Lots of Questions about Cornell

veregudmen
Tue, 14 Jan 2014 12:55:38 +0000

Hi all.
I am a sophomore in India. I know I still have a lot of time before I have to start thinking about college etc, but I’ve seen older people in my school struggle because they only started thinking when they had to apply and then ended up not getting in or not being happy with where they go, so I have started thinking about college now.
I have the kind of grades, extracurriculars, and general academic trajectory that will likely make me a competitive candidate when applying for most colleges.
I have spent a few days now, trawling through the forum. Nonetheless, I have a lot of questions about colleges, and specifically Cornell, which is currently my first choice college, and I was hoping the people here at College Confidential could help me out with. So here goes:

1) Is a double major within the same college (e.g. Economics and Psychology in CAS) a realistic proposition? The CAS site says its possible, but is it a realistic aim?
2) How well is the IB regarded in colleges in America? My school makes us do the MYP and the IGCSE (which is not reported for some reason) and then the IBDP. I ask because I have gotten conflicting information on this in the past.
3) How much does financial aid weigh on your decision? I mostly ask out of curiosity, I don’t think I would need financial aid when going to college.
4) How are research opportunities at Cornell, particularly in psychology?? Are undergraduates able to do meaningful work with professors? Or are they just there for well, cleaning beakers and writing notes down and getting professors’ coffee and so on?
5) Is there any way to accurately convert IB grades into GPA? Because when you add up the grades mathematically and get an average, and when you take the type of GPA where you take a 7 as an A+, a 6 as an A etc, the average is very different.
6) CAS has a foreign language requirement. Can you study a language which you have no prior background in, to meet this requirement?
7) Within Cornell which other colleges offer economics and psychology?
8) Are there opportunities to work abroad straight after graduation? Does the placements office at Cornell help you with that or are you on your own?

Sorry for so many questions. If anyone could please help me out with any of these it would be really, really great.
Have a nice day :D