Cornell College Top Questions

The classes vary a lot. It all depends on your professor, the department the class is in, and whether or not you like the subject. But the block plan usually makes every class majorly intense, especially in the last week and a half of the block!

On the Block Plan, every professor gets to know every student. While you are taking the one class, the Professor is teaching only that class. I've had some professors with whom I've only taken one class but they still remember me.

Cornell's academics are incredibly unique: we take classes on the block plan. That means that we basically take 1 course each month, with a 4 day weekend in between. Since we take one course at a time (and have a built in vacation block if we want it), our academic calendar is incredibly customizable. You can take a chemistry class on campus block 5, spend block six in the bahamas studying slavery, and intern in chicago the next. Most people don't, but the options are there. While the individual class experience is incredibly varied, the vast majority of courses are capped at 25 students and most professors really care about your success. Students are very collaborative. There isn't really any sense of competition here. Overall, I haven't met very many true intellectuals, but the people here are for the most part very smart. The most popular departments seem to be science-related. There are a lot of kinesiology majors, and the special office for advising pre-med students means that there are a lot of future doctors, dentists, and pharmacists on campus. The other standout departments are definitely theater and music. Theater is nationally ranked by princeton review, and the music department has a very supportive program that is very large for a school of Cornell's size.