning study rituals. Free time varies for me each day, but I spend probably 10-15 hours on other clubs every week and still have several hours of my own time to do whatever during the weekends.</p>
<p>Professors:
3. From my experience, most of my professors have been doing about the same way of teaching. They mostly introduce you the topic, notes, etc, but it’s up to you to apply them. But again, I’m an engineer so this might be for more of the technical courses.
4. I’ve had professors who are great with teaching and genuinely care about their students. I’ve also had professors who can’t teach for their lives and seem more concerned about getting out of class to do things they care about. The ratio of former:latter is about 4:1 if that says anything. To answer your question (sort of), the professors will assume that you’re not unintelligent.
5. I’ve really good TAs and really bad ones. The good TAs are great at explaining materials, they’re very approachable, and they understand what it’s like to be an undergrad student (partially because many of them are in fact undergrad students) The really bad ones are tough graders and that’s about the only interaction I have with them.</p>
<p>Community:
6. They can be. Nobody’s gonna sabotage your grade or anything, but it does get annoying when people are comparing themselves to you in different subjects. It’s more of a nuisance than a detriment.
7. Greek life has literally been the best experience for me here. It’s more of a community than anything else. These are the people you’ll be hanging out with, doing service with, doing homework with, etc. You may still encounter some of the more stereotypical things you’ve heard about from other college’s Greek life, but at Case, it’s a combination of an opportunity for leadership, an outlet for involvement, and a source of other interactions. The system is pretty similar to Greek life at other places, but the culture is probably quite different.</p>
<p>Others:
Unfortunately, I don’t believe they do. I could be wrong, but to my knowledge, all courts are outdoors. And yes, you’re right about the weather. The midwest can be quite unforgiving.
For clubs, there’s Kendo, Kung Fu, and Tae Kwon Do. I’m sure there’s some classes you can do as well.</p>
<p>I hope all of this helps. But do take my words with a grain of salt. Both the experience and the perspectives can be vastly different for different students.</p>
<p>Thank you so much! This truly, truly helped. </p>
<p>I don’t know anyone personally from Case and thank you for taking the time to answer. It helps greatly to know what I’m getting myself into if I attend the university.</p>
<p>There is a newly formed tennis club at case, I’m not sure if they practice in the winter, they have matches with local schools. There are indoor courts which are used by the PE classes and I assume the varsity teams.</p>
<p>Oh, thank you! When you say there are indoor courts, are these courts on campus or are you speaking of the local schools that have the indoor courts? If the courts are on campus, what do you mean by “PE” classes? Does Case require athletic credits?</p>
<p>Yes you have to complete two semesters of PE…many (most) are given in half semester blocks and include things like weight training, cardio, rock climbing, yoga, tennis, etc…</p>
<p>CPR class? What if I’ve already gotten certified? Maybe I’ll just do yoga then.</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard so far, I think Case really fits me. I’m going in as a business major though, if that makes a difference. </p>
<p>I went and visited on admitted students (overnight) day, and it was a blast. All the students I met there were incredibly nice and approachable. The weather was a bit meh, but it reminded me of the cold I experience on a warm day on the top of a skiing mountain (chilly and you’ll need a scarf probably). It was cold in the morning, but by mid afternoon, it had a peek of sunshine. Definitely colder than I was used to, but if I bring a few sweatshirts and scarves, I think I’ll be fine.</p>
<p>I didn’t get to sit in at any of the classes, which was a shame, but I did get to sit in a room that was used for class in the PBL building (where Weatherhead, the school of management is). I’d say it seats around 20 people, but I was assured that as the undergrad experience goes on, my “specialized” courses would at tops only have 16 of us. I’m not too worried about them though. 60 kids do sound like a lot, but I know a few schools that have introductory classes with 200 students or more.</p>
<p>As for questions:
What laptops do you own? (It’s okay if you’re not a business-related major. Any answer would be great!)
How’d you buy it? Any advice when to buy it? (Like when I’m already in Case or maybe before, but with the Case discount?)</p>
<p>Thanks! I’ve pretty much decided on Case. :)</p>
<p>@onyxpanda - please take more than sweatshirts and scarves! You will need a warm winter parka, waterproof snow boots, hats, mittens and more! Wind chill can be below zero in winter and many months will have highs in the 30s…if you’ve never lived in a cold climate you just can’t know how cold it really gets!</p>
<p>Regarding laptops, when we visited a couple of weeks ago they said they can provide discounts on the hardware as well as load all of the standard software at no cost or very inexpensively. </p>
<p>My daughter is also looking at business or economics. She committed last week. She also thought the admitted students weekend was fantastic. </p>