The Crazy Cornellian

I’ve been living in one of the new west campus houses (Becker house) since sophomore year.  I think the new dorms on west (oh wait, I think I’m supposed to call them houses) are the best on campus, but that is not to say that they’re perfect.  The best aspects of the housing on west are that they are very close to central campus (~4 min to get to top of slope), they are new and clean, and they are nice and quiet at night.  This is in striking contrast to my far away, dirty, old and nosy dorm room freshman year.  These are big pluses for west campus, do you really need anything more from your housing?  The rooms are smaller than the old gothics on west campus, but that’s not something very important to me.  (pictured right is Rose house (i.e. house 5) below are the gothics with the new Bethe house behind them)

What is heavily pushed by administration is creating a strong community in each house, but in reality I just don’t think it really works.  People in singles often stay to themselves and suites can be pretty social, but not with the rest of the dorm.  For a lot of people it’s just a place to sleep and keep all of your junk, which it is very convenient for.  I feel that those who want a very social living situation go to a frat or get an apartment with their numerous friends; they don’t usually stay on campus.  What is also pushed is student-faculty interaction and while there are some who do this a lot, the majority of students aren’t involved.

The worst thing about west campus hosing is that everyone is forced to purchase unlimited meals.  I think this is unreasonable as this is very expensive and way more than what most people need.  Also, west campus dinning announced reduction in its service for next year right after everyone signed up for housing.

On west every new house has its own dinning hall.  I suppose this is to foster community in each house and provide variety, but I think I would rather have one big, very good dinning hall instead of 5 mediocre ones.  But then again there is something to be said abut waking up on a cold windy day and just walking downstairs to get food, never needing to brave the outside.  This way I can spend inordinate amounts of time in Becker without ever going outside.  All the dinning halls on west have the same hours and usually the same kind of food.  I’d like to have the option to get a more reasonable meal plan, or to not have one at all, but alas, I suppose this is the price to be paid to live in the new dorms.

I like the idea of naming dorms after really awesome faculty (instead of big donators), but all the houses seem to be a little too obsessed with the person they are named after and put the persons face and name everywhere.  I suppose this is to help develop a unique character for each of the five different houses.  They all look pretty much the same inside and out; sometimes I still get them confused.  The only person I think it is valid to obsess over is Bethe.  Okay, so maybe I’m biased because I’m science obsessed, but he is mentioned in a lot of my classes, not just because he was at Cornell for so long, but because he is the person that first developed what we’re studying; he really did a lot.

In Becker house where I live, there is one quote by Becker that is frequently used, “Freedom with Responsibility.”  The only problem with this is that Becker never actually said this.  It should be “Freedom and Responsibility.”  I’m not usually a stickler for slight mistakes, but with this misquote everywhere, it’s rather embarrassing not to get it right.  You might argue,  “It’s not such a big deal, it’s not like it’s written in stone anywhere,” but it actually is written in stone.  They really need to fix this.

So while overall I like my housing and think that things are usually run smoothly, it doesn’t quite meet its grand envisioned mission.  I like how the university is trying something a little different, but I’m just fine with plain old housing.

Here’s a quick rundown of the classes I’m taking this semester.  I kind of feel as though I just started them, but they end in only two weeks. (eeek!)

Science in Western Civilization:
For my one non-science class this semester I’m taking the history of science.  Oh wait, I guess this is still science.  Anyway, it’s still a nice break from math and physics all day.  The class is about science from Newton to about the beginning of the 20th century.  I’m getting a lot out of this class.  It’s cool matching people to the equations I use all the time and learning how concepts of reality changed over time.  I now have much more appreciation for the work scientists did in the 19th century.  Although the 20th century had more technological advancement, so much of it’s foundation was made in the 19th century.  Like other history classes I’ve taken, grading is based on the regurgitation of facts (well, how else are you going to grade people?), so I’m just taking it pass/fail.

Intermediate Quantum Mechanics:
QM is very different from all the other physics I’ve taken.  Equations aren’t always commutative, things like position, velocity, and energy become operators rather than absolute values.  Also, QM notation is baffling to anyone not already familiar with it.  I find the work conceptually very difficult as I have to approach problems differently.  Often the problems are of simple models that have nice elegant solutions, but when QM tries to solve more realistic situations, things get nasty fast.  QM is crucial in any field of physics I go into; I hope I can finish with a good grasp of this strange material.

