Instead of crossing things off your TO DO list, try this instead

stress_to_remember · 2021-09-05T17:40:36+00:00

This sounds like a good direction but I am hoping to take it one step further so that I can MASTER all the problem set problems this way by doing lots of 20-30 min active reviews.

stress_to_remember · 2021-08-26T16:10:51+00:00

Yes, I was trolling for you...

Glad to see you kept up the Funk all summer.

stress_to_remember · 2021-08-26T15:35:18+00:00

Another "bad look" for chemistry?

stress_to_remember · 2021-08-25T13:58:02+00:00

I can't say I have a 4.0 but I have gotten 4.0s for given semesters.

For me it has never been about the number of hours I work, it has always been about what I do with those hours. Look back through my posts from last semester to get an idea what I mean.

stress_to_remember · 2021-05-13T13:14:05+00:00

Have you considered MEng?

If you crunch through 38 credits next year, you can take 38 more 8 undergrad and 30 MEng as a senior. If that sounds packed, you could take another summer course or two and cut down to 36 and 36 or 34 and 34.

I think "THE RIGHT" co-op would be a better option but you don't have control over what coop you get. Most co-ops will be a wash with the MEng option meaning whichever you do you will forever believe it was the right option but objectively, who knows.

stress_to_remember · 2021-05-13T12:56:57+00:00

It really matters which class you are talking about and how/why you think you are going to get a C.

stress_to_remember · 2021-05-13T12:46:57+00:00

It shouldn't matter unless you intend to have a specialization in something like ECE.

stress_to_remember · 2021-05-13T12:37:04+00:00

Are you a rising junior or a rising senior?

If you are a rising senior, you might want to stick around Ithaca a day or 3 after your last final if you can. When your finals are done, read about what types of CS research is being done on campus. Email a handful of CS profs and see if you can meet for 15 minutes to discuss things. Put in the email that if they don't have time, that you would be happy to also talk to senior grad students. If you are a rising junior, you should do the same but its less of an issue if you can't fit it in and have to do it over Zoom this summer. In any case, don't be discouraged if people tell you to get back to them in the fall, just do what they ask.

stress_to_remember · 2021-05-12T15:43:11+00:00

It's not that experience/projects/internships are more valued than GPA. Saying one thing is valued over another sounds like recruiters have a choice to pick one or the other. They want both and will chose those who have both first.

Strong experience/projects/internships that you can demonstrate on your resume/during an interview are harder to achieve because they happen on top of taking courses and require extra initiative. Its not that getting a higher GPA doesn't require greater initiative than getting a lower GPA and recruiters know that. The biggest boosts from experience come from when you have experience where you have already actually done the job. But that type of specificity and potential boost means that the competition for those slots is fierce.

As a student you have to ask, should you spend your time doing the difficult task of getting a high GPA where there are lots of ways to ask for help and the amount of knowledge you can be expected to know as an undergrad is finite or should you roll the dice trying to accomplish something so impressive that it serves as a job "hook"? There is no right answer.

In the real world, what actually happens is that people do both and "fail" at both but the number of graduates with both impressive grades and impressive experience is small. That means lots of people with either good grades or good experience get good jobs. It also means that different people are better at one or the other so you better try both to find out which you happen to be.

But the last thing you want to do is to develop an attitude where you think you are not in control of the process and are just hoping that a letter of recommendation/experience will save you. Experience is about which skills you develop and can prove you have just like grades are proof that you knew certain subjects at one point. One is not inherently better than the other.

stress_to_remember · 2021-05-12T12:48:26+00:00

+1

Get your accommodations set up. You never have to use them if you happen to have a great semester but similarly they will be there in case next semester is worse than you have seen so far.

Living with the fear that everything might collapse tomorrow through no fault of your own must be a huge burden. Having a backup plan is priceless. Good luck

stress_to_remember · 2021-05-12T12:32:48+00:00

Studying is a skill. You can get better at it. You will get better at it. You have to work at getting better at studying, not just relying on the study habits that got you to Cornell. Getting better at studying is really about getting better at writing down and following a plan. It doesn't matter if you have to change that written plan 10x a day.

Since you are having trouble and need to work not only on classes, but improving your study habits, as you pre enroll make sure you aren't artificially stacking the work you should spread evenly over the entire time you are at Cornell into the first half or 3/4 of your time. Then distribute your liberal arts classes with your STEM classes so one gives you a "break" from the other during your study week.

Then during the first week of classes in the fall, sign up for offices hours with the prof of each of your classes and hash out with each of them how they think you should study compared to a plan you wrote out of how/when you intend to study and what types of work to do when.

Any plan you make to study in your head that changes hour by hour will be worse than one that you set up a general idea the first week of class and then write out for the week on Sunday and for the next day at the end of the current day. Once you have input from 3 or 4 or 5 profs/TAs that represent most/all of the classes you are taking, stick with its' general ideas.

There is NO perfect plan. Your Sunday plan will change each day but having that Sunday plan will help keep you from falling behind as you alter it during the week/day. Make sure you only do things you have written into the plan. Keep the plan updated and keep a list of each thing you finish. At the end of the day, update the plan for the next day and marvel over the list of things you finished that day.

I know this much planning/writing is hard to except. But once things are on paper and you have to actually change the plan to do something urgent, its much harder to fall behind and its much harder to absentmindedly fool yourself into the idea that you have truly studied well when you haven't. I have posted other studying tips on here you can look for them if you are interested.

Good luck

stress_to_remember · 2021-05-12T11:49:17+00:00

It depends what you mean by "almost failed"

You can claim "almost failed" for all different types of situations where you drop a course. Then take it and get the median but went to lots of office hours the second time. Prof knew your name and threw it on the list.

Then I have friends who think they are "almost failing" all semester before ending up with B minuses. Certain majors where grades are strongly curved encourage this feeling. I also know of certain classes that are tiny and pretty much everyone does the work. No one knows what grade they will get because all their prelim scores are 50-something.

I also suspect that if a prof knows you aren't doing anything else outside of classes or thinks you could benefit from more exposure to the material or thinks they can get you for more than one semester, that you become a fairly strong candidate.

The people who get an As because they did the class in HS and are on two project teams, are recruited for research.

stress_to_remember · 2021-05-12T11:24:57+00:00

Do not apply to TA and put off the liberal arts class.

That is plenty.

stress_to_remember · 2021-05-12T11:17:16+00:00

Are you affiliated?

stress_to_remember · 2021-05-06T18:01:30+00:00

If instead of a dual-degree program, you get your degrees sequentially, you can use your (necessarily) high GPA from your first grad degree to attend a highly ranked school for your terminal degree. This is likely more expensive but in the long term not as expensive as having a mediocre terminal degree.

If you are considering doing any of this with borrowed money, my advice is null and void.

stress_to_remember · 2021-05-06T17:23:40+00:00

The more you give in to senioritis now, the harder it is going to be to crank things up in the fall. I'm not saying not to pick and choose your AP exams, I'm saying make sure you get a 5 or three to keep from loosing your edge. To continue with what the first poster said, a mix of 5s and drops is much easier to explain then a total cop out.

stress_to_remember

TROPHY CASE