Academics

One Course at a Time (OCAAT) can be hard! You're doing what you would normally do in a semester in three and a half weeks. Be prepared for long nights. But, it pays off. Plus, you get a four day break in between each class!

The OCAAT schedule is very demanding and very rewarding at the same time. You will learn a lot in the course of a month. If you love the class you can become completely immersed in it, if you hate it, you are done in three and a half weeks.

The professors here are some of the greatest in the field. There's a good chance before you leave Cornell (or in my case, within my first year) that one of your professors will be using a book they either wrote or help write. The professors know the work very well, and are very down to earth, so be prepared for lots of discussion.

Classes at Cornell are rigorous; Cornell operates on the block plan, meaning that students take only one course for 3.5 weeks, thus allowing students to only focus on one class. This type of schedule fosters students' critical thinking abilities, in addition to their in-depth knowledge of the material (quality v. quantity), which contributes to the academic rigor.

Classes are fast and can be difficult if you are not willing to put in the time and effort.

Each course is on a rigorous track due to a three and a half week sprint for each class. However, this allows students to focus on each class.

The courses are difficult. I have worked so hard this past year. You tend to have what you may consider to be around three nights worth of homework in one night. Often lengthy essays are expected to be written in a relatively short amount of time. The professors have high expectations for any kind of work, but they don't tend to baby you. It's up to you to take care of all your work and communicate with your professor if you think that's going to be a problem.