Workload Survival Worries

Colleges & Universities A-Z Cornell University
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<p>Note: I really apologize if this sounds much too like a jumbled emotional outpouring, but this is my genuine concern about college/Cornell. Any input you might have would be greatly appreciated, and knowing me, I would read it multiple times in an effort to relieve my angst. If you have no advice to offer, I hope that if by any chance you are also anxious about college like I am, this tells you that you are not alone, and that there is someone out there who is probably worrying more than you.</p>

<p>I will be a student in the class of 2016 at CALS, majoring in animal science.
Although I am worried about the weather (coming from Northern California) and the social life (that no one will want to make friends with me, that I will spend all my time alone and my efforts to be gregarious will be ignored), my biggest worry is the workload. If anyone could provide a perspective on the transition from senior-year-in-high-school workload to freshman year at Cornell, it would be immensely helpful. I was very shocked and surprised (and elated, of course) that I was accepted to Cornell, as I am an almost straight-B student in honors and AP classes, compared with the countless other applicants who are straight-A students in the same courses. I don’t know how to exactly “measure” hard work whenever people say that working harder will raise my grades—as I often find myself simply not comprehending the material, or forgetting it, or just finding that the questions on assessments are unfamiliar to me. “Working harder” will supposedly fix these issues, but I don’t know where to begin. It’s pretty shameful for a high school senior to not know how to fully apply herself. So for this reason, I always wonder what is it about the straight-A students that gets them where they are,and how I can attain this quality too. </p>

<p>From the many CC threads that I’ve browsed, and from the words of two alumni, the workload at Cornell is incredibly overwhelming as a freshman (and beyond, but it’s hardest to acclimate to as a freshman), which makes it all to easy to fall into a slump or pit of bad grades that will screw over your general GPA for the next four years. For me, as an animal science major with an ultimate goal to enter veterinary school, general GPA is critical (at least a 3.5) to be accepted. (I’ll go into the veterinary aspect later.) I simply can’t afford to have a low GPA in college, but I feel as if the time it takes to adjust to such a heavy workload will take its toll on my grades. Furthermore, my idea of the word “workload,” as mentioned above, is so abstract. All my brother (who attends Northwestern University) and cousins (who attend UC Berkeley and Stanford University) willl tell me that I need to “study a LOT,” but that doesn’t mean anything to me. I have some vague image of college students never sleeping,making a lot of flashcards, and typing hundred-page essays. Is that what college work is like? Even if the classes are curved (WHY, GOD??), how do you do well in class? Will the professors mind if you simply don’t understand the topic, even when coming to class all the time (which I fully intend to do)? How much time is really spent studying for those exams that basically make up your grade, as opposed to daily work reviewing what was just learned for understanding?</p>

<p>Returning to the veterinary aspect, one of the most frustrating things to me about this career is the type of prerequisites. I currently have a B- in AP Calculus AB, when many others in my grade are either taking AP Calculus BC or have finished BC as juniors. I remember my brother (a biomedical engineering major turned economics) coming home and telling me that multivariable calculus “made grownups cry.” A veterinarian I helped once told me that you needed no math at all as a veterinarian, “you just need it to get there.” I’m worried, so worried, that I won’t be able to handle this level of math at Cornell if I can’t even get a B in AP Calculus AB as a senior. I have similar concerns about physics and chemistry, especially chemistry, as I had B’s all year for both of those sciences—and although I need to take both of those sciences in college, chemistry is integral to the veterinary profession.On top of all the schoolwork, I’ll need to be getting my thousands of hours of experience with animals for veterinary school. </p>

<p>You might be thinking that I don’t belong to Cornell, or that I’ll never survive. But the truth is that I will be going there in the fall, and I want to succeed, and no matter how many times it takes to be accepted to veterinary school, I maintain that I will be a veterinarian one day. (After doing research on what it REALLY takes to be a veterinarian, I have an additional, newfound respect for every one I see!)I know that in attending Cornell, my college experience will not be a walk in the park. I know I need to shape up if I’m ever going to be a veterinarian. I just wish I had a better idea of what’s going on, what to expect, and how to prepare myself. Anything you can tell me will be SO greatly appreciated. Sorry for using up a chunk of your time :( Thanks.</p>

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<p>First, congratulations on being accepted. It’s a huge accomplishment and admissions only lets people in who they believe have the best chance to succeed. It’s a holistic process and yes, you beat out literally thousands who had straight A’s in APs. </p>

<p>But guess what? Once you enter Cornell as a freshman, all high school academic accomplishments get thrown out the window. The valedictorian with a 4.0 and a 2400 SAT starts off in no better position than you. Having just graduated from Cornell myself, I can tell you my high school accomplishments hold almost no weight with me, and it’s all about my achievements at Cornell. [That’s not to say I’m not proud of what I achieved in high school, but I have my Cornell diploma hung above desk, and I can’t even tell you where my high school one even is.]</p>

<p>At this point, it’s not worth it to compare yourself to others. Yes, college grading is largely done on a curve, but you can only focus on you. Now, I think it’s good you’ve recognized that you have had academic struggles in high school. In some respects you are ahead of the game compared to most Cornell students, who will have never realized academic struggles until their first prelim grade. </p>

