Course Work?

DangerDave · 04-28-2009, 01:16 PM

I have about 2 days to make my college decision, and while case has offered me a very generous scholarship, I'm worried about what I am reading about it. From the interviews done by the princeton review, students say that "a 9-5 job will be exceptionalyl easy after a case undergraduate education (which is 9-5 classes, then 5-2 homework)" and "Case western is designed to beat students down [and they] attempt to compete with better schools by giving more homework." Basically, from the student interviews, peopel tihnk that Case is all work, and no time for fun.
How true are these statements?
I'm not averse to hard work by any means, but the thing is, I got into many top universities and the Ivy League, so if I'm going to have to work exceptionally hard anyway, I may as well go to Penn or Wash U or Rice and rack up some debt.
Is the quality of life/student happiness really that low? While I am certainly most concerned with academics, I'm not sure any amount of scholarship can convince me to have a terrible time in college.

Also, about how many times do you have class a week (for one class). Like how many times do you actually meet.

tiff90 · 04-28-2009, 06:20 PM

Regardless of where you go, you may want to improve your grammar and spelling. College is work, and people who respond to interviews are either aggrieved or exceptionally happy, and you get many outliers. People complain because of the work load is heavy for engineering and pre med, and the majority of students belong to those two groups (compared to humanities/social sciences). The working world is easier than college because your using skills you have already learned, and are doing things you should know how to do. People manage to have social lives and participate in a variety of activities. Additionally, Case has a rather high acceptance rate for the level of difficulty, and there are kids here who shouldn't be here, in that they just aren't smart enough for a school like Case.

DangerDave · 04-28-2009, 07:36 PM

Quote:

"Regardless of where you go, you may want to improve your grammar and spelling. College is work, and people who respond to interviews are either aggrieved or exceptionally happy, and you get many outliers. People complain because of the work load is heavy for engineering and pre med, and the majority of students belong to those two groups (compared to humanities/social sciences). The working world is easier than college because your using skills you have already learned, and are doing things you should know how to do. People manage to have social lives and participate in a variety of activities. Additionally, Case has a rather high acceptance rate for the level of difficulty, and there are kids here who shouldn't be here, in that they just aren't smart enough for a school like Case."

If grammar and spelling on this joke of a forum is that important to you, then I would like to point out that you have used the wrong 'your' when you said

Quote:

The working world is easier than college because your using skills you have already learned

Also, there is something inherently wrong with this portion of your sentence

Quote:

People complain because of the work load is heavy for engineering and pre med,

because of the work load is heavy? Seriously.

Thanks for answering none of my questions, tho I think you've given me some insight as to what kind of people attend case...

DangerDave · 04-28-2009, 08:02 PM

Wow, looking back on your thread history, you've wanted to transfer out of Case starting in the fall of your freshman year. Had your essay ready since September? What a total joke.

I've spent the last month weighing my decisions for universities and have read many of your posts that seem to put Case in a positive light. Now I check your thread history to find that you hate Case and have wanted to transfer out since freshman year first semester?

two quotes from you

Quote:

I'm a poli sci/hsty major.
I am impressed with the quality of the professors, especially the guest professors. I have had 3 poli sci prof's, and several History Prof's. First off, the prestige of the social science department is not up to par with the pre med/engineering/science departments, and the course offerings are much more limited. All the prof's I have had are passionate about their classes and are extremely accomodating, and make genuine attempts to know their students. All my prof's knew my name by the second week, which you won't get at BU, and are always excited to discuss topics outside of class. One advantage is that if you are a strong writer, you have an edge over many students.
It is difficult to say how "good" a department is, especially since I can only compare college to high school. The department is very friendly, and the faculty doesn't act as though they are above students. The largest class I had was an intro hsty course which was 60ppl on lecture days, 20 on discussion days. Otherwise, none of my poli sci courses (2 of which are mandatory courses for poli sci) are larger than 22 people, which allows for meaningful discussions.

taken from How strong is Case in Poli-sci, History?
and

Quote:

I am a history/poli sci/econ major, and the course offerings are extremely limited, and the prof's seem fairly mediocre. There are very few classes in hsty/posc departments/
The administration is very unhelpful, and would not allow me to switch SAGES (before classes even started) because the prof's inability to effectively speak English is not a legitimate concern...This may sound stupid, but I was not pleased that my econ professor is a European liberal, and was constantly preaching gov economic intervention despite the fact that our book and economics in general condones such actions.

taken from Transferring twice

If you need more proof, I suggest you read some of your previous posts and the self-contradictions will be come apparent immediately.

Looks like admissions at higher institutions did a good job weeding out insincere/incapable people in your case...

Jeez, thank God I have choices and merit scholarships.

CaseSpartan10 · 04-29-2009, 05:55 AM

Ok wow, can we calm down a little bit? I'll just sidestep the little feud going on here, and answer some of your questions.

Case will work you pretty hard, but its honestly not something that should scare you away. I think Tiff actually brought up a good point by mentioning that most of the students at Case are involved in engineering or the sciences. I think at any respectable university, these subjects will be difficult and cause quite a bit of strain on the students. That's just the way it is.

I'm a third year biology major, and while I have found the curriculum challenging, I have tons of time for fun. I have a great group of friends that enjoys partying on the weekends and the occasional week-night. I have no problem finding a decent party on a friday or saturday and having a few drinks. Sure, not everybody at Case is into that sort of thing, and some will unfortunately sit in their dorm rooms in front of the computer on a friday night. Also, there's a huge number of clubs and activities on campus at any given time, and they're quite easy to get involved in. Anybody that wants to have a good time at Case can do so, and the workload will not stop you from that.

