Difficulty of Curriculum

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Irvine
1

<p>Hi, I'm a first time poster at CC and just had a quick question. I was recently admitted to UCI as a biological sciences major and am curious about the difficulty of the classes I'll have to take.</p>

<p>Is getting a 4.0 nigh impossible?</p>

<p>I don't expect the classes to be jokes and I understand that learning in a UC college is very different from public high school classrooms.</p>

<p>I guess what I really want to know is will I have to sacrifice 8 hours of my day and deprive myself of sleep in order to maintain a high GPA?</p>

<p>For a little background:</p>

<p>I've taken AP courses throughout high school and have lightly experienced the lecture style of learning through a few courses I took at a local community college.</p>

<p>It's also really easy for me to memorize things, which I heard helps a lot in college.</p>

2

<p>Its not impossible, at least so far. I am a first year so I have taken only Bio and Chem and its not been that bad. The only reason I don’t have a 4.0 is because of classes like writing…eww. Sciences is not really that bad if you put in some efforts, the curves in most of these classes are pretty nice.</p>

3

<p>4.0 in a quarter? sure.</p>

<p>4.0 throughout college? you should forget about that, especially down the road. </p>

<p>just do the best you can.</p>

4

<p>Unlike high school, getting 3.5 GPA or higher per quarter or overall is actually not taken for granted in college.</p>

5

<p>Keeping a 4.0 for all of college would require a combination of great skill and great luck.</p>

<p>If your goal is a perfect GPA, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.</p>

6

<p>^OP, My friend was a bio-major, he switched to environmental engineering.</p>

<p>this is what in terms of him is (he was just excited/worried as u when he first entered, now he’s a junior… doesn’t give a damn)</p>

<p>Is getting a 4.0 nigh impossible?
ANSWER: No, but u won’t care after one year at UCI. My friend has a 3.5 first two quarters, then drop to 3.2, and as he got into upper division dropped to 3.0. The teacher’s, the way the grading works, and the difficulty of certain classes won’t allow u to get perfect 4.0. </p>

<p>-I guess what I really want to know is will I have to sacrifice 8 hours of my day and deprive myself of sleep in order to maintain a high GPA?
ANSWER:</p>

<p>If u do that then I’m sorry to say but you are missing out on many other important things like social life, community service, extra-curricular, networking, etc.</p>

<p>It’s not all about grades, you’re gonna need to balance it out.</p>

<p>For a little background:</p>

<p>I’ve taken AP courses throughout high school and have lightly experienced the lecture style of learning through a few courses I took at a local community college.</p>

<p>It’s also really easy for me to memorize things, which I heard helps a lot in college</p>

<p>^^^^^^^ Memorizing isn’t good, cause ur not learning it… and AP is way different than college stuff. I read Harper’s biochem which is a standard book of biochem in college… that **** is nothing like high school stuff… definitely needs more study time on it.</p>

<p>OVERALL… I think it’s like my friend says (and he’s a damn smart kid, even with a 3.0)</p>

<p>You gotta balance it out, get good grades… as long as your above a 3.0 (unless u want to do med, that’s like above a 3.4) then ur gonna be good… don’t kill yourself!</p>

7

<p>Thanks for all the replies everyone. I plan on majoring in medicine and I was advised that med schools weigh GPAs heavily when determining acceptance, which is why I am, or was, a little worried :). I also didn’t want to have to give up my social life just to be able to maintain a relatively high GPA. </p>

<p>Thanks again for putting things into perspective.</p>

8

<p>^ Dude, just make sure your above a 3.4 and get close to a 3.7 and you’ll be fine.
Unless u want to go to Harvard med.</p>

9

<p>Here’s the profile of UCI Medical School’s 2008 entering class. That might give you some idea:</p>

<p>[UC</a> Irvine Health Sciences College of Medicine Admissions](<a href=“http://www.ha.uci.edu/admissions/index01.html]UC”>http://www.ha.uci.edu/admissions/index01.html)</p>

10

<p>i think in any major it might be a bit more difficult than usual to maintain a 4.0, just because of the fact that pluses and minuses have weight (except A+ = A which is lame)</p>

11

<p>lol wth? so its not like a= 4 b=3 c=2, etc etc?</p>

<p>and dang it seems like it’s almost impossible to get a high gpa…</p>

12

<p>nope, an A or A+ is 4, but an A- is something like 3.7</p>

13

<p>A+, A = 4
A- = 3.7
B+ = 3.3
B = 3
B- = 2.7
C+ = 2.3
C = 2
But yea, getting a 4.0 throughout college would not just require skillz, but a lot of luck too! That doesn’t mean you can’t be get a strong GPA though</p>

<p>And the average GPA for Medical School Admission is around 3.65, but its more than just GPA! (though definitely try you hardest)</p>

14

<p>i thought it was a 0.3 difference between each grade but when i calculated them it wasn’t correct. thanks for posting that tatertots :D</p>

15

<p>Your welcome!
I wish A+ was a 4.3…life would be prettier. Thats for sure.</p>

16

<p>seriously. what good is an A+ except to boost your self esteem a bit?</p>

17

<p>they’re worth a lot to me, at least.</p>

<p>anyone applying to law school (not sure how they calculate it for other graduate programs) gets their gpa recalculated for admission purposes by the lsdas and each A+ does count as 4.33; so in the big picture, it can make a huge difference. </p>

<p>i for one am hoping to attend law school and my uci gpa (3.62) is helped a lot by A+'s to a lsac gpa of 3.74.</p>

18

<p>I wish they did that for Med School!!!..for AMCAS its A+ = 4.0 =(</p>