<p>So the workload? I don’t know what your work load was in high school, but for most Cornell students, it’s negligible compared to college. The extremely general rule (read: largely useless when applying to any individual class, but a good holistic view) is that each hour of classroom time, you should have 2 hours of study/homework time. For some classes it will be more, others it will be less. For some classes, you will do no outside work for weeks, then dedicate concentrated whole weekends and long nights to essays, projects, and studying for exams. Quite honestly, the semester I took 23 credits (6 classes) was not my worst and I’ve had a few 15 credit semesters that had a heavy workload. It all depends. The Cornell PULSE survey is something you’ll probably find informative: <a href=“http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000469.pdf[/url]”>http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000469.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The key to succeeding at Cornell: TIME MANAGEMENT
Good time management skills are what allow people who party hard to discipline themselves when not out at night to still do what’s necessary to get high grades. One friend who was an Engineer, worked really hard M-F so that he could have his weekends to himself and not do school work. For the conventional weekend partier who still maintains a good GPA, you get up at 10am or 11am on Saturday, do schoolwork all day, then have all the time you need to go and party from 10:30pm until the wee hours of the morning. People who party every day and still work hard make sure that they set enough time elsewhere in their day apart from their time they set aside for their social life, to get everything done. I don’t advocate being a “hardcore” partier though, and while some succeed, usually those who are out 6 nights a week are also pulling the bottom of the curve. My point is that yes, you will work hard, but those who succeed at Cornell aren’t those that make sacrifices, it’s those people who figure out how to make everything work. </p>

<p>For me, I usually made daily “task” lists. A better idea might be to make extensive use of Google Calendar.</p>

<p>MikeyC765’s guide to studying:
Any time I have an assignment or a test, the first thing I do is guess how long it will take (usually with a little over-estimating). Doing this is an acquired skill. You won’t be awesome at it right away and as you get older and complete more classes, you will figure it out how long things take you. Then you must set aside that time to get it done. </p>

<p>Next, use “active studying.” There are much better threads on CC on “how to study” but the main point is don’t focus your time on “reading” your notes. Figure out a way to engage with them. Flash cards can be good. A good method is coming up with questions about the material, and forcing yourself to answer those questions and truly think/engage with it. College emphasizes thinking much more than high school. I wasn’t a science major so I can’t give a Animal Science example, but I think you’ll get the gist. But for example, don’t look in your Biology textbook, and read “Cell: the basic unit of organisms” but rather make a flash card or make a question sheet that says: 1) What is a cell? 2) How are cells formed 3) What cells are relevant for this topic? Why? [I know, really bad examples]</p>

<p>For my Econ tests a routine for me might be:

  1. Read notes for chapters 1-5 (1 hour)
  2. Make a sheet of formulas, terms, concepts that summarizes notes <a href=“3%20hours”>I’ve found being able to figure out how to summarize my notes helps me focus</a>
  3. Re-do assigned problem sets and take note of which questions I got wrong or struggled with. (3 hours)
  4. Make a new summary sheet that emphasizes areas I’m struggling (1 hour)
  5. Read sections in textbook for topics I’m struggling with (2 hours)
  6. Do extra problems from the textbook and focus on questions that emphasize my relative weaknesses (4 hours)
  7. Repeat steps 1-6 as necessary [I would usually do/read problem sets multiple times since for many classes, the exam question was at least somewhat similar to homework, so if you were familiar with the questions on the problem set, you could be assured of healthy partial credit on the exam questions.]</p>

<p>GO TO OFFICE HOURS!!
Professors usually appreciate it, and if they don’t, it’s on them and is their problem, not yours. You are at Cornell. You are smart and you should NEVER feel ashamed not to know/understand something. At times it may seem like everyone is understanding everything, but not everyone is. Obviously the person speaking up in class understands whatever topic, that’s why they are speaking up (usually). I promise you that not everyone else is understanding whatever concept at that same level. I’ve never heard a professor complain too many people were seeing them in their OH, but they often complain students don’t seek them out when they don’t understand something (usually after a test when scores were lower than they hoped). When you go to OH though, BE PREPARED! Don’t ask a professor to re-explain lecture to you. Yes, that WILL annoy them. Come up with specific questions rather than the “I don’t understand.” For example, when you go to OH say “I have written in my notes XYZ about Topic K, but I don’t understand this about it. Can you explain this?” DO NOT ask them to do your homework questions for you but instead say, “I was trying #1 and I got lost here.” Or if you’re completely lost “I have no idea how to approach question #3, and I thought Section B of Ch. 4 in the textbook might help, but it didn’t. Can you direct me to how to approach the question?”</p>

<p>PS. Regarding the making friends concern, don’t stress about that. Participate in the orientation events and try different activities. Many clubs are desperate to recruit new members and as a freshman, you will be a highly sought after commodity. As long as you make yourself available to others, you should find a good group of friends.</p>

