Cornell University Top Questions

Professors definitely don't know anyone's name. I doubt whether they know their own TA's names. Students study the morning after partying before class, before partying in the evening, and after coming home drunk from partying at night. Students are highly competetive but somehow simultaneously unmotivated, unless the goal is medical school. Cornell does offer a fabulous array of classes and majors, but you have to get to the really obscure ones in order to get any beneficial professor-student interaction. One exception is Animal Science 100 with Professor Bruce Currie, a genuine individual concerned with each student as a person. Cornell is absolutely geared towards career goals as opposed to learning the sake of education. A good side to this is the excellent career counseling services provided to students.

Academics at Cornell are NO JOKES! Being an engineer, everything is made purposely harder for classes but the work is doable. No matter what college you enter at Cornell, you will be pushed because the tests and the classes are difficult to an extent and are meant to stimulate thought and generate results.

Professors do know my name. My favorite class was a hotelie law class, HA 387. The professor, Sherwyn, was amazing, and it turns out law is really interesting. He was funny and clever and taught us stuff that could have been really boring in an incredibly engaging way. I'm also a big fan of all the service-learning courses I've taken. Three so far, HA 497, EDUC 240 and DSOC 497. I've worked with the hungry and homeless, taught at a local middle school, and am headed to Nicaragua in three days to build houses. My least favorite class was hotelie Information Systems. It was stupid. And pointless. And my professor was just stepping in for a colleauge for the semester and didn't put any effort into getting grades back to us on time or making sure the assignments were relevant. We did some dumb shit. He used to make us bring in our laptops to class and then take the test on the class website - only the problem was, the wireless couldn't handle 60 kids logging on at the same time. What a debacle. He's such a prick. Preston Clark. I've had a lot of intellectual discussions outside of class, mostly with my English and Philosophy major friends. They like to think about stuff a lot. I love reading, but at home there's no real outlet for discussion. Plus, hotelie classes are dry and uncreative. It's great to talk to people and think about things outside of the classroom - that's when exercising your brain is actually fun. My friend took a writing seminar about porn, strippers, and prostitution. They took a field trip to an actual topless bar, funded by Cornell. That's pretty unique. Hotelies are all interlinked. We like to network. The professors are generally really involved. You see them around the Statler all the time. There are professors I had freshman year who still say hi in the hall and greet me by name, two years later. The hotel school is definitely geared toward getting a job. It's frustrating. I wish I had more time to take literature classes, stretch my brain out. Accounting kills your soul.

Professors definitely know your name, but that varies on what your major is. As an English and History major, I tended to take smaller lectures and seminars. Even in larger lectures, though, you can get them to know your names. And the big classes have sections, so you're never totally lost. Favorite class was freshman fall, a class by Nick Salvatore on dissent in American history. He taught me how to think for myself in a way I never really considered before, by challenging us a lot - without ever making us feel stupid. He held my hand through my first college term paper and was understanding when I needed an extension for health reasons. And then he graded me harshly but fairly. Least favorite was Holocaust lit with Schwarz. He's a pompous dick who quotes his own book. Seriously. Um, hi, it's an Ivy League school without serious grade inflation. So yeah, people study a lot. The most common thing is to work all day all weekend, then go out all night. And work in the evenings during the week. Students definitely do have intellectual conversations outside of class, but it depends on who you hang out with. I think I was disappointed by how many conversations I heard about Uggs. Ugh. Most unique class I took was a writing seminar about how satire has changed since 9/11. The Onion was required reading. I really enjoyed the courses I took in both the English and History departments, but I was disappointed by the lack of breadth in both departments. I tried to take a class on South African literature or 20th century South African history. I couldn't even find a professor to oversee an independent study. I did spend time with a couple of professors outside of class, a younger guy and an older professor who's that stereotypical grandfatherly old man. I see both as mentors and went to both for advice on grad school, other academic issues, even a few drinks at times.

Incoming students must realize that introductory classes have hundreds of students in them and that it is unlikely that the professor will know your name. However, it does get better, and you can always get to know the faculty within your major. I believe that the education at Cornell is geared mostly for learning for its own sake, but then if your major is AEM or something like that, theyre training you for a job. I think that students at Cornell spend a lot of time studying, and if theyre not studying, theyre thinking about all the studying they should be doing.

I think there is a huge divide between humanities/social science classes and the hard sciences/engineering. In the former, classes are very small, professors know your name, and as long as you participate in classes discussions, good grades are attainable. In the case of the sciences, classes are huge and impersonal, and you will be lucky to get a high B.

Because Cornell has so many different schools, if you really do your research, you can choose a program that is either entirely professionally or entirely academically oriented. It's all here. Similarly, classes depend. My first semester, 3 out of my four classes had no more than 22 students. My second semester, I chose more "survey" type classes. Everyone pariticpates in section. People study a lot, but they also party a lot. On any given night you can find a lot of people at the library, or a number of parties. Cornell students do have intellectual conversations outside of class. However, as a whole, the student body is not intimidatingly brainy. It's just people who are concerned with current events, life, society, etc.

- Most professors know my name - Favorite class: Multivariable Calculus, Dynamics - Least favorite class: Statistics - Students studying engineering and who are serious about it (upperclassmen especially) study most of the time, including the weekends. Students at Cornell are very competitive. Outside of class, Cornell students have intellectual conversations. You can always see/hear students debate various political or social topics with each other or even with professors. - Education at Cornell is geared toward getting general knowledge which ultimately helps to get a job.

Professors are hit or miss here. I've had some of the most brilliant professors and I feel privileged to have to opportunity to learn from them. There are others that care much less about their students and more about their research. Those classes I tend to enjoy much less. My favorite classes have been my astronomy and spacecraft engineering classes, my least have been the physics courses here. Engineers are incredibly competitive, but we also work together. My department is Mechanical Engineering. We're a bunch of nerds, but mostly everyone knows each other. There are some great Mech E professors, and the support staff is wonderful. The Mech E requirements are too rigid, but we do get a broad range of courses and we're ready to take on any job we apply for once we're finished.

None of my professors know my name because classes are so big. class participation is not really that common. Only sometimes in smaller classes. students are really competitive. one of my favorite classes was marketing. i also liked pam 230 and human bonding. I feel like my major has no purpose sometimes and will not help me in the real world.