<p>I’m a second semester freshmen, and all I can see myself ending up with is B’s in all my classes! I only have gotten B’s on all my midterms thus far. I was valedictorian of my high school. How do I stop being a B student and start getting A’s??? I don’t get it. I go to office hours, TA hours, and don’t party. What is wrong with me.</p>
<p>Dare to go were the text book and the professor does not. Compliment mastery of the subject matter with original thought and opinion. Show that you can think!</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with you. College is different than high school – try not to compare the experiences. College is harder, period. I hope you picked Brown partly for the academic challenge – well, you are getting it! Many students sailed by in HS without having to do intensive studying, having opportunities to earn extra credit – college is more difficult.</p>
<p>I checked your past postings, and see that you are a computer science/science person. Those classes are difficult and often are graded on a curve, so it is more difficult to get an A.</p>
<p>You need to relax. You are a freshman. You have plenty of time to earn good grades. Also, why are you pressuring yourself to get As? Do you plan on attending a grad school program which is highly selective, like medical school? As a computer science major, you can still get a good, high paying job with Bs. What matters most to employers is your experience in internships and other jobs, and not straight As.</p>
<p>To give you some perspective, I was once sitting on a hiring committee for a teaching position, which does ask for transcripts. This person went to an Ivy for graduate school, but their undergraduate transcript had mostly Bs and Cs (yes, Cs). Not one person on the committee batted an eye at these grades, they weren’t mentioned once, and the person got the job. </p>
<p>If grades are the most important thing to you, more important than anything else, then consider switching your concentration. </p>
<p>And maybe you should start going to some parties. Have some fun!</p>
<p>@firedrain</p>
<p>I WAS a CS concentrator but I ended up hating it, even though I got an A in CS 17 (my only A). I have a 3.33 GPA. I’m now an APMA - econ major because I really liked the intro to econ class. However, it is utterly false that grades do not matter–a lot of the internships I’m applying to have cutoffs such as 3.2 and even 3.5! So don’t say they don’t matter–a higher GPA will give me more oppurtunities. I also don’t want to go to Grad school. The sad reality is that my resume has probably been thrown away at top companies because of my low GPA :/</p>
<p>what classes are you enrolled in for apma-econ that you supposedly received Bs on midterms for?</p>
<p>Stonesn, I don’t know anything about you, so it’s really hard to be giving this type of advice on an Internet message board. But since this is totally anonymous, I’ll go for it.</p>
<p>If you are interested in investment banking on Wall Street, then you might be right that your grades matter. I believe there are other paths to that career, but let’s assume that you are correct, that the jobs you are most interested in have GPA cut-offs that you fall under.</p>
<p>Well, here’s some tough love – maybe you are just not going to achieve those grades, so maybe you aren’t destined to go in that direction. You must be pretty smart to have gotten into Brown, but maybe you’re not smart enough to get the As you need for Wall Street. This reality check happens to many people – go find some freshmen premeds who are failing organic chemistry and you’ll see that they are having to reconsider their career goals.</p>
<p>I just saw an article in the BDH about how econ is beginning to grade on a curve. Only 30% will be getting As. </p>
<p>Most people see college as a way to expand their horizons. But it is also a place where many doors get closed. Many students think they want to study chemistry or Spanish or nuclear engineering, and discover it’s too hard. </p>
<p>I knew many engineers when I was at Brown, and they were all students who got great grades in high school. Most of them got Cs in engineering. Some couldn’t cope with that and switched. Others decided they still liked the work, continued getting Cs, and went on to have very successful careers. </p>
<p>If you don’t want to accept this possible truth – then I suppose you could work even harder and more hours, maybe hire a tutor. You could go talk to your professors and ask them bluntly why you’re not getting As and what A-level work looks like. (Of course, when a prof decides that only 30% is getting an A, that could still mean that you could be doing A-level work and end up with a B. If 40% of the class has a 95+ average, 10% will be getting a B.) And perhaps once you get through these weeder courses, and start taking upper level seminars, you might get higher grades.</p>
<p>There are many high-paying challenging and satisfying jobs out there that don’t require a 3.5 GPA in economics. Your life will not be ruined if you go in a different direction. Go to career development and talk to someone there. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Odds are though that the issue isn’t whether or not you are capable of getting As but whether or not you know how to.</p>
<p>And what does that mean, I<em>wanna</em>be_Brown? Cryptic, much?</p>
<p>How did you do first semester? How are other students doing in the same classes you are taking now? </p>
<p>Look at your mid-terms and determine what your weaknesses were on those assessments and make changes accordingly.</p>
<p>I got one A, 2B last semester (One Pass). This semester, I’m struggling to get an A in Math 20 and Math 52. I just got back my midterms in each of them and got B’s in them. I feel like others put in half the time, and still get better grades than me :(… Though I am doing well in Econ 1130 (mathematical micro) and my easy FYS class.</p>
<p>I have no idea about Brown, but at my university, once I started recording class lectures and listened to them/edited my notes, I scored much higher on the tests.</p>
<p>fireandrain (and OP),</p>
<p>what I mean is that unfortunately, the majority of high schools don’t really prepare kids for college, especially for the kids who are at the top of their class (isn’t this the topic of a featured post right now on CC?). The fact is most high school stars come out of high school without learning to study or write. Their high school classes feature oodles of homework and extra credit and the exams require one to regurgitate what was said in class. This describes virtually none of my classes at Brown, and if someone isn’t used to being tested or evaluated the way a college student is, it can be a rough transition.</p>
<p>It’s not coincidence that so many elite prep school kids find college to be EASIER than high school but I guarantee it’s not because the schools are full of super geniuses with IQs over 140, it’s simply that they learned how to approach their classes like a college student while they were still in high school.</p>