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<p>Since my Messages keeps telling me I have 0 sent, I’ll put this here as well…
Wow, I can’t ever thank you enough for your reply, Mikey. This is just what I needed, and I get the feeling I’m going to refer back to this a lot as I begin college. (I saved it to my computer in case CC decides to do anything that involves erasing this, haha.) It sounds great that the professors are there to clarify anything (I can understand why they would be annoyed by straight-up asking them to re-lecture), and my brother’s life basically revolves around Google calendars, so I’ll ask him to help me organize my own for Cornell. The PULSE survey seems to say that most people are satisfied with the life and resources there. In general, I feel a lot better now. This morning I felt so frustrated and lost, all of the worries I have about work expressed in the thread, so thanks a TON again for helping me know what to expect. I really appreciate it.</p>

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<p>haha, mikey I like your post. </p>

<p>OP: I am a recent alumnus of cornell and I studied Economics. I am now heading to a top law school, and I wanted to share few things:</p>

<p>1) Workload or stress/ difficulty at Cornell is largely dependent on your major and courses you take. Usually, people who were pre-meds, engineers, or studying other hard sciences seemed to be most stressed. On the other hand, people from PAM, AEM, or Sociology majors seemed to barely study at all at any time and seemed more concerned with getting drunk come the weekends. </p>

<p>2) As a result, I recommend you choose your courses wisely. If you have one or two difficult required courses in a semester, try to take other electives that seem interesting to you and look to be easy. I did this and I think this is the most important thing to stick with in college, personally.</p>

<p>3) Don’t worry about it. Usually, kids who don’t do well at Cornell are people who major in a very difficult major, or kids who are unmotivated/ lazy. If you pursue the major that is right for you and do your stuff, you will be just fine. </p>

<p>4) FWIW, I thought that some of the courses I took at Cornell were significantly easier than the ones I took in high school. Also, some courses were very fun and exciting, due to highly passionate/ engaging professors and interesting materials. So, as long as you choose your courses wisely, you will have a very rewarding and not-so-stressful time at Cornell!</p>

<p>5) Lastly - try not to do all the studying two days before the final exam. This is what many students seemed to do, and I suspect this is the reason why some students were so stressed out during the finals week.</p>

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<p>To add to LazyKid’s point #5, basically after the 4th or 5th week of any semester (when prelim season starts), people around you will start acting stressed, and it’s hard for that feeling to not make you feel stressed. While Cornell can be hard, Cornell students can be unbearably whiny. More often than not, that person who is complaining they were up for the last 48 hours studying/doing homework was fooling around on Facebook a good portion of that time (or any other distraction). My point is that the stressful periods of a semester can be made a lot easier if you are able to focus on yourself and not let the negativity that can come from other people affect you. Then again, it’s also important to keep your friends close and even in the midst of studying for 3 exams and writing 3 more essays, to at least set aside some leisure time and at least go to dinner with them or something.</p>

<p>And in my opinion, Cornell being tough at times is exactly the reason it’s worth it. More my personal philosophy, but anything that’s easy to accomplish isn’t usually the most meaningful in life. Sometimes it helps to step back and reflect on that.</p>

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<p>Very helpful post Mikey…The incoming Cornell students should put it on their favorites list.</p>

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<p>There is absolutely no sure way of predicting your workload, even by major, because it totally depends on the classes you take. I am a freshman biology major and although I’m not premed, my schedule is basically the same as many of the premed student I know because the bio major and premed requirements are very similar for intro-level courses (a bio course, a chem course, a writing seminar, an elective, etc). My workload was extremely manageable. I can think of only 2 times I felt overwhelmed last semester and both times it was because of other things in addition to academic work. (And when I say overwhelmed I mean feeling very unhappy because of stress. Of course I was stressed out a lot other times by the workload, as should be expected, but in those cases it didn’t affect my mood.)
On the other hand, I know AEM majors have extreme amounts of work and can never sleep before 2am, a PAM major who had 5 finals and 2 intense papers due this past finals week (I had 3 finals), etc.<br>
I found that once I’d been at Cornell for a few weeks, I had a good idea of what my workload would be for the whole semester and I managed my time accordingly. I will have to figure it out all over again next semester, and every semester after that, since it’s very hard to tell what a class will be like until you take it.
Don’t worry too much about it though. My high school work load was not “negligible” compared to my workload at Cornell, and I did not attend an intense high school. The workload at Cornell may be heavier but you’ll have more free time so it balances out, as long as you manage your time well. I felt that I managed my time very well this semester and I can think of only one time I turned down a social event in order to study, I never had to stay up later than 1am for homework (and then only rarely), I rarely felt overwhelmed, and I got grades in my classes that I was happy with. I’m not saying Cornell’s workload is easy, just that it’s not very hard to “survive” :)</p>

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<p>A point I implied, but didn’t explicitly make about studying is simply the exercise of drafting questions about the material can be extremely helpful. For some things, the process of making the question in and of itself is more valuable than being able to answer it.</p>

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<p>springerspaniel - My daughter’s friend is an animal science major @ Cornell in her sophomore year. If you would like me to see if she’d be available to correspond with you, I’d be happy to see if I can make that happen. Just let me know.</p>

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<p>Thanks, everyone! It really helps.</p>