<p>3.25. This number has been bothering me for a while now. At most colleges that I know of, the dean's list is some sort of honor bestowed on roughly the top 25% or so students. After getting my winter quarter grades back, I was happy to see that my gpa is still far beyond that number. However, i realized that pretty much everyone i know (and am close enough to ask them about their gpa) has a gpa above 3.25. That made me feel not too special anymore. Does anyone know roughly what percentage of students here has Dean's List (or graduates with honors, which is the same gpa number)? That way, I can determine if I should bother devoting 10 more hours studying to close in on that 4.0 and ensure I'll be picked for job interviews come graduation time.</p>
<p>This kind of puzzles me too. I’ve heard that about 2/3 of the students end up on the Dean’s List, but I can’t confirm that. It also looks a bit silly to people outside the school. For instance, my local (small town) newspaper usually prints little recognition articles for college students who make it to the Dean’s List, and the requirements are almost always 3.5 and higher. So telling people that you made the Dean’s List with a 3.25 is slightly ridiculous. I suppose that’s not really a major concern, and I’m glad that it’s relatively attainable, but I can definitely see how such a low requirement takes away from the merit of making Dean’s List.</p>
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<p>The way I think it works is that if you put in more time you actually learn more, regardless of your grade. What happened to “The Life of the Mind”? At $55k a year, I think students should bother.</p>
<p>Yeah, fortune3, they ought to kick you out of the University – or at least force you to major in Economics – for that line.</p>
<p>Newmassdad and I have counted general honors at the last few graduations. General honors is essentially the same as Dean’s List. A little more than half the class.</p>
<p>If you want to strut around and feel superior to everyone, try for Phi Beta Kappa. That’s 10% of the class, and seems to require around a 3.8.</p>
<p>By the way, kudos for being able to get a good GPA without putting in your best effort. I usually just work on papers and problem sets until I’m burnt out, which doesn’t seem to be quite enough. From what I’ve seen (for silly first-year classes, anyway), learning the material well isn’t what gets me a good grade. That requires luck, a helpful professor, and superhuman levels of motivation. Unfortunately, just devoting more time to studying (and learning more along the way) doesn’t necessarily raise grades.</p>