Engineering is just stress provoking at its core. Add the studying it at the Top Schools one need not use their imagination to realize how difficult it can be.

Anonymous wrote:I Have a high performing engineering kid. Engineering is stressful all around, but Cornell and Carnegie Mellon seem to make engineering much more stressful than it needs to be.

He ultimately chose elsewhere. You can get the same quality education at other schools without the Hunger Games environment that Cornell and CMU are promoting. The deans of those programs are just… I guess I can’t use the words I really want to use.

But the way Cornell and CMU are going about things should give every smart kid pause.

Ok that was a tease...do you mean that the deans create needlessly stressful environments for the sake of their ego, or for an academic approach (if so, what is this approach - I am not an academic but care about my child's learning - at Cornell or elsewhere and this is a comment I've not seen so am interested in how deans can shape the experience sorry for long sentence and also...thank you)?

Anonymous wrote:I Have a high performing engineering kid. Engineering is stressful all around, but Cornell and Carnegie Mellon seem to make engineering much more stressful than it needs to be.

He ultimately chose elsewhere. You can get the same quality education at other schools without the Hunger Games environment that Cornell and CMU are promoting. The deans of those programs are just… I guess I can’t use the words I really want to use.

But the way Cornell and CMU are going about things should give every smart kid pause.

Not the first time I have heard or read a perspective like the above. Colleague went to GT over Cornell, even though she was legacy at Cornell.

I Have a high performing engineering kid. Engineering is stressful all around, but Cornell and Carnegie Mellon seem to make engineering much more stressful than it needs to be.

He ultimately chose elsewhere. You can get the same quality education at other schools without the Hunger Games environment that Cornell and CMU are promoting. The deans of those programs are just… I guess I can’t use the words I really want to use.

But the way Cornell and CMU are going about things should give every smart kid pause.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SEAS and Dyson are THE two best programs Cornell offers, crown jewel. It's comparable to Michigan's Ross and engineering. To me those are the only two reasons to go to Cornell. You can easily find better programs at many other colleges, outside SEAS and Dyson.

Nolan is THE premiere school in the world for hotel administration and hospitality. If this is what you want to study, you cannot find better programs at other colleges. Cornell is the top school.







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Agriculture school as well. No. 1 program. But these are niche programs.

Sure. But the post was in response to someone saying that other than Engineering and Dyson, there’s no reason to apply to Cornell. CALS and Nolan are two other reasons.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SEAS and Dyson are THE two best programs Cornell offers, crown jewel. It's comparable to Michigan's Ross and engineering. To me those are the only two reasons to go to Cornell. You can easily find better programs at many other colleges, outside SEAS and Dyson.

Nolan is THE premiere school in the world for hotel administration and hospitality. If this is what you want to study, you cannot find better programs at other colleges. Cornell is the top school.







L

Agriculture school as well. No. 1 program. But these are niche programs.

Anonymous wrote:Many engineering courses are graded on a curve. This makes grades a zero sum game. If one person does well, it necessarily pushes someone else down. Depending in the course and professor, median might be set at 3.0 or 3.1, therefore half the class has grades below median. Grade competition can be fierce in such situations. MIT has first 2 years as pass/fail, unlike Cornell.

No, it doesn’t. One semester only.

My daughter graduated from Cornell engineering in 2024 and now has a good job. The program was hard and a lot of work. But she did not find it cutthroat versus other students. The students often work together. Her experience was that the professors were focused on the graduate program and research. In CS, classes were pretty large. Its an excellent education if the student can handle the workload without much hand holding. My daughter loved Ithaca and the nature nearby. Engineering is hard everywhere. I imagine that engineering at Cornell is similar to the experience at other top research universities such as Michigan.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SEAS and Dyson are THE two best programs Cornell offers, crown jewel. It's comparable to Michigan's Ross and engineering. To me those are the only two reasons to go to Cornell. You can easily find better programs at many other colleges, outside SEAS and Dyson.

Another perspective would be that Arts and Sciences are in fact fantastic at Cornell and that the engineering and business, though difficult to get into, have a noxious effect on the overall culture of the school, which has a competitive pre-professional orientation that makes the place feel like a high-stakes trade school (which, in many ways, it is).

Interesting take. DD in CAS and has friends in Dyson, engineering, architecture, hotel school, etc. All working hard and supportive but agree that business and engineering kids are more pre-professional, go go go personalities. I have to reassure her that she’s doing great at her pace and no need to overdo it first semester.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many engineering courses are graded on a curve. This makes grades a zero sum game. If one person does well, it necessarily pushes someone else down. Depending in the course and professor, median might be set at 3.0 or 3.1, therefore half the class has grades below median. Grade competition can be fierce in such situations. MIT has first 2 years as pass/fail, unlike Cornell.

“Grading on the curve” at Cornell usually means that when the entire class scores below 50% that most everyone ends up with an A to C.

It helps, not hurts.

Not enough to compensate for the sheer difficulty of a class where the average is that low. Realistically the vast majority of the Cornell class should be getting As in engineering courses at places like Georgia Tech or Duke.

lol

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many engineering courses are graded on a curve. This makes grades a zero sum game. If one person does well, it necessarily pushes someone else down. Depending in the course and professor, median might be set at 3.0 or 3.1, therefore half the class has grades below median. Grade competition can be fierce in such situations. MIT has first 2 years as pass/fail, unlike Cornell.

“Grading on the curve” at Cornell usually means that when the entire class scores below 50% that most everyone ends up with an A to C.

It helps, not hurts.

Not enough to compensate for the sheer difficulty of a class where the average is that low. Realistically the vast majority of the Cornell class should be getting As in engineering courses at places like Georgia Tech or Duke.

DD graduated in 2024. She was very focused on school and certainly studied...but also dated, was on a project team, enjoyed the arboretum , and sang in one of the choruses.

Anonymous wrote:Cornell Engineering has been famously stressful and competitive for 30+ years. Hardest ivy school to get top grades in.

It’s challenging and stressful but not competitive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many engineering courses are graded on a curve. This makes grades a zero sum game. If one person does well, it necessarily pushes someone else down. Depending in the course and professor, median might be set at 3.0 or 3.1, therefore half the class has grades below median. Grade competition can be fierce in such situations. MIT has first 2 years as pass/fail, unlike Cornell.

“Grading on the curve” at Cornell usually means that when the entire class scores below 50% that most everyone ends up with an A to C.

It helps, not hurts.

That's not what it means, actually.

That’s how it works, in reality.

-Cornell engineer

Anonymous wrote:SEAS and Dyson are THE two best programs Cornell offers, crown jewel. It's comparable to Michigan's Ross and engineering. To me those are the only two reasons to go to Cornell. You can easily find better programs at many other colleges, outside SEAS and Dyson.

Nolan is THE premiere school in the world for hotel administration and hospitality. If this is what you want to study, you cannot find better programs at other colleges. Cornell is the top school.







L