<p>Current caltech students: What would you say are average grades that a student can expect to receive at caltech?</p>
<p>You need a 3.5 to graduate with honors, and about half the students do...
Of course, average grades very widely by major, for example math majors tend to have high GPA while EE or physics majors (on average) tend to get lower grades...this does not necessarily reflect the difficulty of the material in classes but more the course policies and grade distributions instructors have in mind.</p>
<p>Average GPA is about a 3.1-3.2 (a friend did a SURF on it). 42% (IIRC) of students graduate with honors. What entropy says about variation by major is quite right, but it's always hard to sort out selection vs. difficulty effects.</p>
<p>Hehehe because all the brilliant ones self-select into math right Ben? lol just kidding, stirring the pot a bit. I swear if you respond in a serious manner to this I will be forced to retaliate with... a hunger strike! Gooo Ghandi!</p>
<p>That's a huge relief for me. I somehow got the feeling that B's would be really hard to get and A's would be close to impossible.</p>
<p>lizzardfire: Math majors are required to keep at least a "B" average in mathematics courses, so they do tend to be self selecting (and if they aren't, the department will do it for them, but I think this rarely happens). Math is the only major that I know of that has a standard for grades other than the typical 1.9 minimum GPA.</p>
<p>Math majors are NOT required to have a B average in math courses to major in math; the minimal standard to major in math is 1.9, like in other majors, quoted from the math department website:</p>
<p>"Attention is called to the fact that students whose grade-point averages are less than 1.9 at the end of the academic year in the subjects under mathematics and applied and computational mathematics may, at the discretion of the department, be refused permission to continue the work of the mathematics option".</p>
<p>The previously mentioned B average merely refers to the fact that the math department does not recommend students with less than a B average in core math classes to major in math-because it does not believe they will be successful or happy-although I know of several counterexamples to this phenomena.</p>
<p>In particular frosh who test out of ma 1 and take ma 2ab on pass/fail sometimes tend to blow off these classes and nevertheless go on to very sucessfully major in math- quite understandable since the core diffy q./statistics classes are taught much like a class for engineering majors, have long computationally intensive problem sets, and the material taught in them not necessarily prerequisite for further work in many areas of math.</p>
<p>Course Catelog:</p>
<p>"Unless students have done exceptionally well in their freshman and sophomore years, they should not contemplate specializing in mathematics. An average of at least "B" in mathematics courses is required of students in order to major in mathematics."</p>
<p>That seems to make it sound like it's required, but then later it says:</p>
<p>"A student whose grade-point average is less than 1.9 at the end of the academic year in the subjects under mathematics and applied and computational mathematics may, at the discretion of the department, be refused permission to continue work in the mathematics option."</p>
<p>Yeah...hrm</p>
<p>The math department is very peaceful and doesn't kick anyone out almost ever. But it would be kind of silly to major in math if you're not keeping up a B: no decent graduate school will take you with a B average, and if you're going to get a job after graduation it probably makes more sense to do a major in which you can do better and which will leave you with more practical skills.</p>
<p>Of course, someone may just simply enjoy the experience, but it would be presumably a somewhat masochistic kind of pleasure.</p>
<p>Then... oops. I guess I'll go complain to an ARC rep or something about the catalog description.</p>
<p>thanks for the information</p>
<p>"no decent graduate school will take you with a B average"
scary...</p>
<p>In math... it would be a huge disservice to the people involved to do otherwise, because if you can't get A's as an undergrad your probability of having a successful research career is very low.</p>
<p>Aschbacher got a C in math 5 his senior year...his research career turned out fine.</p>
<p>Yes, but that's because he didn't do the work -- already got into his graduate school of choice. (Btw, it was Math 120c, not 5 :-). If you add "despite trying your best" to my last post it becomes true.</p>