Intermediate Electrodynamics:
Conceptually this class isn’t that hard, but it is rather heavy on equations.  There are a lot of different equations for different situations, although they all can be derived in theory from the four Maxwell equations.  The math can also get pretty hard with its heavy use of vector calc and complex numbers.  There are a lot of useful real world applications to what I’m learning and now I can talk to my peers in Electrical Engineering and have some idea what they are talking about.

CS 2800 Discrete Structures:
In this class I’m finally properly learning lots of different little subjects in math that I should already know well.  “Simple” problems often appear very easy, but contain subtleties you haven’t thought of.  This is primarily a sophomore class, so it’s composed mostly of people younger than me, something I’m not used to.  Yet another sign that I’m getting old and that my days here at Cornell are numbered.

Introduction to Astrophysics and Space Sciences II:
This is in the same style as last semester’s part I of the class but with different material.  The first half was on the Interstellar medium, lots of differential equations involving different states of matter.  The second half is about cosmology, lots of crazy cool ideas about the universe that really bends your mind.  Astro is a strange science in that you can’t really do anything practical with what you learn, but what greater knowledge is there than that of the vast universe?

Everyone likes complaining, especially over silly things.  What I like to complain about is people complaining too much.  A lot of people here at Cornell like to complain about how the university charges too much for everything.  While some of the complaining is merited, I feel like more attention should be placed on tuition and it’s raising cost.

Printing: When I go to print something on campus it costs 9 cents.  Some people are outraged by this, claiming Cornell is just finding more ways to take our money.  I would hate it if Cornell had free printing, why?  People would abuse the system and print way more than they need.  Then printers would always be busy, and constantly run out of toner and paper, thus depriving me of printing out my one page of homework problems.

Also, printing is expensive.  There are a lot of inherent costs besides paper we don’t think about like, maintenance, toner, and initial capital costs.  I think 9 cents is a good deal.  I do all my printing through Cornell and it only adds up to about $10 a semester, although I don’t have to print anything very long like papers and slides.  Having my own printer would cost me a lot more and it would be a lot less convenient than being able to print anywhere on campus.

Textbooks: yes textbooks cost too much, no, this isn’t Cornell’s doing.  Publishers make textbooks expensive, not schools.  The problem with selling advanced textbooks is that not many people buy them, so in order to turn a profit, publishers make them expensive.  Cornell helps a lot with the cost of books with the semesterly book buyback.  At 50% of the books original value it’s not a bad deal, the major downside is that they usually only buy back the more common textbooks.  So if you are in a small class with a lot of obscure books, don’t expect much.

Student Activity Fee:  Every student at Cornell pays a fee of about $100 a semester that goes towards student clubs and events.  I think this is too much and that the funds are often misappropriated.  If there are students who want to organize an event that costs a lot, they should be willing to pay for it themselves.  But then I compare this cost to the cost of my tuition and then I just don’t care anymore.

So why don’t we seem to complain all that much about tuition?  The cost of these small fees next to the cost of tuition really is negligible.  Even yearly tuition increases are an order of magnitude greater than the student activity fee.  Increasing the price of something while you’re in the middle of it just doesn’t seem right as you’re kinda stuck with it.  People do complain about this too, but not nearly as much as I think they should.  I call for at least a ten-fold increase in complaining about tuition increases.  I find it rather amusing how everyone is happy when the tuition increase is less than projected.  Shouldn’t we complain when they raise tuition?

Last semester I turned 21 and got interested in what was with the whole drinking thing.  I can’t say turning 21 was what really got me try out drinking as I don’t have any serious qualms with underage drinking, but it did make me feel as though it was time for me to find out why so many people enjoy it so much. There is always so much talk about it, I wanted to see for myself.  I suppose I didn’t try it out earlier because far too often freshman year I would see the “results” of parties.  There was just too much overindulgence and loss of control; it by no means inspired me to check out what was going on.

