Anonymous wrote:I don't think the weather is the issue at cornell. When I visited with my kid, i just felt it was big and sprawling campus, and to me, it felt disconnected. We spoke with several kids at the dining hall, and around campus...they all talked about how many hours they studied and how competitive it was... for greek, grades, clubs, etc. I personally felt it would be easy to feel isolated and lonely there, particularly if under academic or social stress. Cornell has some great academic programs, but I was happy that my kid applied/is attending elsewhere.

I sadly think this is accurate.
I’m the OP.

The posts make it seem like Cornell is set in an Edward Gorey picture with everyone walking around grimly.

My DC is a freshman at Cornell studying math / CS, and likes it. Yes, it can be intense with a lot of work, but my DC and the friend group enjoy it. Not Shangri La - ups and downs like I'd expect at any campus - but overall a good experience so far.

I don't think the weather is the issue at cornell. When I visited with my kid, i just felt it was big and sprawling campus, and to me, it felt disconnected. We spoke with several kids at the dining hall, and around campus...they all talked about how many hours they studied and how competitive it was... for greek, grades, clubs, etc. I personally felt it would be easy to feel isolated and lonely there, particularly if under academic or social stress. Cornell has some great academic programs, but I was happy that my kid applied/is attending elsewhere.

I went to school in Ithaca - Ithaca College - and the gray miserable weather hasn't arrived yet. When I was there every year a Cornell student would inevitably get drunk and tumble into the gorges that divided campus from Collegetown.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry for the losses. Many students from rural areas don’t have the academic foundation to compete or catch up with their peers from competitive high schools. Top colleges keep giving them advantages in college admissions for political reasons but the brutal truth is, they’re not ready for the rigor.

Enough with this political propaganda. This is the latest strategy from the leftists and foreign influences: targeting rural Americans to sow divisiveness in our country. I see the same BS against boomers.

This is encouraging prejudice against certain groups of Americans who largely don't vote the way they want, so they're trying to normalize marginalizing them. It's disgusting.

Not really. The internet exists. Kids can learn as much as they want and can study for all the tests as early as they want. They can read any book they want and do any math lesson they want. They can even watch YT videos for history lessons if they're lazy. There's no excuse for mediocrity anymore and there's no reason to get poor grades from their local high school. If you can't get into a top school from a rural state, especially with the lack of in-state competition from other kids, then that's on you (and your parents).

1) People who like their home and their parents may want to stay near home for college, whether that's just for comfort or to be top in their region for employment.

2) Young people often understand what is possible in life from role models such as parents and peers. They also learn what is important from them. By your supercilious tone, I would assume you put your kids in some fairly high-performing high schools. So how do you know what it's like for kids from a different world? They probably don't examine their blinders any deeper than you do. Obviously the Internet is not a complete solution. That's why we still have schools and teachers.

3) Sophistication about the college admissions process undoubtedly helps. That's how the fake "North Dakotan" got into Yale. There isn't even an active North Dakota Yale alumni club. If you don't know how the game works, you're at a disadvantage. Even if there's Reddit and so forth.

Anonymous wrote:There was a suicide at Disney World yesterday. Was it the long lines? Humidity?

Lots of people would kill themselves if they were stuck in FL for too long. So gross.

There was a suicide at Disney World yesterday. Was it the long lines? Humidity?

You can't blame the weather. The Boston schools, New England SLACS have the same uber talented students and the same weather. Besides the fall is one of the better seasons in the northeast.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I’m the OP. My kid is a sophomore. It’s not faux outrage. My kid just left home this afternoon to go back.

I’m Worried given my kid is stressed about a class.

Median grade in a stem bio prelim was a 69. Just fyi. The median for some of the stem classes is just crazy. Has As in 2 Econ classes so it’s not that.

Yes engineering/STEM classes are brutal, always have been. I can recall (at a T10 school) having a calculus course (calc 4 so not freshman) where the average was 18% (yes you read that right). Top score on a midterm (30 students) was 36, someone else had a 32 and then it dropped to 25 and on the way down. I had a 31 and got an A in the course. But it was frustrating to attend class, study and do the work and sit in a midterm and literally have no clue what you were doing and wheterh you were goign to pass or fail. And I was "at the top of the class", so I have to imagine the stressors for those with 12/15% in the course felt like.

