<p>How harsh are the curves at UPenn? Especially in the math & sciences? & how dominant is Greek life?</p>
<p>Curves aren't too bad in normal classes. I hear they can be pretty brutal in math/sci... it's an Ivy League school.</p>
<p>Greek life dominates the on-campus social scene. You don't have to go greek, but most of the parties are run by frats. ~30% of males and ~30% of females go greek, i believe.</p>
<p>The curves in the sciences can be really hard, but they can also help you too, and the structure of the curve varies a lot form class to class. Math 104, for example determines the number of A's in a given section of the class by the total number of A's acheived in that section on the final. Both intro to bio courses (101 & 102, not 121/122) allow you to drop your lowest of three "midterms", which is quite beneficial, but then makes the overall curve a lot harder when everyone has their best two tests plus the final averaged together. Chem does some weird thing with a total number of points acheivable on all the tests combined, and you can potentially earn back points you lost on previous tests on later ones (that said, the first midterm in Chem 101 last fall had an average of like 32/100 or something absurd). I think physics is pretty much a bell curve, with the top 20% getting A's. Not really sure how they all actually work, most professors do some sort of normalizations across sections and things of that nature that make things complicated, and I'm in the sciences, so I wouldn't pay too close attention to the curve. The general rule for beating it is to do well on the final, the rest pretty much takes care of itself.</p>
<p>Any pre-med class has a tough curve, i.e. chemistry, physics, bio, orgo, math. While curves are theoretically supposed to help you, they mainly serve to play with your head and leave you completely unaware of your letter grade until the semester closes.</p>
<p>quite.....</p>
<p>haha...how hard is it to maintain a high GPA for premeds? ...since most med schools have a min GPA requirement</p>
<p>it's hard...real hard, but doable</p>
<p>
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it's hard...real hard
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i'm really nervous now :(</p>
<p>how about the courses for wharton? like econ classes and stuff?</p>
<p>i think business is the same...but i'm not sure</p>