So I tried out some frat parties to see what they are like.  Well, they were pretty much what I expected; many people in small spaces, darkness and blaring music, the smell of alcohol, bad perfume and sweat.  As you descend towards a crowded dance floor the temperature drastically increases.  Needless to say, it really isn’t my thing, but I can now kinda understand the draw it has for some people.  A sort of mass hypnosis and blinding of the senses, a way to forget what’s going on.

But frat parties aren’t the only places to drink at Cornell (although perhaps the main ones for those underage), there are also a lot of bars in Ithaca.  I haven’t been to many of them, but the ones I have been to are pretty cool.  They’re often dark, crowded, and loud, but not nearly as gross as a frat parties.  I go into a bar and I’m like “Wow, everyone in here is old, I wonder why that is.  It’s as if everyone here is 21 or older.”  It’s definitely a very different, more relaxed environment.  It can be pretty expensive, but whatever, it’s worth it.

So I’ve learned that in moderation, drinking can actually be kinda fun in a strange sort of mind-numbing way.  It is disappointing though that many of my friends are still under 21 and can’t go to bars yet.  There is growing support for reducing the drinking age, which I am in favor of.  President Skorton isn’t though.

Yay!  It’s about that time again, time to plan out my schedule and pre-enroll for classes next semester.  This one’s particularly special as it’s the first time my class gets first pick since seniors graduate this semester.  It’s a big glaring sign saying, “You’re getting old, what are you planning to do with your life?”  I don’t really have to figure out my schedule until classes start in August, but planning ahead is fun.  Even then I’ll shop around a couple weeks until I settle on what to take.

Since I’m looking at courses from various departments, scheduling conflicts are inevitable.  Getting conflicts this time is especially frustrating as this will be my last chance at fall classes.  Most higher level courses are offered spring or fall only, some even only once every two years.  So it’s my last chance at taking certain classes.  I only have two semesters left and I want to get as much out of it as possible.  It’s nice that my major only has one required class next semester, it gives me room for lots of other classes I’m interested in taking:

So here are some of the classes I’m looking at:

And then there are lots of classes I’m interested in taking that aren’t required:

PHYS 4445 Introduction to General Relativity. Finally I’ve taken enough physics to take a try at learning the insanity known as GR.  With my interest in astrophysics it’s kinda natural for me to learn GR.  I expect this to be really hard as it deals with a lot of advanced math physics that I don’t know as well as I should.  Well at least it isn’t the year long graduate level GR class.

CS 4210 Numerical Analysis and Differential Equations. I would like to know some numerical analysis as I figure it would always be useful down the road.  Likely to bore me death though, as it’s only about solving hard math equations and not about awesome physics.  Conflicts with GR, GR wins.

AEP 3300 Modern Experimental Optics. This is a lab based class and I really could use more lab experience.  Also, optics is a huge area of research now.

AEP 4500 Introduction Solid State Physics. This one isn’t really that high on my list, but it’s also a big area of research and has tons of useful applications.

MAE 4570 (457) Space Systems and National Security.  I’ve been getting more interested in space technology and this course sounds really cool.  Seems like it’s more about politics than engineering.  Sadly, this conflicts with my one required class and graduating would be nice.

ECE 4300 Lasers and Optical Electronics. This class is intended for senior Electrical Engineers.  While I am taking electrodynamics this semester, it might not be enough to keep up.  I took an intro lasers class my first semester at Cornell and I think lasers are so awesome that I should try out this class.

ASTRO 4410 Experimental Astronomy. This is a small lab class that does some really neat Astronomy experiments.  Among other things they use the Hartung-Boothroyd Observatory and a radio telescope on the top of the Space Sciences Building (awesome!).  This is some serious stuff and I should only take this if I’m really serious about astro.

ASTRO 2280 Space Exploration. This doesn’t sound very heavy on engineering or science, but nevertheless very interesting.  A not too serious type class could be a nice break in my day.

Even though it will be my last year, I’m still trying to narrow down what I want to focus on.  There is just too many cool things to try out.  Too bad I can’t simply absorb the knowledge of all these classes without doing all of the extremely challenging work associated with them.