I'm a bio and psych major at Cornell. There is no premed major there, which is good because IMO a premed major is too narrow and confining. The requirements for the bio major are almost exactly the same as most med schools' course requirements, except that the bio major requires just a few more classes. Of course you can be premed without being a bio major, but the requirements are so similar that you might as well finish up the major and get your biology degree in addition to whatever other major you want to pursue. The classes themselves are a lot of work, but it's not too difficult to get good grades if you stay on top of the work. The intro bio and chem courses have 2 preliminary exams ("prelims") and a final exam, plus lab sections. Be prepared for some large lecture courses, since Cornell is a big school and bio is the most popular major (after "undecided").
There are a bunch of "colleges" at Cornell, which are basically different divisions of the school. For example, Arts & Sciences is the liberal arts college (which I'm in), and there's an engineering school, an art/architecture school, and a hotel administration school, to name only a few. You can major in biology in either the Arts school or the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, which is slightly easier to get into and has cheaper tuition because it is affiliated with NY state. But the Arts school gives you more options for majors and a broader education.
Cornell has a great premed committe called the HCEC. They make you get your letters of recommendation in really early (spring of junior year). They also make you fill out a background info sheet, write a personal statement, and interview with a member of the committee...and then they take ALL of that information and use it to write a composite letter of recommendation. They also hold briefings every 2 weeks or so where they talk about different parts of the process (how to interview, MCAT study tips, etc.) and give you a chance to ask questions.
And one final word...don't come to Cornell if you can't deal with snow and cold weather! The weather is really crazy here...it can change by 40 degrees overnight. It gets really cold and snowy in the winter, but it's great for skiers like me! 😀
