Your daughters and sons can take full advantage of Cornell by working on problems that intrigue them in seminars, research, or independent study with faculty members they admire. Understand, these opportunities are available to all students in all fields, not just to the academic superstars in science. And they are among the best justifications for Cornell’s tuition.
Tutorial projects usually take the form of upper-level study in the major. In the social sciences and humanities, at least one advanced undergraduate seminar is virtually always required, but savvy students include many more. Science majors begin work in a lab as early as the sophomore year; this allows them to “pay their dues” with routine work and become involved in more sophisticated and independent projects during their upper-class years. It also allows them to decide if laboratory life is, in fact, the life they want to lead.
One of the exciting things about Cornell is that independent or small-group work can be in a field outside the major. Sometimes literature majors work in science labs, either for pay or credit. The type of work differs depending on whether it is a job or a part of the undergraduate education. Some science students take all levels of creative writing, always a small class. And students with particular skills – in foreign languages, say, or computer use – often work with faculty on quite specialized projects in fields much different from their major.
One double major in physics and biology, fluent in Chinese, worked with a professor of anthropology on Chinese folk tales. And a major in German literature worked in a genetics lab. Each semester several students from altogether different majors work in the dendrochronology (tree ring dating) laboratory that is creating a scientifically precise dating structure for the ancient eastern Mediterranean region.
The examples are endless and individually fascinating. One of the college’s advising deans, the director of the Undergraduate Research Program, is primarily responsible for helping students find good research opportunities and becoming research apprentices. In fact, taking advantage of the myriad possibilities for tutorial work is what makes a first-rate course of study.