<p>I am confused. I'm interested in majoring in biology. I'm thinking about dental school but not for sure. I'm female, out-of-state and have a close relative on the faculty of CALS. Do any of these things matter in my chances of admission? Do other factors (ECs, test scores, etc.) matter more in one school than another. I like science but I want to take other things too. All the biology options seem interesting to me. Advice?</p>
<p>Arts & Sciences definately</p>
<p>Why? Because it is a better program or easier to get into?</p>
<p>i'd say CALS, not only because you have a relative on the faculty, but because then you have all of these requirements like foreign language. plus where do you live? if you live in new york then you would get reduced tuition (about 17,000 i think) rather than the normal private tuition. and cals is easier to get into</p>
<p>I say Arts and Sciences.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>You are interested in other things, therefore you may want to double major in something completely unrelated.</p></li>
<li><p>You are out of state, so tuition is about the same.</p></li>
<li><p>You won't be competing for admission with all the NYS bio majors who want the reduced tuition.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The two schools are absolutely the same in quality level. The bio majors in both colleges take their classes together. I just think you're a better fit for CAS.</p>
<p>oh, and I think that having a family member on Cornell staff would have the same effect (if any) at either college.</p>
<p>I could be totally wrong on this statement though.</p>
<p>I was leaning toward CALS. Now I'm <em>really</em> confused! What about Human Ecology? That has bio too. If there's a chance I might end up not wanting to major in biology, does Arts & Sciences make the most sense for me?</p>
<p>If you go to CALS, you can take half of your total credits over the course of your four years at Cornell outside of CALS. The only thing you couldn't do is have a second major in Arts and Sciences. If you live in New York and you want to be a bio major, I think it's a no brainer to pay a lot less tuition to go to CALS.</p>
<p>Since you do not live in New York State, I would apply to CAS. You should know that you will need to take foreign language in CAS, which is something you might want to do anyway. If you are interested secondarily in the life sciences--plant science, animal science, entomology, etc.--rather than humanities or social sciences, then it makes more sense applying to CALS. Note, however, that Communications and Dev/Rural Sociology are in CALS. CALS is not strictly life science--a bit of a misnomer I think. The pre-med track is virtually the same in both, though.</p>
<p>You can't major in bio in Human Ecology. There are some majors in Hum Ec with a heavy biology content, but the actual biology major is offered only in CAS and CALS.</p>
<p>The fact that you have a relative on the faculty may help improve your chance of admission, but it shouldn't matter which school that relative works in.</p>
<p>How did you do on the SAT Subject Tests? CALS wants math and science. CAS will accept any two (and will look at the two highest if you submit more than two). If you did poorly on the math or science Subject Tests (or didn't take them at all) and if you have good scores on other subject tests, such as U.S. History or foreign language, CAS might be the better choice.</p>
<p>On the other hand, how do you feel about foreign language? In CAS, you will have to take more of whatever language you studied in high school (or take about two years worth of a new language). In CALS, you won't have a language requirement. If you don't like studying a foreign language, CALS might be better for you.</p>
<p>"You can't major in bio in Human Ecology."</p>
<p>But you can major in "Human Biology Health and Society", it's focused more towards human bio, focused towards medical applications.</p>
<p>The purely scientific bio major is only offered in CALS and CAS.</p>
<p>HBHS has other components than just the basic science, which may or may not be more appealing to the OP.</p>
<p>Only do CALS bio if you are from NY. The programs are pretty much identical, and you do have a lot of freedom to take other classes in CAS if you are in CALS. If you are more interested in Bio and Society do HumEc, but if you dont think you are going to stick with bio neccessarily then go CAS for sure.</p>
<p>yeah you can only take 55 credits from CAS if you are in CALS</p>
<p>Having a "close relative" on the faculty doesn't help you. There's no space on the application to put faculty references- only references for mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters who attended Cornell as students. I know personally that my aunt is a fulll-time professor in CALS, but I never indicated that on my application and the admissions office obviously has no way of knowing these things. I suppose you could try to put it in the margin of your application or something but I think all that would do would be to turn the admissions officers off from you by seeming too eager/annoying/nieve.</p>