<p>Hi, I'm a senior in high school and was recently accepted into Tech. I absolutely love the school because of its location, students, and academics. However, I have heard that Tech is especially difficult in that most students have very low GPAs. I plan to enter med school after undergrad and GPA is a highly significant factor during admission; therefore, I'm very nervous in choosing Tech for my undergrad as I'm afraid that I might not get into med school. Is Tech really that difficult overall or just for engineers? If I major in Biochem, is it just as difficult as engineer majors? I'm considering either biochem or biology, are they both equal in difficulty? </p>
<p>Please don't misunderstand, I don't mean to choose the "easy path." I'm very hardworking but I'm just afraid that I don't have the intelligence to get a high enough GPA to enter med school. I have heard that many pre-med majors drop out and choose other routes, is that true? So are the hard majors ONLY engineers or does it include pre-med majors like biochem, bio, and chem? Sorry for asking too much, thanks guys!</p>
<p>"… I’m just afraid that I don’t have the intelligence to get a high enough GPA to enter med school."</p>
<p>If you don’t have enough intelligence to earn a high enough GPA to get into med school, you don’t need to go to med school. Period.</p>
<p>Most at Tech feel that chemical engineering and aerospace engineering are the hardest majors. If you work hard and put in the time, it is not impossible to graduate from Tech with a 3.5+, regardless of what major you choose. The ones that you mentioned are not going to be a cakewalk, but they probably are not among the most difficult at Tech either.</p>
<p>You were intelligent enough to get into Tech, you are intelligent and hardworking enough to do well enough to get into med. school. GPAs in the natural sciences at Tech are lower than those in the engineering courses (naturally, the natural sciences host the engineering weedouts like physics and chemistry). Either way, Tech STEM grades aren’t really that much lower (if at all) than other top non-engineering schools (all inflated, but the inflation is usually in the non-STEM departments which are the minority of departments at such schools). Admittedly, you’ll simply have to work harder in the engineering major to make your grade. The natural sciences yield lower grades because they tend to be more exam oriented (thus less fluff in the grade). Study hard and you’ll be fine. I would worry about Tech physics and math. The gen. biology and chem. course doesn’t seem bad at all (orgo at Tech also is pretty straightforward). Just make sure you don’t underestimate them even if you were exposed to the material. </p>
<p>If you click on a college link, it’ll break it down by the classes in each dept.</p>
<p>The sciences seem lower than engineering majors to me. You may want to look at fall distributions however as it will give better sampling. I think spring grades tend to be higher sometimes. By the way, those numbers are as I suspected. The grades are very similar to ours. In fact, biology and chemistry here may be lower (Bio and Chem are 2.9ish). You should deflate the average seen for each department or college because they include graduate courses which of course, tend to have much higher grades (they don’t have the weedout courses). Either way, your chances look good if you perform above average, which most pre-meds do because they absolutely have to.</p>
<p>As for this concept of intelligence and getting high GPA for med. school. Let’s be honest, many pre-meds can game the system so as to take easier grading (or flat out easier) science courses/professors to inflate it, prep. well for the MCAT, and they’re golden (though those who take more challenging coursework and are successful overall with a slightly lower GPA, do seem to do better on the MCAT. It’s the difference between getting a good and great MCAT sometimes. The latter actually learned the material when taking the courses and didn’t have to cram it with the prep, so scored better. The former just got by and took classes simply because the med school said they needed it). I wouldn’t say that everyone obtaining the GPA should get in. Some were just intelligent enough to game the system. I see it all of the time in the sea of pre-med students here (this may also be a reason why our biology and chem GPA is low, more weedouts than at places w/lower pre-med penetration. Strict curves set at GPAs that are bad for pre-meds, especially from private schools perceived as grade inflated). Most hardly earned high GPAs because of intelligence (you should here conversations around course enrollment time. It isn’t as much about professor quality, course structure, or content, moreso than ease. They take the easy classes and deal with the MCAT later). The only difference is that, at Tech harder classes aren’t guaranteed to be curved to a certain level (If a physics prof’s. class will yield a 1.7-1.9 average, they are free to do so with no pressure from say, a dean. It’s an unspoken rule here to curve average to 2.5-2.7 if you are a tougher prof) so it’s much harder to play this game unless you religiously use the course critique. Even then, enrollment time becomes a limiting factor.</p>
<p>heey, I got accepted into GT as well and plan on doing a Biochem or bio major with a minor in mathematics or Bio engineering. Haha I have that same doubt but I am guessing that since GT places a high emphasize in GPA and scores you probably did really well on them and will probably continue to do so. Regardless GT is a hard school but I am pretty sure you will be finee, applied to honors??</p>
<p>Geogia tech is a hard school. It is known for its engineering school, so any degree besides engineering might be a slight bit easier. However, it usually comes down to how much work you are willing to put in. I mean if you did not study and degree in physical education would be hard to complete. Just chose what you like, and the good grades will follow. Do not ever do something because it is the easier way out. Georgia Tech will chew you up and spit you out if you do. </p>
<p>It’s not nearly as demanding as the Engineering majors. If you are a programming whiz, you can make free time to pursue other endeavors (there’s a reason why so many computer entrepreneurs are able to start early). But that doesn’t mean its easy compared to other colleges. After all, this Georgia Tech we’re talking about.</p>
<p>PS: don’t go to a college where the CS dept doesn’t have a decent website (yeah, that’s right Berkeley). 90 top-notch CS faculty an hour away from the Silicon Valley and those poor sods can’t even design a good website. FOR SHAME!</p>
<p>I agree and disagree at the same time. It might be a tad more relevant in CS, but since berkeley’s site is for <strong>EE</strong>CS, I’m going to throw out there that our ECE site is kind of ****ty.</p>
<p>@sulf040 I know. It doesn’t really matter that much since Berkeley’s known more for ECE than CS, hence the A.I. concentration is part of the BA program. CS tends to be Stanford’s claim to fame. Plus, Georgia Tech is #2 in HCI research with CMU leading the charge so it kinda makes sense that we would have a better site.</p>
<p>Chemical Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Electrical Engineering were the hardest majors when I graduated in 2003. Aerospace was always a well respected major but never considered one of the hardest. I’d say it was in the middle.</p>
<p>GT EE school seems to be a bit of a diploma mill, and I know several grads with EE degrees with no jobs, and a ChemE graduate who went back home and worked at a grocery store.</p>
<p>I’d say the question cannot really be answered. There are a million variables to consider. Most people telling you that AE is the hardest have probably not done significant coursework in any two engineering majors at Tech. Even if they had, it still wouldn’t be credible coming from someone who did the second major after a few years of college engineering experience under their belt. </p>
<p>I’m not saying this is the case, it’s just a hypothetical, but what if people who like planes just tend to be dumber than everyone else, and therefore complain about AE’s difficulty more? Again, I’m not saying I believe that, but the reason people have picked up the perception that AE is so hard could be due to any number of reasons not necessarily related to the actual “difficulty” of the major.</p>
<p>Forget about this question and major in whatever you’re interested in and feel you have an aptitude for. If you can’t add 3 + 4, you might shy away from all engineering disciplines.</p>
<p>MichiganGeorgia: I talked to a friend at Ga Tech about BME and he said the hardest part was the competition for grades because so many Tech premeds do BME. Your classmates will screw you over if they get a chance.</p>
<p>Ajax - How wonderful, NOT what I wanted to hear… My son isn’t going pre-med. I would have thought there would have been an easier major to choose for pre-med students. Oh well maybe he can fly under their radar.</p>