<p>I am sick and tired of pretentious high-schoolers asking immature questions.</p>
<p>If you have to narrowly define your scope of intelligence in order to feel exclusive and elitist, then get out. This school is great in not catering to the norms of Higher Education and giving all types of students (even ones who don’t have the typical intelligence, OMG WHAT A SHOCK) an opportunity for a great education.</p>
<p>So get out, and come back when you have grown a little hair and had a few life lessons.</p>
<p>If you want to assume things like that, go ahead. :)</p>
<p>And by the way, please don’t call us “immature” if you’re the one that’s getting into an argument with people who are much younger than you and using tough language like growing “a little hair and had a few life lessons”. That goes to show that you’re as supercilious as these “high schoolers” are.</p>
<p>First of all, keyboard29, like chendrix said, there is no one definition of “smart”. Your definition is frankly very ignorant; there is an insurmountable depth to every concept, and every subject induce a different style of learning (and frankly, I would rather hang out with hardworking “average” people than intellectual lazy bums). For example, for math, you begin with several tools and begin manipulating them to get new products, while for history, you begin with evidence and develop the stories around that evidence. For science, you begin with an idea, then try to prove/disprove your idea with testing and observation. The point is that not everyone is good at every subject (and there are levels of good), and not every subject uses the same method of comprehension. So yes, at Cornell, which caters to all intelligence, you WILL find math geeks to talk about advanced math theories and history buffs to talk about the significance of different historical events. You will also find INTELLIGENT people who talk about normal stuff, like school, events, clothes, food, hip-hop music, etc.
Actually, chendrix, I was thinking more of losing a little hair lol.</p>
<p>Yet another way to phrase it:
Do you find yourself having conversations with other students and saying, “Wow, these people are pretty smart!” or do you more often say, “I’m surrounded by idiots!”</p>
<p>To clear things up, I wasn’t asking that to be elitist. I consider myself a huge slacker who (I think) manages to get by since I tend to understand concepts faster without any intense or long studying. I have NEVER thought that people who have to study hard in order to achieve that A were “below me”. I think the fact that they’re willing (and able, mind) to do that is in fact, quite amazing.</p>
<p>My real question to tell you the truth would be, how many Cornellians are there that are good in everything? A good well rounded student who talks about “normal stuff”?</p>
<p>on the math course topic, i found linear algebra to be much easier - the easiest math course i had at cornell, in fact. it was the first math course where i didn’t need to spend excessive time on the problem sets or to understand the concepts. and i did pretty well on all the prelims with moderate study.</p>
<p>I found diff eqs to be much much more difficult and barely pulled a B. wave physics (all diff eqs) killed me as well in terms of the amount of time spent and the grade i got in return.</p>
<p>on whether cornell students are smart…i think you’ll generally find a larger proportion of bright, hard-working students here than you would compared to HS or a state school (i took some summer courses in a state U before). there are always going to be that 10% of genius-level students in all the classes. they’re the ones who take a few notes and for the most part just listen to the prof’s lecture, then ace the prelims with minimal to moderate study time. or finish their semester projects with enough time to also do all the bonus work.</p>
<p>the biggest surprise to me was meeting so many smart people who you normally wouldn’t think to be - the party animal (starts drinking/partying from thurs nights until sunday) who is also an undergrad TA for an upper level CS course, the hookah-toking chubby dude who plays video games and is majoring (and excelling) in applied physics, the varsity athlete who beat your pants off on the last circuit analysis prelim (without studying)…these are real examples by the way.</p>
<p>i would say the majority of students are moderately smart and work hard. i was top 2% in my HS class of 500, and i felt very average at cornell engineering.</p>
<p>I’ve met quite a few people who felt the same way you did, though I personally thought linear algebra was harder. Maybe you have a greater capacity for abstract thinking. Differential equations, for me, was easier because it was taught with emphasis on applications. </p>
<p>I’m in linear now and I can’t stand it. I’ve always been more of a calc. guy than an alegebra. I agree with Tchaikovsky- I think I like calc more because there are so many useful applications to it and I feel like it actually matters, lol. Taking diff. eq this summer, can’t wait for that…</p>
<p>i know exactly what the OP is talking about. EP major here, graduating early and getting a masters. first of all, all the freshman/sophmore math is easy, of course, but you’re right that diffeq is absurdly easy. it wasn’t entirely useless, though a true understanding of multivariable calc and you probably already know 60% of the course. linear algebra was a little bit better but you’re not coming here for those, you’re coming for your major courses.</p>
<p>now, as for the students you interacted with. i’m not going to defend them. i think i’m pretty well aware of what you’re definition of “smart” is. this campus maybe has 5% brilliant, 10-15% smart people on it. more than enough. it’s not concenrated in any particular major either though there are some that are naturally lacking. its more than you’d find in most if not all other places.</p>
<p><em>skipping a lot of the flaming that’s going on</em></p>
<p>I personally define someone who is smart as a person who can quickly understand new concepts and who can use current knowledge to come up with creative, practical, and unique ideas. To take disparate ideas and come up with new knowledge, that is intelligence. For example, I think the DARPA Urban Challenge team are all very smart. Look at some of the ECE476 final projects; there are some very smart people in there too.</p>
<p>You also have to remember that really smart people can say/do really dumb things. It all depends on the situation in which they are in.</p>
<p>All in all, I would say there are some brilliant students at Cornell. There are also some very dumb people. There are plenty of both. Who you associate with is really up to you.</p>
<p>As an alum, I will try to answer this question based on my experience and my own assessment of “intelligence”. </p>
<p>It was at Cornell that my intellectual spark first ignited. It’s not that I was dumb before, as I did fine with grades. It was just that most high school learning based on regurgitation did not cater to my particular brand of intelligence.</p>
<p>The two things at Cornell that ignited that intellectual spark were:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Reaching the upper level classes where I could choose classes that catered to my style of intelligence. I struggled with the science classes early on that focused on memorization and regurgitation. But once I got past them I did not take a single test. Rather I did a lot of projects and engaged in philosophical analysis and creative solutions to complex social situations with some very engaging professors.</p></li>
<li><p>My friends at Cornell, who I definitely said, “Wow. These people are smart!” It was in random, late-night conversations about the meaning of life and such that I first began to develop my full mental aptitude. They have since gone on to top schools and careers in their respective fields, so my opinion has been validated. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>I also exposed myself to a broad array of the university - probably a lot more so than almost any other prep school kid. In so doing, I found a few students in certain hands-on fields that just made me say, “How in the hell did you get in here?” But, it takes a very different type of intelligence for certain occupations than is generally acknowledged in the upper realms of schools and Cornell seems to be good at discerning what types of intelligence are needed to excel in each field.</p>