<p>I'm currently planning to enter the Carleton College class of 2014, but I have some concerns regarding the academic load at Carleton. I absolutely love the vibrant intellectual community that Carleton seems to foster, but I've heard some things that deter my wanting to attend the college this fall. What should I expect from the workload, professor expectations, etc? How difficult is it to earn a higher tier GPA (3.9-4.0)?</p>
<p>This post is going to be a mix of good news and bad news. Hopefully it’s balanced enough so that you still want to come. :)</p>
<p>The bad news: Virtually no one at Carleton gets a 4.0. See this thread for a breakdown of the GPA distribution as it was in 2004: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/carleton-college/202140-where-grads-headed.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/carleton-college/202140-where-grads-headed.html</a> (post #10). Carleton doesn’t necessarily practice grade deflation (though that depends on who you ask), but it does have a pretty rough GPA system (for example, an A- is a 3.6).</p>
<p>The semi-bad, semi-good news (depending on how you look at it): Carleton is hard. If you look at the thread I linked above, you’ll see that a 3.5 will put you solidly in the top half of your class. Keep in mind that at Carleton, the average, middle-of-the-road incoming student scored in the 97th percentile on his/her SAT. Grad schools and employers know this. </p>
<p>The good news: College is different than high school. It took me a little while to come to terms with that, since coming out of high school I was used to getting straight As. It’s taken me a while, but I’ve realized that classes that are easy As (like a lot of the ones you’ve probably taken in high school) are not the most educative. Chances are you will learn a lot more struggling for a B+ in a tough subject with an awesome professor, and come graduation you’ll have the skills (and rec letters) to prove it.</p>
<p>If you do come to Carleton, try not to worry too much about your GPA. Work hard and do your best, certainly, but understand that the standards are different here.</p>
<p>I think the statistics changed since 2004, now around 3.6 puts you in top half. A- is 3.67(7) I think, the last time I checked. The difference between this college and most high schools is that here there will practically be no classes where you can coast by without doing work. If you want straight A’s or close to that, you will have to work. Nothing out of this world or anything, but you will need to put effort regularly and consistently. It also depends on what you major in, and what types of classes you take (more intros vs. more advanced). And you need to be ready to challenge yourself and learn things you may dislike. For example, ‘oh I hate and am terrible in math’ or ‘I can’t write papers’ are not the best examples of the attitude you need here. You should be approaching classes trying to learn from them, understand the concepts, not just the examples, etc. Also, belief, confidence, and will power is extremely important. As Henry Ford said, “Whether You Believe You Can, Or You Can’t, You Are Right.”</p>
<p>Correction to the otherwise accurate post from mflevity: A- is 3.67 for GPA, not 3.6.</p>
<p>You don’t need a 3.9 GPA for anything, so you shouldn’t fixate on that level of achievement. You can put extra effort in to try to maintain that high of a GPA (roughly top 5% of seniors have 3.9+), but you really don’t NEED to. Carls with GPAs quite a bit lower than that still can get into the very best graduate and professional programs. Even students with below-average overall GPAs from Carleton can get into very solid, reputable programs.</p>
<ol>
<li>Grading is very average, very middle of the road, compared to top LACs or uni’s. No Princeton grade deflation nor Brown grade inflation here.</li>
<li>You’ll work hard.</li>
<li>You’ll love the way you’re challenged (most of the time).</li>
<li>You’ll place extremely well into top grad/professional programs.</li>
<li>No one should expect a 3.9+ GPA nor will you need one (though this does happen about 5% of the time).</li>
</ol>
<p>Re: the 3.67 thing-- hooray!!!</p>