How hard is it to earn a 3.5 GPA in college. How does a college GPA compare to a high school GPA. For example, is a college GPA of 3.0 equilvalent to a high school 3.5?
There is no equivalence to a HS GPA. A 3.5 GPA in college is fairly rigorous, particularly if you intend to go into a subject like engineering. It also depends on the school. http://www.gradeinflation.com/
Also depends on your interest and competence. You will mostly be taking courses within your chosen field and electives that interest you. Some students are able to do better in college classes than they did in high school classes that they were not interested in or suited for.
My B student in HS kid became an A student in college because she escaped her dreaded foreign language and Science courses and took higher math and education classes (can’t spell but give her calculus problems and she is thrilled).
My #3 in her HS class kid had to study a lot more than she ever had to before in order to maintain the required 3.8 in her Physician Assistant program. But she loved what she was doing so studying did not bother her.
Depends on your college, your course of study, if you are able to mature and handle college life etc. Some kids do better in college than HS, some do worse, some do the same.
In general literature and arts have higher grades than sciences and engineering. At Umich, the ‘target’ grade in the engineering school is curved to a B+ average. Also at Umich, the average in english, history, etc is A-. Some colleges have averages that are higher, some lower, some don’t have grades at all.
The skill set you use in college is completely different. There is far less class time, far more reading, little to no busy work, and rarely graded homework. Instead, you have tests, papers and projects. You are expected to contact your professor for assistance early, form study groups, conduct research etc. and organize yourself.
Let me give you an example of a rigorous senior writing class I took. We were expected to write six 6-8 page papers over a semester, re-write two of them, read 400-600 pages per week, and participate actively in class discussions and defend our arguments orally. In addition, the professor held 4 hours per week of office hours in which nearly everyone brought drafts of papers for preliminary input.
The typical ‘formula’ estimates 2-3 hours of homework per hour of class time. This class was more time consuming than most, however.
@Alexandre posted that the average grade in the COE is a 3.0 and the average in LSA is a B+ (lower than that shown in post #4).