randomosity

What is the workload at CC like? Is The Core overwhelming? I have a 4.2 high school GPA, and I would be happy with like a 3.5 in college, but do you have to pull consecutive all-nighters? Are the assignments mostly reading/problem sets or a lot of projects?

An approximation of how much work there is per night/per week and how many nights a week you can go out would be great!

Thanks

Columbia2002

Average CC GPA is a bit below 3.5. Unless you're taking a heavy science courseload, it should not be the least bit overwhelming.

Nobody pulls all-nighters, unless they're by choice. A couple of times I did the "it's 3am and this paper that I've been putting off for 2 months is due at 10am and I haven't even read the books" drill. But, nobody has so much work that they're actually forced into all-nighters.

You don't have "assignments" in college. Most humanities classes have 1-2 exams and 1-3 papers (some will have more regular writing). In math/science classes, you may have 2-4 exams and sometimes weekly/biweekly problem sets (sometimes they aren't graded or even handed in).

You'll find that you have a lot more free time in college than what you have in high school, so there's more time to do your work. An average courseload is 15-16 credits, which means you're only in class for 15 horus a week. You're in school for a lot more than that now in high school.

randomosity

Thank you so much That was really helpful. I just hope you're not some like super-genius who's making me totally underestimate what I'm in for, lol!

I'm planning on majoring in something in the humanities, so no heavy science courseload for me!

So, essentially, it's hard work, but it's manageable? Because I would HATE to go somewhere where I have to slave for a 3.0.

Columbia2002

If you're taking humanities classes, there's nothing to be a super-genius about. If you want A's, you need to put in some amount of time to read the works, do the research, write the papers, etc. If you're happy with B's, you can be a total slacker.

abcdef

columbia2002, do u know what the average SEAS GPA is like?

Columbia2002

The number I saw when I was there was 3.1-3.2. I believe that is the average GPA of SEAS *students,* not of all SEAS classes. But, I'm not positive.

imiracle911

columbia2002 how about orgo for freshmen? i'm thinking about placing out of general chem with my 5 and taking a test to take orgo but i don't want orgo to kill me and discourage me the first year.

Shraf

if u dont live and breathe chemistry then you shouldnt take freshman orgo. If you want to get ur gchem over with early then take intensive chemistry but the disparity between gchem and intensive is HUGE with intensive being alot harder...In my opinion there is no reason not to take GChem especially if you are premed.

Also, I'd like to chime in on the original question and give a SEAS perspective for others who may be reading this thread.

Nothing Columbia2002 applies to SEAS students (and i'm talking real engineering majors, not that IEOR or EMS ********). You will certainly be overwhelmed at some points and it will be difficult to balance social life and school work. I definately dont feel like i have more free time than i did in HS but of course it depends on the week. Things tend to pile up very quickly as well and you might find yourself with four midterms in 2 days. It isnt like highschool where you can convince one teacher to change a test date cause u have another one. During junior and senior year they may be a bit more lenient since all your classes are in the same department and everyone will have the same conflicts but you will always have those super extra rough weeks where you are forced to pull all nighters because there just isnt enough time to get through everything. Then again there can be weeks where you dont have a single thing to do...good students use those weeks to catch up on their work and study things in advance....i use them to just sit fck around and finally enjoy college...but those are few and far between.

msmandoo

What will the workload be for a double major at SEAS? Ridiculous..?

Shraf

Depends on what the double major is. If both majors are engineering then very very hard but if is IEOR then it is manageable but still quite hard. It is more advisable to do a minor rather than a second major because the requirements are usually reduced.

msmandoo

Hmm.. how about a major and a concentration at SEAS?

Columbia2002

I made a long post on freshman orgo. It was in the last week -- I encourage you to search for it. I did freshman orgo and would highly recommend it for the reasons stated in my post.

I think this is bad advice. You have to take organic at some point. It is hard whenever you take it. Might as well get it over with.

I was a SEAS student and did a real engineering major (arguably the hardest one, not one of those bull$hit ones). Everyone has different opinions.

The hard part is having to satisfy two sets of requirements. If you do two majors with a ton of requirements that don't overlap, you'll need to take more than a normal courseload. That's the hard part. If you can get away with taking 5-6 classes every term doing two majors, it isn't any worse than doing one major.

typhoeus11

columbia2002, what was your major?

fexfeminae

Can CC students do a minor in SEAS?

blah1111

msmandoo: concentrations don't exist in the engineering school. SEAS only has minors and majors, while the College only has concentrations and majors. it goes something like minor<concentration<major.

fexfeminae: no, they can't. however, SEAS students can do a minor in SEAS and in the College. hell, College students can't even minor in the College.