Are these holistic admits that don't understand simple scaling? Why does it matter what the score is if there's a curve? Does a 55 F feel better than a 12 F? Anyone failing a class probably shouldn't be at that school to begin with.

Umm...in the above example the 36 became the "100%" and the curve/grading went from there. the 18% ended up being a B or B- range. So sure you know it will be curved, but it's beyond frustrating to take exams where you have no clue how you did, despite being very prepared.
When the average is an 18%, that shows the prof either didn't teach the material or has created an exam that is not testing anything related to what was taught in the course.

The philosophy of some professors is to make the test extremely hard so that: 1) There is no perfect score; 2) They can see which kids actually understand the material and how they go about solving complex problems that have multiple methods; and 3) Make people earn their grades so that they know the material. There is a fourth thing, which is you can't expect a teacher to dumb down a class because a certain crop of kids aren't as smart as usual. And every once in a while there'll come along that kid(s) who will score that 90%+ and I'm sure the professor wants to identify him/her from the crowd.

Bottom line, suck it up and study. An A is an A. Each 1% gain in test score is extremely significant.

Weeding out students from engineering?

Cornell has a separate engineering college, there is nowhere you could weed them out to.

Anonymous wrote:I just googled another high pressure school nearby, it looks like no nearly as common. Maybe weather is a big factor.

I believe this was a freshman. It hasn't even gotten cold and grey yet in Ithaca.

It'd be so easy to blame things on weather. But alas, it's not so simple.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the OP. My kid is a sophomore. It’s not faux outrage. My kid just left home this afternoon to go back.

I’m Worried given my kid is stressed about a class.

Median grade in a stem bio prelim was a 69. Just fyi. The median for some of the stem classes is just crazy. Has As in 2 Econ classes so it’s not that.

Yes engineering/STEM classes are brutal, always have been. I can recall (at a T10 school) having a calculus course (calc 4 so not freshman) where the average was 18% (yes you read that right). Top score on a midterm (30 students) was 36, someone else had a 32 and then it dropped to 25 and on the way down. I had a 31 and got an A in the course. But it was frustrating to attend class, study and do the work and sit in a midterm and literally have no clue what you were doing and wheterh you were goign to pass or fail. And I was "at the top of the class", so I have to imagine the stressors for those with 12/15% in the course felt like.

Are these holistic admits that don't understand simple scaling? Why does it matter what the score is if there's a curve? Does a 55 F feel better than a 12 F? Anyone failing a class probably shouldn't be at that school to begin with.

Umm...in the above example the 36 became the "100%" and the curve/grading went from there. the 18% ended up being a B or B- range. So sure you know it will be curved, but it's beyond frustrating to take exams where you have no clue how you did, despite being very prepared.
When the average is an 18%, that shows the prof either didn't teach the material or has created an exam that is not testing anything related to what was taught in the course.

The philosophy of some professors is to make the test extremely hard so that: 1) There is no perfect score; 2) They can see which kids actually understand the material and how they go about solving complex problems that have multiple methods; and 3) Make people earn their grades so that they know the material. There is a fourth thing, which is you can't expect a teacher to dumb down a class because a certain crop of kids aren't as smart as usual. And every once in a while there'll come along that kid(s) who will score that 90%+ and I'm sure the professor wants to identify him/her from the crowd.

Bottom line, suck it up and study. An A is an A. Each 1% gain in test score is extremely significant.

Weeding out students from engineering?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the OP. My kid is a sophomore. It’s not faux outrage. My kid just left home this afternoon to go back.

I’m Worried given my kid is stressed about a class.

Median grade in a stem bio prelim was a 69. Just fyi. The median for some of the stem classes is just crazy. Has As in 2 Econ classes so it’s not that.

