The Happiest Place on Earth

Once you get there, you’ll never want to leave; in fact, you might just end up living there. You’ll get to know the other people there so well they’ll feel like family. It’s a place where wishes are made, dreams fulfilled, and magic happens. That’s right, I’m talking about Olin Hall. 

Olin Hall: land of the distillation column and home of the Cornell chemical engineers.

I’m not even kidding when I say that I've heard the seniors are camped out in the basement of Olin right now. They've got food, couches . . . what more does a college student need?

I spent more time last semester in Olin because of Intro to ChemE. (Note that when most people at Cornell say Olin, they’re talking about the library; when I say Olin, I mean Olin Hall by default. If I’m talking about the library, I’ll say library.) Between lecture, calculation session, and office hours, we spent an average of around seven and a half hours there a week. This semester, I only have lecture twice a week in Olin. Next semester, however, I've heard that the majority (okay, 2 out of 3) of my engineering lectures will be in Olin.

Which brings us to: Cornell course enroll, one of the top ten fun things to experience at Cornell based on exactly zero students polled. To prepare, students may want to find the closest server and sit on top of it with their computer, practice hitting the refresh button (the real professionals practice blindfolded), and/or make a flowchart detailing which classes to go for first, with alternate choices in case a class fills up.

This time around, I had very little trouble getting the classes/sections I wanted because I logged on right at seven and efficiently selected and enrolled in all my classes no one else actually wants to is required to take the classes that future ChemEs need. Also, I tend to look for early morning discussions that for whatever reason aren't that popular with college students.

So for the fall semester, I am currently enrolled in Honors Physical Chemistry I, Mass and Energy Balances, Linear Algebra for Engineers, History of Science in Europe I, and hiking. Many ChemEs will be taking the first three classes next semester, so let’s hope we all get along really well together. (A friend and I not only have P-Chem, Mass and Energy, and Linear Algebra lectures together, but also P-Chem lab and math discussion.) As an added bonus, the P-Chem and Mass and Energy lectures may both be in Olin.

And so it begins: Our welcome to Olin Hall, the Real Happiest Place on Earth. (Sorry Disneyland.)