mrspendleton

Could anybody answer my questions?

1) What is the freshman requirement for a CAS student? I'm undecided within CAS. (eg. writing seminar, foreign languages, math, and what else?)

2) I heard that all freshmen are to live in the North Campus. Is it true? And is housing guaranteed for four years? If not, what should I do to live on campus after my freshman year at Cornell.

3) I heard that I do not have to choose my major until junior year. Is it okay that I take linguistic/liberal arts courses exclusively during my first two years, and then declare my major as biology or something totally irrelevant? Is it possible?

4) What is prelim exactly?

5) Cornell’s is known to be one of the toughest schools to get an ‘A’. Is an ‘A’ at Cornell considered the same thing as an ‘A’ at some other schools where grade inflation is frequent?

6) Will I often see people from other schools (engineering, architecture, etc.) at Cornell?

7) Is Cornell a lot hilly or just a bit hilly? Do people ride bike or walk on campus?

8) Is summer in Ithaca hot/warm/mild/rainy?

Thanks a lot in advance.

ceruleanyankee

I can only answer a few of these (since I'm not in CAS)...
2. Yes, all freshmen live on North. But there is a medley of housing, including program houses w/upperclassmen, so you'll probably end up somewhere you love (given that you're honest on your housing app). Housing is NOT guaranteed all 4 years- only freshmen and sophomore year. Sophomores usually live on West Campus (a few new 'houses' down there) and upperclassmen live either in program houses, co-ops, West Campus/Collegetown dorms, fraternity/sorority houses, or off-campus houses/apartments (in Collegetown, near North/West, downtown). I'm finding that most of my friends are living on West next year (soph. year), some in C-town dorms, and the rest in sororities or off-campus housing.

4. A prelim is like a midterm test- cumulative up to that point, but usually it's twice a semester, thus nullifying the 'midterm' name. Each class has different number, types, intensity of prelims, so you'd really have to look into the classes you'd be taking (ie. Calc I has 3 prelims; a lot of history classes just have many papers).

6. Yes. Your First Year Writing Seminar will be open to all students, and although it may be concentrated (ie. one of the English ones like Intro to Poetry might be more CAS/English majors), it will probably be diverse. My FWS had Hotelies, Arts and Sci kids, ILRies, and Aggies, and it was in the AAP school (go figure). Your dorm/room/friends will most likely be in other majors/schools, without a doubt. A lot of CAS classes are also full of people from other schools, too, so you won't just be seeing the same people (unless you're in a small school like mine and you get to know your class very well).
7) Most people will walk, and at most it'll be 20 minutes (it depends how fast you walk, too). Sometimes you'll take a bus if you catch one/plan for it, especially when it's cold, but it's really not that bad. It is (in my opinion) more hilly than other schools I've visited, but then again, I grew up near farms and in a valley, so what do I know?

8. Ithaca in the summer, from what I know (I came here twice in the summer) was fairly hot but not overly humid. Perhaps someone who's come for the HS Summer Program can answer that better.
Hope this helps!

mrspendleton

Thank you for your detailed explanation!

Ceramo

1) There aren't technically any requirements that you have to fulfill freshman year; as long as you fulfill them by the time you graduate, you're fine. You have to take two writing seminars (advisable to do this as a freshman); two semesters of a language (or one semester at the 200 level or above); two P.E. classes; and a combination of four maths and sciences (either two and two; or three science, one math).

2) Only freshman and sophomore years. From what I've heard though, it's pretty likely that you'll get housing junior and senior years if you want it.

3) It might be hard to meet the requirements at that point, but I guess it's conceivable.

4) Our pretentious synonym for "test," basically.

5) I sure hope not--can't really speak from experience here though.

6) You'll never see an architect, but you'll interact with people from the other schools all the time.

7) Very hilly. Most walk; some ride bikes; some take the bus.

8) I haven't been here over the summer, but orientation for '09 started roughly midway through August, and it (along with most of September) was pretty warm.

mrspendleton

Thanks to you, too, Ceramo!

ceruleanyankee

ceramo: haha, i see architects all of the time! i guess it helps that one of my friends from POST was one, and because of her i got a secret tour of rand hall. :P

zoogies

I'm glad Cornell's hilly. Flatness is bad.

sashimi46

cornell's VERY hilly and if you live on west campus, you'll be climbing large slopes every morning and every time you go to eat at West campus. it can be very exhausting and you'll develop 'cornell heels' but i like the idea of having cornell sit on top of a hill.

it probably sucks during the winters. I hear that students have to use ropes to climb up the slopes since there's so much snow.

oh, and i was a summer student. this year, the weather was very not ordinary. it was very very hot and humid....it only rained like 3 times when i was there for six weeks. we always had fans blowing on us everywhere. the good thing is when you swim in ithaca falls, it's the most refreshing experience ever because it's so humid and hot.

but you should probably worry about the cold instead.