<p>Are academics difficult at the Naval Academy? Are the classes hard and is it hard to get like a 3.9 or higher?</p>
<p>Academics are very hard. I know few people, at least in my day, who found the courses easy and none who could skate through without doing homework and studying. </p>
<p>There is no grade inflation that I know of. Students routinely get Cs, Ds, and even Fs. Students go to "academic boards" if they do not have a 2.0 and/or have a certain number of Ds and/or Fs.</p>
<p>If you have a 3.9 GPA, you probably stand in the top 10 in your class (of ~1,000). A student in the 50% of his/her class would probably have around a 2.7 or 2.8 (a current mid please correct me if I'm wrong). And, remember, that almost all students came from the top 40% of their high schools, had high SATs, etc. </p>
<p>The above said, USNA has mandatory study hall. There are various study skills, tutoring, and mentoring programs. Professors are routinely available for extra instruction. USNA gives students every opportunity to succeed and the overwhelming majority do just fine. But it's not a cakewalk.</p>
<p>^^^^^
I conur with USNA1985 with the exception that the GPAs have been increasing since the '70s and '80s. During my time at the academy Cs were considered to be respectable grades. There were many professors who wouldn't think twice about giving Fs to 50 percent of the class and Ds to another 25 percent.</p>
<p>Last year someone posted a link to a Navy Postgraduate School study that indicated that the GPAs for midshipmen have increased over the years while the military scores have gone in the other direction.</p>
<p>Regardless of where the grades are today, the academic program along with the military requirements and mandatory athletics make the Naval Academy a challenging curriculum for most if not all midshipmen.</p>
<p>While 3.9 GPA is possible, it is not easy for most.
A lot will depend on what major you select- Division 1, 2 or 3. Many will argue that Division 1 classes (engineering) are the most challenging- not that the other divisions will escape their fare share of engineering courses, but the Division 1 majors (again, depending on the major) will take a higher level course (ie: cables instead of wires, ships instead of boats, etc). "Statics"..... someone described that as "physics on steroids."</p>
<p>(ps.... rumor has it the academy will be seeking more candidates looking for D-1 majors for the incoming classes)....</p>
<p>No grade inflation. C's and D's, and even "F's" are not unheard of.
"C" is passing and D="done." F's.... might be giving up summer vacation time to make those up, depending on what the Academic Board rules. Hopefully you get the chance.</p>
<p>With all due respect to the posters above, the class of 2011 had 78% come from the top 20% of their highschool class- a figure that has been steadily increasing each year.
<a href="http://www.usna.edu/Admissions/documents/Classof2011Profile.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.usna.edu/Admissions/documents/Classof2011Profile.pdf</a></p>
<p>GPA is only one grade. There is physical fitness grades and military grades, and peer rankings that all go into your "final" grade, or Order of Merit.<br>
Challenging is an understatement.
But achieve it.... that is the goal!!! </p>
<p>Motto: work hard, study harder.</p>
<p>As GA said most students come from the top 40% (93% of those in 2011 did))</p>
<p>^^^true- but the vast majority seem to be from the top 20%.</p>
<p>if it were my application, that is the pool I would want to be sitting in. </p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>I would align the middle of the class GPA to around 2.95-3.00 now-a-days.</p>
<p>For those wondering about Order Of Merit (OOM):</p>
<p>The calculations are based on these percentages over the entire 4 years (starting in 1996):</p>
<p>-Academics/Professional Courses: 64.48%
-Military Performance (Aptitude for Commission): 17.68%
-Midshipman Conduct: 7.80%
-Physical Education (Includes PE Classes + PRT): 6.66%
-Athletic Performance (dependent on sport/athlete status): 3.38%</p>
<p>I'll give some of my stats to those interested:</p>
<p>700M/710V/770W
H.S. GPA 3.85 UW
Standing 6/298</p>
<p>United States Naval Academy Record</p>
<p>1st Semester
Chemistry I D
Calculus I C
English I B
Leadership A
Seamanship B
Government B
Conduct A
Aptitude B</p>
<p>SPQR 2.54/ CQPR 2.54</p>
<p>2nd Semester
Naval History B
Chemistry II D
Navigation I C
Calculus II C
English II B
Conduct A
Aptitude C
SPQR 2.13/ CQPR 2.33</p>
<p>It's not that easy for me. I'm seeing that even a relatively strong SAT combined with going to a weak high school still puts me in the 800's for standing so far.</p>
<p>Semper SWO!</p>
<p>I don't think they are so bad. I went to a fairly tough high school and I went to an easy college last year, but was in some of the harder classes. I had around a 3.7 graduating and 720 M/690 V/740 W and was top 20% or so. Like I said classes aren't that bad, but for some reason I just lack a lot of motivation to do homework and study and stuff. Like right now I should be studying for my russian final but I'm not. I'm waiting for my mexican to get delivered and listening to incubus. It happens in the regualar year without media as well. People want to hang out and you're just kind of like eff studying, my brain is fried because i had a six in and i ran a lot and my training officer was being gay and i got rated a lot and i didn't sleep last night because i was on the phone. At least that's what's happened to me, and I pretty much always choose the hanging out over the studying. Oh well. My GPA here isn't that awesome. I'll have a 3.2 or so. I know a bunch of people who have much higher GPAs but a lot of kids in my company have really low ones. My roommate failed 3 classes. BUt she spends more time dicking around on facebook then I do.
So that was long winded but I hope it was semi-informational.</p>
<p>Jacktraveler, why do u think it wasn't that bad and everyone else says its hard? Is it the difficult exams or lack of a curve? I also went to a difficult high school and I took a lot of APs. I am at a military college, soon to be transferring to the naval academy, and im not having any trouble whatsoever in my classes. Is it because of the degree of diffuclty on the exams?</p>
<p>I would say so. The classes were pretty easy, minus english, because that all depends on the professor and I had a really hard grader and I do next semester as well. The finals were the hard part. I got pretty much owned by seamanship because I didn't study the right stuff, calc because I was lazy, chem was at least easy and so was leadership. I took 5 APs in two years and I did really well on all of them. I dunno. There isn't a curve which a lot of people hate. Well there were on a couple of chem exams but it wasn't that great. I also love chem and everyone has a problem with it and I want that to be my major.</p>
<p>It all depends on the person. One thing the academy will teach you to do is cram and memorize stuff very quickly for a quiz or test. Do not expect the academics to be like HS. A good number of the people who go to ac boards were a lot smarter than me, but tried to get by doing the same thing they did in HS. More advise, pick the major you want. People will try to talk you into group 1 or 2. Pick a major that you will enjoy.</p>
<p>One thing our mid realized this year is that tests in the major areas (ie: chem, calc, physics, etc) are made up by one prof each year, which is different from the prof you have that may or may not cover the material during the course of the semester. It is not unusual to find stuff appear on a test that was never disussed in class- </p>
<p>the key to success is to seek out extra instruction the minute you find yourself unclear of the material- and not wait until the 11th hour to do so. The challenge comes in finding the time to do just that- some are more successful at it than others! </p>
<p>the second key is to get rid of distractors-
-facebook
-internet
-noise (studing in the library is a good thing!)</p>
<p>best of luck!</p>
<p>^^^ Yep not than unusual for common exams over all sections with not regard for what was covered by "your" professor.</p>
<p>USNA2010 is correct - Get in the habit from day one to not study in Bancroft - go to the Library - it gets rid of many of the distractions and noise found in the hall.</p>