<p>are the students in big name universities friendly and helpful?
are the students arrogent? because they think they are the best and they have stressful from their coursework.
are the courseloads heavier than ordinary universities?
are the courseworks harder than ordinary universities?</p>
<p>depends almost entirely on the actual university.</p>
<p>some are more known for competitive, cut throat atmospheres, where everyone is pretentious and tries to appear superior intellectually.</p>
<p>then there’s laid back cornell. the people are very nice, almost all of them are helpful, and extremely friendly. only a rare few are arrogant. the courseloads are probably harder and heavier than “ordinary” universities (however you wish to define this).</p>
<p>the teachers will expect more from you, simply on the fact that they know you can handle it. if you couldn’t handle the workload, you wouldn’t have been admitted.</p>
<p>These vary significantly among individuals. Regardless of where you go, you’ll always find people who are friendly, helpful, or arrogant and anti-social. To an extent, you are the one most responsible for choosing your atmosphere - the type of people you hang out with, the amount of pressure you place on yourself, etc.</p>
<p>In my experience, the course load at Cornell has been noticeably harder, both compared to high school and to what I’ve been told by friends who go to other schools (some of them even at other Ivy League schools!). Students from top high schools may not find Cornell much harder, but I think that for the majority the course load is challenging and time-consuming.</p>
<p>course/workload and difficulty: Depends on major. Period.</p>
<p>Other things equal, an Econ/Business major at Cornell would have it much easier than a Physics major at Georgia Tech or an engineering major at the University of Texas. Also, college may be easier than high school for some (myself included), especially since you study what you want to study. You are the one picking your major, courses, etc. It is all subjective. The only exception to this that comes to my mind is MIT and CalTech, which, from what I heard, are significantly more difficult and much more demanding in rigor compared to other schools, even compared to Ivies. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, I know of several people who major in engineering or the like even if they have little to no interest/aptitude with such subjects. College is going to be a hell of 4 years for people like this.</p>