EDIT: I also forgot to mention that Greek life is a pretty big part of the social scene on Case's campus. We make up something like 30% of the total student population, and many of the on campus events revolve around greek life. I especially like it here because the university imposes pretty strict rules that prevent the fraternities from doing ridiculous things like hazing. It's a pretty chill scene compared to what you might find at most large universities.
hope that helps

DangerDave · 04-29-2009, 09:44 AM

Thanks for the response Case Spartan. When I visited Case seemed alright to me, but the interviews on princeton review kind of deterred me. I guess I'm kind of wondering about a comparison of the work load between Case and say, Penn, Wash U, or Rice. But since no one goes to multiple colleges at least for undergrad at the same time, no one can really compare. Oh well.

DangerDave · 04-29-2009, 04:22 PM

Though, the difference in course load is not quite so important to me as the difference in the quality of education/life in general. I'm wondering if the difference in the rankings (in both academics AND student happiness) I see and the intelligence/personality of the people I've met at these schools is marginal, or significant.

CaseSpartan10 · 04-29-2009, 06:05 PM

I see what you're asking, but unfortunately you said it. None of us go to multiple universities, and I really don't know what its like at Penn, washU, etc...I can really only tell you that Case is filled for the most part with very intelligent students. I know plenty of people with excellent social lives on the side of a serious academic commitment. I will that i've heard WashU has a pretty sweet social life too. Good luck with your decision, i'll be happy to answer any more questions you have.

tiff90 · 05-19-2009, 11:48 AM

Hahaha man you need to grow up. It really doesn't take much to make you angry, even though this is a "joke of a forum". You get mad at one statement, so you disregard everything else because you get a little upset. You sit there name dropping the Ivy's to make yourself feel better, which is ironic considering your grammar.
I also find it funny that you think I hate CWRU, especially since I never said I did. The Social science department is small and mediocre, compared to other schools in the top 50 and many liberal arts colleges. The Prof's are ok, they care but they don't have the accolades or resume of Prof's from other schools, but they are more grounded. I can say that they are better than Pitt Prof's for sure, and aren't as pretentious as some of the Penn/Swarthmore Prof's.There is a lot of red tape, just like most schools. Yes, I looked at transferring because I was unhappy with aspects of Case, and I did so in the first few months of school, which is not abnormal at a place like Case. Roughly 1/8 of each class transfers out, and I know plenty of people who have dropped out because of poor grades, mostly due to a lack of effort. The workload differs per department, which is a given.
Don't rely on places like Princeton Review, especially since Case is a smaller school and they don't ask every student, or close to every student, questions about Case. It's not very reliable for student life stuff, it's kind of a joke.
I never contradicted myself, and you're acting like a 5 year old who is angry because his classmate took his crayon. You must have a lot of free time if you're searching threads that were written in September, but yet you seemed incapable of looking through the Case forum, which had existing threads that would have answered your question. Instead you decide to throw a hissy fit because you don't think a joke's funny, and spend all this time writing an angry post that doesn't even prove your point. On a forum you think is a joke. Wow.

dagiftedone · 05-20-2009, 12:32 PM

I'll comment. I am one of those people who transferred out from Case this semester. was a freshman. PM me is you want more info.

casegirl · 05-20-2009, 12:46 PM

OK, so I go to Case. A very close friend of mine went to a school of a level similar to Case and then transferred to UPenn. Here's some suggestions based on what I have heard from him / my own experience.

1. Yes I have found there is a lot of work (keep in mind I'm an engineer). However, I have also found that if I work hard I will get A's and B's. Also, in regards to complaints about Case, there are a lot of students with inferiority complexes who wish they had gone to better schools or schools with the "name brand" so they try to complain and exaggerate that they work harder than students at such schools, sort of really sad competition . My guess is that with less complaining and more actual work, things could get done faster. But, if you have to work hard, it's good to know that I am never the only one studying at Case.

2. Quality of Life. It is what you make it. There are a lot of people at Case who don't have lives, like me freshman year. And then I realized school isn't everything, college only happens once and I needed to experience it. So I did. I love Case, and although I didn't know it coming in, it was the very best choice for me. I work hard, but I figure out ways to make it fun. During finals and midterms there are tons of people studying, but then there are people who need study breaks too. I am involved in Greek life, volunteering and I've studied abroad.

That being said, my friend at UPenn does talk about how much more stimulating the atmosphere is there, and it would be nice to go to school that people (I'm from the East coast) had actually heard of. I know that people that really can affect my future (companies, grad schools, etc) know that Case is an excellent school, but to be brutally honest, I don't appreciate the "you go where?" But I get over it, because I won't be a 20-something with almost 200k in debt. However, if I didn't want to go grad school I might have gone to a more prestigious college, but since I plan on going to grad school, where I went to college won't matter so much on my resume.

3. Class meeting times: most of my classes have been 3 credit hours and meets MWF 50 minutes each or TH 80 min each. (Of course labs are completely different, you get much fewer credits per hour spent in the lab).

Good luck with everything, hope this helped.

xtra · 05-20-2009, 02:13 PM

Even though I agree with the above posters' messages, I would do some more research about
the atmosphere of Case students and how active Case students are in their own campus governments. very few case students participate or care about how their school is structured.

CaseSpartan10 · 05-20-2009, 06:35 PM

hey casegirl, i'm studying abroad right now...where did you go?

casegirl · 05-21-2009, 03:51 AM

The UK, how about you?

casegirl · 05-21-2009, 03:58 AM

By the way, xtra, I can see that you have a valid point about student government, but I've never heard of a high schooler doing something like that. Just out of curiosity, if I were a high schooler, how would you suggest I actually follow through with your suggestion?