<p>For anyone who goes to Emory, can you give me a sense of how difficult it is to get a 4.0 GPA at Emory? How does the grading scale work? Are 4.0s awarded for A's or is it only A+'s? How hard would you have to work to get/maintain a 4.0?
Thanks to anyone who has any insight on this.</p>
<p>There are no A+s. 4.0s are As. Difficulty depends on the major. It’s rare for people to get a straight up 4.0, though many in certain majors will get very close. The first A- prevents it. Chances are, one will get at least one A- or an Gasp!!!: B+.</p>
<p>@Bernie12 - I keep hearing about B+ and kids retaking classes or dropping so it doesn’t hurt their GPA’s. Can you speak to that a little. If someone is pre-med would getting B+'s, make it impossible to get into medical school?</p>
<p>Thanks for the input! I heard though that when people apply for Dean’s Achievement Scholarships, Rhodes Scholarships, etc. that something like 3.8 would be considered on the lower end of the spectrum in terms of high-achieving students. About how many students get 4.0’s? Is a 3.9 or a 3.8 GPA still good when applying for competitive scholarships and graduate schools?</p>
<p>Yes, a 3.3-3.4 science and a 3.5-3.6 overall is generally enough to get you in. I’m thinking most only aim to get into very tippy top schools (they don’t really want to be doctors, they want the prestige of being one or having attended a top med. school). However, those Ws don’t do any good in terms of having a chance at these schools even if they do come out with the say 3.6-3.7 science GPA. The fact that they view B+ as hurting their GPAs indicates that many of such people will eventually drop pre-med simply because they aren’t getting A-/A in every class whereas the people who have more drive and character will generally stay the course as long as they are doing well in non-sciences and getting a few B-flats (or maybe even a C+/B-) here or there in the sciences.<br>
The most annoying thing is that freshmen drop classes where they won’t make an A (they have the policy where they’ll only receive a “W” as opposed to “WF” if they drop within 10 weeks of add/drop/swap as opposed to the normal 6 weeks). They are in introductory courses where it is very disruptive to do so. Imagine you are partnered in lab with such a person and you’re in the middle of a project and then they drop b/c they feel as if they will get a B/B+. This is what happens a lot. This is why my organismal form and function proposed that profs. be able to write notes on the withdrawal forms of students who drop their class. You know, stuff like: " Perhaps it was best for this person to take a withdrawal" or " I don’t quite understand, the student has a B+ in my course". Needless to say the deans are so protective of pre-professionals, especially pre-meds, that it was struck down. </p>
<p>It’s nice to hear when people like that drop the pre-med track. They have entitlement mentality(they believe if they are so awesome that if they aren’t getting an “A”, then something is wrong with the prof. and that the course is too hard) and a low level of perseverance, and minimal care about how they are affecting others. I wouldn’t want them as my doctor. I rather have the person who went on to get a C+/B- in the course and then improved a lot throughout their career here than people who cheat/abuse the system like that.</p>
<p>Many students here feel so entitled to high grades, that a 78 average on a physics exam is viewed as “low” (thus a need/expectation for a curve). Are you kidding me?!
I’ve figured out that it’s because many HSs, especially private seem to kind of grade inflate, which explains why so many people graduate with over 4.0s. Sure they may have worked kind of hard, but I can only question how hard the school was if they got a 4.0+ by “working hard” and then comes here and say that a high 70 exam average in an intro. science course is low. I only wish I could attend a highschool that graded like that. They must have been the countryclub schools among HSs. Must have been nice. I can only imagine the shock and awe that would be rendered if such students went to an engineering school where a 78 average does not come anywhere near justification to curve (especially at public schools).</p>
<p>musicmania- Dean Scholarship: Most of those folks are non-science majors for one and even they don’t have 4.0s (scholarship overseers and grad. schools knows that most non-science/math fields have highly inflated grades so they do indeed expect a very high GPA). They are clumped between the 3.75-3.9 area(Don’t know about Rhodes). 3.5-3.8 would probably suffice for many tough grad. schools. My understanding is that requirements are tough, but not as stringent as professional schools. Grad. schools tend to look at things such as research involvement and course rigor and of course GRE. Essentially they actually care about how much and what you learned and your GRE score.</p>
<p>How many students on average do you think get accepted into an Ivy League/Elite Med School?</p>
<p>I don’t know. A reasonable amount. I have one friend currently at Harvard Med., another at Duke, one senior here that was accepted to WashU (and intends to enroll) another accepted to Penn, Columbia, Cornell, and Chicago. These are just 3 that I know of. There are more than likely lots of success stories in that arena. However, note that I feel as if these students would have been accepted to these places w/without Emory. They are awesome students. I’d imagine Emory resources certainly helped some though.</p>