<p>A 4.0 in BME is very harrd to get, considering 1/3 of all BME majors in BU switch majors by their junior year. There are classes where it's just impossible to get A's. For example, my student advisor got above average by 40 points in every test in physics II class and she still got an A-!
My guess is that you'd have be a top 3 student out of 100+ in your class to get a 4.0 in BME.</p>
<p>This thread is really troublesome for me (a parent). DS is a senior at BU. He says the BEST BEST course he took was a course in which he got a C + (posters here would clearly NOT be happy with that). Despite the grade, he learned quite a lot, loved the class, loved the professor, and felt he learned much that could be applied in everyday life in his profession. His GPA is a 3.52 overall, and we (and he) are quite proud of that. What is the fixation with having a 4.0 GPA?</p>
<p>The fixation is from high school seniors who are: a) high-achievers who need some goal to pressure themselves, b) worriers who somehow imagine that not getting a 4.0 means their entire future will be somehow damaged and c) those who somehow think BU is a worse choice than x school because at x school it's easier to get all A's. </p>
<p>All pretty silly. My favorite class was about silent movies. It wasn't hard and it never mattered in my career(s), but it was really interesting to think in terms of pictures and to slow down to enjoy the silent era. You just never know.</p>
<p>Its about grad school.</p>
<p>the guy above me is right, if you want to go to grad school, grades matter. It's like in high school when the teachers would try to tell me that it didn't matter if I got a B so long as I learned, but obviously it does matter because all colleges see is a GPA.</p>
<p>The above is true IF the grad school knows nothing about the quality of your undergrad program. If you want straight A's and a guarantee of that, why not just go to the community college and then transfer to a lower level state school within your state? I'm sorry, but I believe schools are smarter than that.</p>
<p>This topic has been beaten to death. College admissions involve a whole different order of magnitude of applications, certainty compared to the average graduate program. Grad schools are aware of the difference in average grades from school to school - and they make their own adjustments for quality as well. Colleges can't do that for all the high schools in the country, though schools obviously favor some over others.</p>
<p>Again, there are a bunch of threads about this.</p>
<p>But even so, the idea of a 4.0 means what exactly in graduate school admissions? It's silly. There's clearly a material difference betwen a 3.0 and a 3.6, but the marginal value of any tenths at the very top of the scale must be small.</p>
<p>I'm BME and it's extremely hard to get a 4.0. Actually, I don't even know a freshman BME major who has a 4.0. Chem101 kills a lot of people and most of my friends who started school as BME have already switched to a different engineering.</p>
<p>Grad schools may be aware, but top grad schools generally look for 3.7+. Just because its BU doesnt mean it will drop to a 3.5. So, that being said, is this highly impossible/unlikely at BU (aside from SHA)?</p>
<p>unless you work your ass of in BU= no playing around, you’re not going to get a 4.0 GPA. COM isn’t the most difficult college, a 3.5 shouldn’t be difficult to maintain. just make sure you have nothing less than a B :D</p>
<p>After reading all the posts, I have a question. It seems that the consensus is that it is quite difficult to maintain a 4.0 GPA at BU. Should this deter a student from attending BU if they intend to go to medical school after?
I’m under the impression that in order to get into medical school, applicants must have a 4.0 GPA or something almost as high.</p>
<p>i got into medical school with above a 3.6 from BU, had dean’s list 7/8 semesters, and graduated magna cum laude, if that helps (however, i got accepted into one of the early programs). and while it’s hard to do well, if u end up getting better than a 3.5 from BU, you are definitely cut out for medical school.</p>
<p>You don’t need a 4.0. It’s more like if you get a 3.6 and can score well enough on your MCAT, then you have a 95% chance of getting in.</p>
<p>It’s nearly impossible to get a 4.0 at BU (either overall or even during a semester). Absolutely forget about it in ENG. You would be lucky to even get a 3.0. In some classes they fail 1/3 of the class.
In most classes in CAS they curve so that the median is a B- (2.7). Some bio classes even curve to a C+. You’re lucky if the median is B or B+.
Grade deflation is a serious problem at BU. Every student on campus is aware of it and it is a constant talking point. It’s BU’s attempt to make themselves more reputable. Unfortunately, many students probably get screwed over when they apply for graduate school, med school, etc.
In any case, BU is definitely a respectable school. Unless you have below maybe a 2.5, you will definitely have learned a good deal from many amazing professors.</p>
<p>The idea of grade deflation making a University more “prestigious” is the dumbest thing I have EVER heard. The Ivies are rampant with grade inflation and no one considers them any less prestigious because of that. If anything won’t that make your school look less prestigious because all of your students are earning worse grades?</p>
<p>Well… just think of it this way. People that got into Ivies have worked really hard until now and are all smart, in one way or another. Why should some of the brightest kids in this country fail or do bad?</p>
<p>If you compare that to BU where the student population isn’t quite as high up there, GPA is one way to separate the really smart from the average. This way, grad schools/med schools etc know that if you pulled off a high GPA at BU, you are equivalent to an Ivy league student. </p>
<p>Of course, even hard-working kids might get screwed from the BU GPA policy but it sort of makes sense.</p>
<p>Since I will be attending BU this fall, I think this policy is really dumb but objectively, it works in a sense. It gives companies and schools a way to measure talent without a baseless GPA.</p>
<p>And finally, schools know this is happening. When you applied to colleges, they knew how the gpa and stuff works in your school. There are MANY more high schools compared to colleges and if the colleges knew high school that well, think how well the grad admission staff must know how undergrad policies work in different colleges.</p>
<p>Hopefully that will be an advantage for the terriers.</p>
<p>Ahh, the grad school fear.</p>
<p>Look, no graduate school requires a 4.0, period. At many universities that is impossible.
Furthermore, graduate schools look at a mixture of information, of which MAJOR GPA matters. And I must admit, if you want to go to graduate school, I hope you do well in your major…since you want to continue studying in that field.
A solid 3.something, preferably a high something (say a 5 or 6) is both manageable at BU if you study and try hard, and desired by grad schools.</p>
<p>Anadotally, I know 2 kids who got a 4.0 at BU (but only over one semester). I am getting a Masters right now and never achieved that goal. One person was my significant other, he was a senior in SHA and was the official SHA tutor for lower level classes. The other was a freshman 7 year med student, and I never saw him leave his dorm room except for class and meals.</p>
<p>come onnnn grade deflation threads need to die.
there’s a reason no one knows anyone with a 4.0…and it’s because no one knows these kids, period. I’ll trade my magna cum laude (very achievable, in my opinion) and memories/friends/stomachs free of ulcers and an acceptance at a T30 law school over the 4.0. cheers to you if you can get it (and I know many kids who came very close and still managed to be social etc) but don’t ruin your life over attaining it.</p>
<p>The grade deflation thing is ridiculous. I think BU may, as a whole, have a marginally lower average GPA than other universities, but not by much. And in the end, really, you don’t need a 4.0. I have a friend who achieved a 3.75 (still tough, but doable- he had a life), nailed his LSAT, and got into a T14 law school. You don’t need to be perfect, and honestly the time you need to expend for that extra .25 isn’t worth it.</p>
<p>For med school, GPA is obviously more important, but not the end-all. Work hard (but don’t kill yourself), get a high 3.x, and you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>A 4.0 is possible if you choose your major and courses carefully. In many majors it might not require anything beyond doing the homework and studying for a day or two before exams. That said, I don’t have one and I don’t know anyone who does.</p>