<p>I'm studying abroad right now (sophomore) and I'm not really doing so well in my classes mostly because 1) I feel like the academics are kind of inferior to my home school so I'm much less interested 2. traveling a lot and experiencing other countries 3. the curve is pretty harsh in that it's very difficult to get an A and kind of easy to get a B.</p>
<p>So basically, I'm ending up with B's and maybe a C. I'm not really sure how the curve will end up yet. There's definitely no way I got any A's since I've been told the curve literally only allows for a couple of the students to get A's. </p>
<p>The bad part is that I took classes for my major (fluid mechanics and linear algebra) while abroad. I'm normally a very strong student (almost perfect GPA at home university). How bad will this count against me?</p>
<p>Not really. I’ve been traveling a fair bit and neglecting academics a bit.</p>
<p>I’m studying in Hong Kong right now, which is really test-based. I’ve been in classes where a midterm and final are your entire grade, but HK takes it to a whole new level. The exams are similar in difficulty to what I’m used to at home (Rice U) but the prevalent attitude is that the exam is ALL that matters. At home, doing the assignments is self-rewarding even if they’re optional, but here all I have to go on is two irrelevant homework assignments spread across the entire semester. I’m leaving the classes feeling like I learned nothing at all. And I’ve attended almost every lecture - just not studying as hard. This is what I mean by inferior academics, imo. The whole school just has a less serious feel to it.</p>
<p>anyway, not to be a jackass please don’t derail my thread. i made it to get some opinions on how this impacts my chances at grad school, not to have the finer details nitpicked at. also, there’s a very big difference between a school having good academics and the ease of getting an A at that school. not really surprised that someone on here can’t tell the difference though…</p>