Up to pace?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cooper Union
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<p>Hey! I've been reading some of these posts about the students at Cooper Union and I see that most of those admitted are top notch students fro specialized high schools with perfect SAT scores...regrettably I am not. </p>

<p>Considering I'm coming from a school that didn't offer much in terms of SAT preparation, one that kind of assumed I would party more so than work, and I got into Cooper Union, and am planning to go there: I was given only fundamental physics, and the highest level of Math offered in my school was AP Calc AB. Now, since my school offered less than the technical schools, I feel I may be left behind a bit. How does Cooper Union do in bringing all students to the same level freshman year? Will I be at a great disadvantage because of my weaker High School Curriculum?</p>

2

<p>Hi, Scibor. First of all, I’d like to say congrats on getting in! I came from a fine arts high school, but my SAT scores were not the best. I still somehow managed to make it into Cooper Union, but I’m going to Rice instead because of the room and board cost. I guess a big part of it depends on what you’re majoring in. With art, I don’t think it’ll be much of a problem. I applied for architecture, and they recently increased the amount of credits they need for the B. Arch program. The architecture school encouraged incoming students to take calculus and physics over the summer. I assume it is the same with engineering. </p>

<p>Aside from that, Cooper Union admits people from diverse backgrounds - from both ends of the academic spectrum. The most important thing is how hard you’re willing to work. It’s going to be a tough curriculum!</p>

3

<p>So yeah…the Engineering School is where I’m headed, apparently the roughest and toughest of the bunch…you think I’ll manage considering my High School education…well, my school wasn’t well funded so I mean…I don’t have as much knowledge coming in as some of the other kids do.</p>

4

<p>If you got into Cooper Union, then they definitely want you. Because of the economy, all the physics classes I tried to take weren’t available. I can’t really say anything for the engineering department, but there are students admitted who don’t come from a strong high school curriculum. They cannot hold it against you if your school didn’t have many options. What’s important is that you are motivated enough to try. The first year or so, regardless of backgrounds, I think the foundation classes will help to level everyone’s abilities out. If you are determined to succeed, you can do it. Besides, like I said above, if Cooper accepted you, there’s definitely a reason! Don’t feel like you’re having to compete or one up on the other students coming in.</p>

5

<p>Scibor,</p>

<p>I just finished my freshman year at Cooper (chemical engineering major) and I can identify with the HS experience you had. I went to public HS in a suburb of Philadelphia. Sure, they told us that our HS was one of the best public highschools in the area, but once you get to Cooper, a ranking like that means nothing. I don’t know what percentage exactly, but a LOT of kids come from private or magnet HSes. (magnet = public but you have to take an admissions test to get in.) You’ll meet kids from schools like Stuyvesant, Bergen County Academies, Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech, SI Tech, etc. who took Vector Calc (comes after Calc II) and Differential Equations, 3 years of chemistry, 4 years of physics, etc. in highschool. Idk about you, but I was taking the most advanced curriculum my HS offered and I got up to Calc II, AP Chem, and had one year of “honors physics” (I took AP Compsci instead of AP Physics)</p>

<p>A lot of these magnet schools have engineering programs which literally train these kids for a school just like Cooper. Going into freshman year, they’ll already have some knowledge about programming in multiple languages, robotics, circuits, CAD, computer programs like Mathematica or Matlab, machining, welding, tons of lab experience, etc. Before Cooper, I didn’t know what half that stuff was…I thought I’d be ahead of the game because I took 2 years of chem and calc BC, instead of AB, in highschool. Cooper professors are used to kids like these, so when you don’t know all of this stuff, you kind of have to figure it out as you go. Granted, if you got into Cooper you’re definitely smart enough to learn, and learn quickly, but you don’t have time to sit down one day and learn Mathematica (that’s what summers are for! …yea, not kidding).</p>

<p>There’s definitely a sense of having been left in the dust. Having excelled at a mediocre HS doesn’t compare with even a mediocre performance at an excellent HS. Because the professors expect that you know certain things, they won’t slow down to make sure “everyone’s on the right page” or whatever… I don’t think I’ve heard that phrase since high school. I mean, my HS was in a pretty high socioeconomic class and we had things available to us that some neighboring HSes didn’t, but there’s a huge difference between being in a HS engineering curriculum and being in a good high school that just prepares you for college in general. That seems like common sense, but whatever.</p>

<p>Example - a friend of mine who went to a magnet school used his HS solidworks project from freshman year as his final project for the drafting portion of CS102. (I didn’t know what solidworks was a year ago at this time, so during the end of fall semester I spent 20 or so hours doing my final project.) The same kid placed out of the max # of classes you can from APs, and mechanics (which requires AP score + ridiculous placement exam). he took like 24 credits this semester, finished his math requirement, took sophomore level classes etc. He’s so ahead that his schedule for next semester was messed up because he was on track to take mostly junior classes, but they interfered with his required sophomore mechE classes. He’s a hardworking, super smart kid, so he does well. </p>

<p>In the fall, you’ll taking an engineering design class (EID101). I basically did no technical work for this class because we didn’t actually learn technical stuff, we did more w/ the engineering design process. But the final product for my section (you sign up for a section you’re interested in, they each do something diff) involved coding an arduino, circuitry, machining, etc. I didn’t already know how to do anything remotely related to this stuff, as was the same situation with a couple other kids in the class, but the professor didn’t stop class to teach us this stuff because enough people already knew it for the project to be successful.</p>

<p>In short: yes, you will be at a disadvantage.</p>

<p>But everyone helps each other and learns from each other. So don’t be too discouraged! I learned more this year than I ever thought possible. Good luck!</p>