CARRIEmeaway14

Hey everyone!

So, I've visited Cornell twice and really did love it! The campus is stunning, Ithaca is lovely, there's tons of school spirit, and I also heard the social scene was awesome! I've been thinking about applying ED to CALS biology and society, but am starting to have some hesitations. I definitely don't mind working hard, but I'm a really social person and want the full college experience, which means not working or stressing out 24/7.

Is the workload SUPER hard, stressful and life-consuming at Cornell? Especially in the bio and society major? Is it easy enough to balance work and play?

Any advice or feedback would be wonderful and greatly appreciated! Thanks so much

qwer0987

Former Cornell pre-med and current med student here - the workload is absolutely manageable, and balancing work and play is not hard at all. Of course it's stressful at times, but what college isn't? Go out on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night at Cornell and you'll see pretty quickly that lots of people seem to be balancing things pretty well.

CUduff

Work hard during the week and you'll be fine. If you love the school, then join us!

AlphaZetaPrime

I am a current freshman, one month into the year.

I may be biased as I am taking 19 credits and am working on campus. Don't be fooled - there is a lot of work. But, it's manageable, and it's fun work, since you technically decide what classes you want to take. So, don't worry. Be prepared to work and it will be all fine.

mikeyc765

Whether or not it's manageable really depends on time management skills. I encourage all freshmen to spend at least 20-30mins per week just planning their time, especially in their first few weeks. I've known people who were super stressed all the time with heavy workloads, and people with just as bad workloads who were able to party 5 nights per week.

The extraordinarily general rule is that for each academic credit hour, you have 2 hours outside class of study/homework. So if you take 15 credits, that means 30 hours of studying/homework for a total of 45 hours of work per week (which is roughly the same as a full time job). Some weeks will have substantially more work, some substantially less. Just put effort into finding the right balance and plan accordingly.

Quite honestly, one of my least stressful semesters was the one where I took 23 credits because I knew every week I HAD to plan carefully to keep from being too stressed. I disciplined myself that semester more than any other to follow my plans and I came out not only with my highest GPA of any semester, but still plenty of time to partake in social activities/extra-curriculars.

morrismm

Of course there will be a lot of work. Would you expect otherwise from a great college?(Should be any college really.)

But do you really think x thousands of students are studying all of the time? Did you see college town on one of your visits? Did you see the bars?

You will have to work hard and will most likely stress at Cornell. But you will have to do the same at any school worth it's name. But, from what I am told by my D, it is also a lot of fun. There is so much to do that, actually, that can be overwhelming.