<p>For me personally, I found myself doing less and less work throughout college while maintaining or improving my grades because I simply got better at doing it. I knew what the best ways for me to study different kinds of material were, I knew how to take notes more efficiently, etc. Without interacting with the OP I have no way of knowing what the issues are, but I highly doubt he’s simply not smart enough to get As at Brown, my guess is he’s using the same habits he did in high school and those simply aren’t going to cut it.</p>
<p>Thank you to FireandRain and IWannabeBrown. Both of your offer insightful and well-reasoned comments. </p>
<p>Stonesn: I’d like to offer a few of my own. I graduated from a public high school which stressed academics and found Brown to be significantly easier in terms of both quantity of work and sheer intellectual challenge. I am of only slightly higher than average intelligence but found Brown easier than high school because I had spent 3 years in high school working my tail off learning to manage my time, learning to capture the essence of what was taught in class, learning to endure hardship. At Brown, I was a pre-med major and continued to attend medical school. Medical school was easier than Brown in terms of intellectual challenge but more difficult in terms of quantity of work. My GPA as a pre-med at Brown was about 3.8. Again, my early preparation in high school made all the difference. One specific study skill I learned in high school which served me well in college is knowing my preferred learning style. I discovered early that I am highly visual and kinesthetic. Therefore, for example for biochemistry class at Brown I combined those two modes of learning. First, I made elaborate and giant diagrams in vivid color that modeled the flow of chemicals across the cell membrane. I plastered my dorm room walls with these diagrams and even hung some on a clothes line inside my room. Whenever I had a free moment, I would scan these diagrams quickly. Also, I imagined myself as chemical molecule and acted out the tortuous paths I would take to cross cell membranes. I closed my eyes and moved my body throughout my room through different imagined cell wall barriers. These practices helped me learn difficult concepts quickly. I don’t know your preferred learning style so my approach may or may not help you. What might help is for you to discover your preferred learning mode.</p>
<p>Stonesn, if you got into Brown then you will most likely have the ability to do well in college and succeed. Learn how to learn more efficiently and you’ll likely increase your GPA. </p>
<p>Best regards.</p>
<p>I_wanna: If you read my first comment (post #3), you’ll see that I agree with you. At least, on the idea that many students who sailed through HS are not prepared for college. If this is stonesn’s problem, then I agree that a new approach to studying could be the answer.</p>
<p>However, it is not correct to assume that anyone who gets into Brown is smart enough to get As in every subject. I’m pretty smart, but trust me, no amount of studying would earn me As in a foreign language. Perhaps I could have earned Bs in upper level math and science classes in college if I had studied enough, but I don’t think I could have done anything to bump those to As. I don’t think it’s true that kids who earn Bs do so only because they aren’t working hard or smart enough. Do you really think that all those Brown students who don’t get an A in organic chemistry are only in that position because they’re not studying smart?</p>
<p>midwestfather, I have no doubt that stonesn can succeed in college. But since when is success judged solely by the number of As, as stonesn seems to think. I think he’s been quite successful so far. And while I do think it is possible that his grades could improve as he moves into upperlevel classes, it is also possible that for him, changing his concentration might be the answer.</p>
<p>Also, as far as I know (and remember from a few years ago) Brown does not calculate GPA for your transcript.</p>
<p>I never said one should assume that everyone at Brown is capable of As. I said it is more likely that the issue is with study habits than capability.</p>
<p>fireandrain, Yes, I wholeheartedly agree that success in college does not and should be based on one’s GPA. Success is also much more than academic accomplishments. It’s also about expanding one’s boundaries and navigating complex social situations and developing character when confronted with frustrations and failures … and letting others come to your aid. I hope Stonescn and other students take a more holistic of what success in college means.</p>
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<p>Pretty much everyone who managed to get into Brown is valedictorian-caliber. When only the A students get in and then get curved against one another, some of the former A students have to get B’s or lower.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman and got a B in a math class last semester – his first B ever in math. That’s pretty unusual for a kid who taught himself all of BC Calculus and the two Physics C courses over 3 successive weekends and aced those APs. But the math/science tests at Brown are wickedly hard and test minor nuances in applying that knowledge that you wouldn’t get in a more typical college. All in all, it’s probably better for him to be pushed to the edge of his learning ability rather than always end up with 99%+ averages and false confidence, even if it means slightly worse grades on occasion.</p>
<p>I am curious if anyone else here knows of specific internal Brown resources that might be of benefit here? A way to view batches of tests given in previous years? Upper classmen buddies to question? TA hours tend to be very limited. Yes, one can google for anything these days, but the biggest problem I see is: how do you know when you don’t know something, before you sit down for the actual test?</p>
<p>It’s the classes where they have a fixed number of A’s, B’s, and C given out that is killing me. There’s no way I can get an A when you have kids who’ve won national competitions in math, etc. Thus, I’m always at the lower end–the B. </p>
<p>How do I compete with these sorts of kids? I’ve to come to realization they are way smarter than me.</p>
<p>Stonesn, I hope this helps some: My son is grappling with going to an Ivy or taking full tuition scholarship at a ‘lower ranked’ school (lower end of top 50 but would still provide ample research opportunities, access to medical school for shadowing, etc.) My son was wondering what the impact on medical school admissions would be if he came out of the Ivy (facing the more intense peer competition) vs. the lower ranked school with (say) a 4.0. He asked a friend who is a doctor how he felt about this. This friend went to the lower ranked undergrad (with the 4.0) and then onto an Ivy medical school where he (in addition to his successful practice) has some involvement in the medical school admissions for that Ivy medical school. He believes that to get into a top medical school you are much better off coming from an Ivy with a B than another school with a 4.0 (his words.) I am sure employers also know the value of your B at Brown. Keep up the good work!</p>