@monydad while my stem son is not the creative writer, he did receive an A in the Fall semester writing seminar. The spring writing seminar was a different prof and the paper for which he received a B was a case study (more like a business management assignment), not a creative assignment. Since the majority of he grade was based on the research paper, my son made sure he had the prof check his paper at different stages to be sure he was on the right track. He participated in all class discussions when most students didn’t. Anyway, my son’s point was that he was fully engaged in the class more so than the other students and was given feedback by the prof that his paper was in fact very good only to be disappointed with a B overall in the class.
In addition, my son has a plethora of friends from HS at various UCs and private well-known CA schools (even a private school in Massachusetts) and they compare class rigor and such, and all agree that Cornell is in fact more difficult. I know it’s anecdotal but at least it’s feedback from current college students.