Yes engineering/STEM classes are brutal, always have been. I can recall (at a T10 school) having a calculus course (calc 4 so not freshman) where the average was 18% (yes you read that right). Top score on a midterm (30 students) was 36, someone else had a 32 and then it dropped to 25 and on the way down. I had a 31 and got an A in the course. But it was frustrating to attend class, study and do the work and sit in a midterm and literally have no clue what you were doing and wheterh you were goign to pass or fail. And I was "at the top of the class", so I have to imagine the stressors for those with 12/15% in the course felt like.

Are these holistic admits that don't understand simple scaling? Why does it matter what the score is if there's a curve? Does a 55 F feel better than a 12 F? Anyone failing a class probably shouldn't be at that school to begin with.

Umm...in the above example the 36 became the "100%" and the curve/grading went from there. the 18% ended up being a B or B- range. So sure you know it will be curved, but it's beyond frustrating to take exams where you have no clue how you did, despite being very prepared.
When the average is an 18%, that shows the prof either didn't teach the material or has created an exam that is not testing anything related to what was taught in the course.

The philosophy of some professors is to make the test extremely hard so that: 1) There is no perfect score; 2) They can see which kids actually understand the material and how they go about solving complex problems that have multiple methods; and 3) Make people earn their grades so that they know the material. There is a fourth thing, which is you can't expect a teacher to dumb down a class because a certain crop of kids aren't as smart as usual. And every once in a while there'll come along that kid(s) who will score that 90%+ and I'm sure the professor wants to identify him/her from the crowd.

Bottom line, suck it up and study. An A is an A. Each 1% gain in test score is extremely significant.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry for the losses. Many students from rural areas don’t have the academic foundation to compete or catch up with their peers from competitive high schools. Top colleges keep giving them advantages in college admissions for political reasons but the brutal truth is, they’re not ready for the rigor.

Enough with this political propaganda. This is the latest strategy from the leftists and foreign influences: targeting rural Americans to sow divisiveness in our country. I see the same BS against boomers.

This is encouraging prejudice against certain groups of Americans who largely don't vote the way they want, so they're trying to normalize marginalizing them. It's disgusting.

Not really. The internet exists. Kids can learn as much as they want and can study for all the tests as early as they want. They can read any book they want and do any math lesson they want. They can even watch YT videos for history lessons if they're lazy. There's no excuse for mediocrity anymore and there's no reason to get poor grades from their local high school. If you can't get into a top school from a rural state, especially with the lack of in-state competition from other kids, then that's on you (and your parents).

I just googled another high pressure school nearby, it looks like no nearly as common. Maybe weather is a big factor.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last year one of the kids was a professor's kid who grew up in Ithaca.

It's the demographic, it's a mental health crisis that's not unique to this campus. All the selective schools have kids who are struggling. And staff as well.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/head-mental-health-services-university-pennsylvania-dies-suicide-n1052156

It's really tedious for people to always bring this up about Cornell. Seriously, just stop with the fake concern. Just take it off your list.

I agree that it's the demographic. This generation is arriving at college with lots and lots of mental health issues, often previously untreated.

And the pressures of 4 years of HS, preparing to do anything and everything so you gain admission to the "best college" is not helping. These kids have often never had a "failure" in anything, so when you arrive on campus and get a B or C (or worse) in a course they are not prepared to deal with it, and often times the message from home is "be perfect" so they don't feel supported. Add in alcohol and hazing (in some cases) and the struggle to fit in and be perfect is too much.
The pressure we are putting HS kids and then college kids under is not good

Bingo

I don’t buy this. Pressure to what? Get good grades? That isn’t a life pressure. And if they don’t…they don’t get their full allowance? Big deal. If this “pressure” is going to put you over the edge, than literally anything could.

Kids who are told from ES onwards that they must do well at everything, nothing short of a 100%/A is acceptable, all in preparation for going to MIT/ stanford/Harvard/etc. Kids MS/HS lives are built around what they must do to gain admissions to these universities, and for many the parents do NOT allow the kids a choice/much say, it's very parent driven. Those kids feel like failures if they don't get in.
I attended college with 2 kids who hated being premed (both were Asian and parents just expected them to be doctors) and it was sophomore year for one and junior for the other before they had the guts to tell their parents this was NOT what they wanted out of life. They were miserable and pushed 1000% by family to do this. It's attitudes like that that put pressure on kids.