The purpose of this post: I'm here to answer a broad
list of questions you might have to ask about the transfer process and
a variety of other issues. Read on for more details.
Hello new Davis scholars! This is Jason, one of the previous Davis scholars from the 2007-2008 year. I worked with Mr. Edward Ballen on his project Orphans in Transition, and am here to spread the overenthusiastic love for Cornell University! Thanks to the Davis Scholarship and the fantastic professors at WCC, I was able to transfer to my dream college, which by now you have probably gathered is Cornell.
"How fantastic for you," you might be thinking. Well, I'm here to help those of you who are also interested either in transferring to Cornell University, as well as a variety of other things. Such other things would be: transferring in general, transferring to a top ranking 4 year institution and the workload involved, becoming a psychology major, undergraduate research, the SUNY Bridges program at Purchase College, or anything you can think of asking that I might possibly be capable of answering.
If you have questions, please respond to this post and I will do my best to answer them.
For example:
What is the workload like at such a college?
It varies depending on the difficulty of the course. However, I can assure you that you are looking at a lot of reading and not as much homework. You're looking at about 100+ pages of reading per class per week. You can expect to cover the entire textbook in class, as well as additional material. This reading includes more difficult works than general textbook chapters. For example, in a psychology course you can expect to read multiple journal articles a week relating to the material covered. You will typically meet twice a week for lecture time, and meet once a week for a smaller discussion section. At the discussion section, you will discuss the journal articles in great detail, and may possibly have to post a short written response online.
"Great, that's real general. Give me a more specific example."
In my Psychological Statistics and Research Design course, we cover roughly 2-3 chapters a week. It is often likely that I read one chapter per day of lecture. Oh, and you need to read the textbook too, if you want to do well.
"How do they grade?"
In lower level courses, you can expect to take 3 prelims (preliminary exams) and one cumulative final. In addition, your participation and attendance for your section will also be accounted for. Finally, it is also likely that you will have to write one 10 page paper.
In upper level courses, you can expect more reading and writing and a replacement of multiple choice exams with those which are more dependent on you knowing the material on a deeper level.
Post and I shall do my best to answer!
Also, if you have any specific questions about New York University, Columbia University, or Pre-Med programs I will do my best to direct such questions to other previous scholars related to such fields and get them answered for you.
Have a great year!
- Jason Anderson