<p>I made it through highschool, and came out with a 4.00. Not one "B." Ever.</p>
<p>As college becomes more of a reality and fall gets closer, i cannot help but wonder how difficult such a feat would be in college.</p>
<p>i will be attending a highly-ranked LAC (grinnell, to be specific) where i am certain the course load is by no means a joke. I plan on majoring in chemistry (and also taking chinese as a 'non-major/minor' foreign language). So my question is:</p>
<p>How difficult (honestly) is it for the average student (i assume this is what i will be at grinnell) to get all A's in college (they dont all have to be As and A+s)? How common is it to get all A's, and where do kids usually get screwed over? If i really tried to do this, would i be up all night every night?</p>
<p>I do want to keep a life, btw, if that has any bearing.</p>
<p>Also a huge factor is class size. In writing-intensive classes with 70+ students, As will be difficult. In writing-intensive classes with 10 students, As will be easier to attain.</p>
<p>I pulled a straight A/A- last semester!</p>
<p>Note that for writing-based courses, it is very easy for a professor to give an A-, with some so reluctant to give As that they give A/A-s! Just work hard, and always pay attention to the professor's comments. If a professor said something was wrong in a previous plaper, fix it for the next. It is called learning.</p>
<p>Regarding staying up late: I was studying until 2am for the majority of last semester, and until 6am for about 1/3 of it. Instead of partying during spring break, I took the opportunity to get ahead! I had one of the most rigorous professors at Georgetown, however: we had to write seven-page single-spaced summaries and one final paper at least 13 pages long (double spaced). Mine was 23.</p>
<p>The A-s came from hose darn writing-intensive courses that had 70+ students. The As came from my research seminars.</p>
<p>I have two years of a 4.0 at a state university, in the honors program, with a fairly diffifult major/two minors.</p>
<p>It takes not screwing up on tests (your main grade in most classes), doing everything the professor suggests for studying, being able to remember small details mentioned once and the willingness to study usually about 4-5 hours a day weekdays and probably 8-10 hours a day weekends. Thats my schedule at least, which varies a little based on work and extracurriculars. But most nights I study 8 pm to about 12-1. I have a life, typically on friday and saturday nights.</p>
<p>It also takes the ability to ******** your way through essay tests that you didn't study for enough, and just pure good luck. Many of my final grades have been 90.25 and 90.6 and 87 (87 and above was the grade cutoff in that chem class). But hey who cares they're still As!!</p>
<p>I just graduated with a degree in chemistry with an overall gpa of 3.82. I only got one B and one A- in my chemistry courses my entire 4 years. (And let me tell you - in that physical chemistry course, I was more than happy to take the B). GPA is also calculated different from when I was in high school. Here the +'s & -'s count, A-=3.7, and B+=3.3.</p>
<p>Anyway, it wasn't the chemistry courses that brought my gpa down... it was the general education classes I was required to take and the mean professors that taught them. I took one sociology course and the professor actually said "I don't believe in A's or curving. You should be happy to get a C in this class". I never got above a B- on a writing assignment, but managed to pull my grade up to a solid B with the tests. I'm not a B- level writter.. I'm A level, I was not happy. The following year I won a university writing contest. Another professor I had graded on a strict curve: mean=C, 1 std dev above=B, 2 std dev above=A. Well, on the first midterm, the average was around 88%, with a standard deviation of 10%, so a 100% still wasn't an A. </p>
<p>So, although I don't think it's IMPOSSIBLE to get a 4.0 in college, I think it is highly unlikely because you'll be bound to run into a bad professor, mean professor, or a professor that simply doesn't know how to teach at all. And then there will be physical chemistry which is just the root of all evil, and only the physicists enjoy it.</p>
<p>What college do you go to? Would you grades support your statement? I would assume if college is easier for you than high school that your college GPA would be higher than your high school GPA.</p>
<p>College has been easier than high school for me as well. The primary difference between high school and college is that you actually get to take classes that you think are interesting in college, whereas in high school you are stuck taking math, history, english, etc. So by taking classes I actually like, I find motivation to study the material because I think it is cool/very interesting. </p>
<p>My GPA is technically lower but my class rank is higher (8th percentile vs 4th percentile) so overall I see myself as doing better in college than I ever did in high school</p>
<p>I would assume it's because the professor doesn't have the time during class to make sure everyone understands. There probably isn't as much class discussion amongst the students eithers. The smaller the class, the more attention you can get from the professor.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Why is it harder to get a good grade in a class with a lot of people?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>For writing intensive courses: schools, for certain class sizes, maintain a grade-distribution. Adhering to a grade-distribution standard for a writing-intensive course causes a professor to give grades he would otherwise not want to give. Small classes (ie., classes with less than ten students), usually do not have such a standard, and the professor is thus more free to hand out a grade he deems appropriate.</p>
<p>I think that doing well really does depend on what major you're in. Personally, I think blowing exorbitant amounts of time for studying is really more helpful in certain subjects. For example, spending a couple hours trying to re-read and comprehend an historical event may be more worthwhile than spending hours trying to understand Maxwell's equations, something which is more "you either get it or you don't". </p>
<p>That said, my engineering classes have tended to grade on a curve, where you can never be graded down. For example, if you get a 90%, it is guaranteed to be an A-, even if 100% of the class gets 90%. On the contrary, you can get a 60% and still get an A, if say, the class average is 40%. I bet distributions like that will be common for a chemistry curriculum.</p>
<p>In short, getting straight A's as an average student might be more difficult since getting A's in bogus classes may depend on your beating the average by a significant amount, or actually getting a raw 90% (whomever comes out of organic chem with 90%+ is just f***ing crazy). However, this is my experience with science-based classes only, and not all schools do things the same way.</p>
<p>Anyways, I think you shouldn't worry about pulling all-nighters in attempting the elusive 4.0. The extra hours probably aren't worth it. And from what I've seen, it's usually the geniuses in class (that i am jealous of) that don't need to study too much, that get the highest grades.</p>
<p>You'll probably be fine as long as you're really motivated. As long as you do that, you shouldn't worry too much, because anyone in the future (employer/recruiter/grad school admissions person) who looks at your transcript/GPA should have a decent idea of grade deflation or inflation at various types of schools and sometimes even your school specifically. If you have a 3.8 at a school where they are known for not handing out A's, it can be as impressive as a 4.0 at another school. While a 4.0 is sort of the cream-of-the-crop academic achievement in high school, in college, there are also summa cum laude and magna cum laude honors that go to the top GPAs, both of which are quite prestigious; and, if you're at a school where straight A's are very rare, then you don't need a 4.0 to get these kinds of recognition. It's always good to be aware of the requirements for those if you are interested.</p>
<p>I'm in the Honors Program at University of Delaware. I was salutatorian of my high school so I had almost all As. Come Honors Freshman Chem with the hardest prof of the university that allll changed. Don't put too much pressure on yourself to get straight As. I did that and just ended up freaking out when it was virtually impossible to get a B- no matter how much studying I did. Just realize that you can get quite a few Bs, or even a C or 2, and still graduate with a great GPA. And also, if you're a chem major, it's research, not all GPA, that will get you where you want to be.</p>
<p>ustas06: move this thread to grinnell board and ask those who know. many people on this board go to state schools and there's definitely a big different in work loads between these schools and grinnell.</p>