<p>[Freshman</a> Swim Test Made Coed After 92 Years | The Cornell Daily Sun](<a href=“http://cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2010/02/02/freshman-swim-test-made-coed-after-92-years]Freshman”>Freshman Swim Test Made Coed After 92 Years - The Cornell Daily Sun)</p>
<p>Lol, I hadn’t realized it wasn’t coed in the first place. :P</p>
<p>Cornell has a swim test??? Oh no. I did not know that. I can’t swim—and I live in Hawaii! (In fact, I wrote part of my essay about it) :(</p>
<p>lmao</p>
<p>banmaisen, I live in Florida and I can’t swim a lick =</p>
<p>I can float and drown pretty effectively though…</p>
<p>You only have to pass the swim test by your senior year.
If you feel you are not a strong swimmer and could not pass the swim test, you are required to enroll in the beginning swimming PE class to fulfill the swim test requirement.</p>
<p>Wait, so say you don’t take the swim test freshman year, do you have to take the beginning swim class as a freshman? Or, do you just need to either complete the class or the test by senior year?</p>
<p>“Or do you just need to either complete the class or the test by senior year?”</p>
<p>This one. Although I believe to pass out of it using swimming classes, you are required to take Beginning I and Beginning II.</p>
<p>Usually if you don’t know how to swim, you can sign up for Beginning Swim I and then take the test (in class I believe). If you pass, you’re done. If you don’t pass, then you can take Beginning Swim II, and you’ll fulfill the swim test requirement.</p>
<p>This change would have been lots more fun in the 1970s, when men took the swim test in the nude.</p>
<p>I’m pro reinforcing nudity!</p>
<p>Back in that time – which was when I went to Cornell (I’m both a Cornell alum and a Cornell parent), the pool at Teagle Hall was for men and the one at Helen Newman Hall was for women. Bathing suits were required at Helen Newman because there was a corridor with clear glass windows overlooking the pool. But Teagle has no such corridor, and there was no requirement for bathing suits (although I think their use was not forbidden).</p>
<p>There was actually discussion in my time about replacing the clear glass in those corridor windows at Helen Newman with the type of glass that you can’t see through (the kind often used in the windows of public bathrooms) but nothing ever came of it, and women were never allowed to swim in the nude.</p>
<p>I wonder how good they are with the classes. I had so much trouble with my sinking body when I went for swimming lessons last summer.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter how good they are or how badly you sink.</p>
<p>Cornell figures that if they can’t teach you to swim in two semesters, it’s their fault, not yours. So as long as you have adequate attendance at your swim class, you “pass” the swim requirement after two semesters of Beginning Swimming even if you never pass the test.</p>
<p>The only real problem with the swim requirement is that you can’t take other PE courses until you get it out of the way. And some of the other PE courses are a lot more interesting.</p>
<p>Make sure to sign up early for summer swimming lessons if you don’t wanna miss out on all the cool PE courses we have :)</p>
<p>the swim test isnt bad at all. if you can pass all of the tests you had to make to get into cornell, the swim test will be a sinch. all you do is swim 3 lengths, one on your stomach, one on your back, and the last doing whatever. you can even do the doggy paddle and you have as much time as you want and you’ll pass. you just cant hold onto the side or the ropes for dear life</p>
<p>even with all of the knowledge you’ll gain in college, knowing how to swim is probably the best skill you should have.</p>
<p>the swim test was terrible… it took me 3 tries to paass it =( and thats after 1 semester of swim gym in cornell + 1 semester of swim gym in high school</p>
<p>On the plus side, I can swim. Downside, I can’t even get into Cornell. ):
Also, did they make this swim test because of the infamous gorge jumping?</p>
<p>^ lol no. It was made a requirement in a lot of colleges during WW2. But most of them has removed this requirement, except for Cornell, Columbia, the service academies, and a few others.</p>
<p>Can I waive the req on medical grounds? I think I had asthma many years ago and I never had the chance to learn swimming. I really want to learn other things like archery or shooting, they seem very interesting. Does Cornell have these, and do they make you pay for your own bullets or something? Sorry for the stupid questions, heh.</p>
<p>There are some medical reasons to not take the swim test temporarily (broken arm, leg, etc), but you might want to check with Cornell. Thinking you had asthma many years ago might not fly though, and I agree with what was said above, it’s a very useful skill.</p>
<p>Yes, Cornell has tons of PE classes and they have a few different types of archery and shooting. I know they have an archery class on campus. They have handgun safety and rifle classes, but those are taken off campus at a shooting range on Rt 34, but they provide transportation, the guns, and ammo. The only downside is that the class requires more time because you have to go off campus, and is more expensive than some of the more typical sports classes.</p>