<p>Cornell is known for being a high pressure environment. In general, i know it's just what comes with being an Ivy but people tend to bring this point up more often when talking about Cornell then when talking about another Ivy. Also, does the course-load vary between colleges and majors or is it essentially 'It's Cornell, you're gonna work no matter where you are'. This question may seem frivolous but no one seems to go into much detail besides saying its high pressured. Is it GPA deflation ?hard professors ?</p>
<p>Courseloads vary for sure. Architecture students spend tons of time in the studio, while engineeers spend lots of time doing problem sets and projects, and ILRies will be reading. There may be some majors where people work less, but for the most part, people are all very busy.
There are high standards. Grades are assigned fairly and there is no GPA deflation. In most classes you will need to work hard to earn an A, and that will mean lots of studying before exams, careful completion of homeworks, and quality work on whatever other measures are used for evaluation. Professors are often not very lenient (although most are fair) and they will expect you to know a lot when they test you.</p>
<p>Cornell’s culture is intense. I wouldn’t say that people are competitive with each other, but most students here take their academics very seriously, and also work very hard. The grade deflation concept is just a rumor. Although I certainly wouldn’t say there is grade inflation here, professors are definitely very fair. </p>
<p>Lastly, I honestly think ‘pressure cooker’ is an exaggeration. While finals week may certainly be an exception, Cornell students also like to have fun too. There are always tons of fun things to do on-campus, and lots of opportunities to do other things besides study.</p>
<p>I had two good friends transfer from other good schools to Cornell and both said Cornell was substantially more work. I’ve heard at least a couple professors say that they were able to get away assigning more work to Cornell students than students at other universities where they’ve taught.</p>
<p>Workload definitely varies by major and difficulty. And workload doesn’t even necessarily mean difficult and difficult doesn’t necessarily mean high workload. For example, in some majors (physics, even Econ), the amount of necessary theoretical material and problem sets prior to an exam won’t be all that great. But professors will challenge you on those exams so that the median grades aren’t in the A-range. On the other hand, it may take many hours to get through ILR and History reading, but nothing about the material is all that difficult. </p>
<p>Really, not all majors are the same in terms of what qualifies as “A-level mastery.” Just as some sports are harder to master than others, so too is that true for academics.</p>
<p>cornell is a pressure cooker
if you are going to grad school stay away because of hard grading at cornell
I went to a combined program over cornell because they have very bad grad school placement for medicine or law
look at this <a href=“http://www.inpathways.net/topfeeder.pdf[/url]”>http://www.inpathways.net/topfeeder.pdf</a></p>
<p>lots of students I know from Cornell have gone onto grad school, and lots of them like me did not have straight As. it is pretty obvious that having a bachelors from Cornell is well-regarded, even if you got a few lower grades in tough classes.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.inpathways.net/top50feeder.pdf[/url]”>http://www.inpathways.net/top50feeder.pdf</a></p>
<p>not sure it is obvious
all of harvard’s grad schools say it makes no differenc what college you go to
and they look at GPA without regard to where you went undergrad</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.inpathways.net/top50feeder.pdf[/url]”>http://www.inpathways.net/top50feeder.pdf</a></p>
<p>there are a lot of other fine places to go to grad school besides Harvard. most places just want a 3.0 or better and that is generally attainable even with a couple of iffy grades.</p>
<p>Looked at derrickspa’s posts, seems like he likes to bring up that link very often. Debunked by colene here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cornell-university/1333728-what-going-have-people-lost-their-minds-10.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cornell-university/1333728-what-going-have-people-lost-their-minds-10.html</a></p>
<p>I don’t buy any of this. Cornell is not more difficult than any other good school. As long as you put in the effort, it’s not hard to do well, even in the “hard” classes. And there are plenty of classes at Cornell that are laughably easy.</p>