Do I have to pass "Econ 10A" with B or better?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Santa Barbara
1

<p>Someone says that you have to pass Economics 10A course with minimum B score. </p>

<p>However, here is what it says at Department of Economics site and I am confused about this:</p>

<p>"In order to qualify for admission into the Economics major, students must complete Economics 1, 2, and 10A with
a UC grade-point average of 2.85 or above. No grade lower than C in pre-major courses will be accepted."</p>

<p>Does this mean that as long as I have the above three major courses' GPA higher than 2.84 while the score of Econ 10A could be lower than B?</p>

<p>Could someone elaborate on this for me?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>You may get below a B in any pre-major course. To get into the major, your cumulative GPA for those three courses must be 2.85 or higher, as long as you don’t get below a C in any one of them. My daughter is in the econ-accouting major and these three courses are weeder courses and have a very hard grading curve. Getting a C in any one of them makes for a steep hill to climb to get into the major because you would need B+s in the other two which is not easy. If you get below a C, like a C-, you can retake the class but getting a C- is not easy either because the way the low end of the curve is set up. </p>

3

<p>this ^^</p>

<p>Sign up for CLAS (tutoring) the first week, because otherwise you aren’t able to, as I understand it. <a href=“http://clas.sa.ucsb.edu/”>http://clas.sa.ucsb.edu/&lt;/a&gt; Go to CLAS and focus. Good luck, but if you do that, honestly, the tutors know what you need to do. Just don’t lose yourself first semester. There are all sorts of wonderful distractions. Just remember your goals, and prioritize. Save the distractions for study breaks, and after tests are over.</p>

4

<p>If you are coming in as a freshmen your GPA will be based on the 3 courses you take at UCSB: 1, 2, and 10A. Also 3A and 3B if you are doing Econ/Accounting. If you are coming in as a transfer student to Econ you would have had to already have completed Micro and Macro to be admitted, therefore you are just left with 10A because the dept only uses the pre-major GPA from the courses completed at UCSB. If you get a “B” you can petition for full major status, “B-” and you can conditionally move into full major status. “C+” or “C” and you you need to pick a new major.</p>

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<p>OK, he knows more than I do about transfers. All the same, sign up for CLAS.</p>

6

<p>Thanks to all of you! This is clear to me now.</p>

<p>@rwscpa: So, for any of the three pre-major courses, you’re allowed to retake it if you earn a score below C? Then it seems like getting a C in any of the courses is the worst case since you are not allowed to retake it.</p>

<p>@UCSBanswers: “Also 3A and 3B if you are doing Econ/Accounting.” My understanding is that Math 3A-B only counted in overall GPA, not in pre-major GPA, even for Econ/Accounting. Not? Additionally, you can always substitute Math 3A-B with Math 34A-B…</p>

7

<p>Econ 3A and 3B (the accounting courses). The Calculus is not part of the pre major GPA.</p>

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<p>Here is the info for all of the Economics pre-majors for incoming freshman which is located here <a href=“http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/undergraduate/pre_majors_and_majors.html”>http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/undergraduate/pre_majors_and_majors.html&lt;/a&gt;. </p>

<p>Here’s what it says about the Economics pre-major:
“In order to qualify for admission into the Economics major, students must complete Economics 1, 2, and 10A with a UC grade-point average of 2.85 or above. No grade lower than C in pre-major courses will be accepted. In addition, students must complete PSTAT 109, Math 3A-B or 34A-B, and Writing 105AA-ZZ or 107AA-ZZ or 109AA-ZZ with a grade of “C” or higher; the grades in these courses will not be used in computing the pre-major GPA but will apply to the overall major GPA.”</p>

<p>Here is what it says about the Econ-Accounting pre-major also copied from there as well:
“In order to qualify for admission into the Economics and Accounting major, students must complete Economics 1, 2, 3A, 3B, and 10A with a UC grade-point average of 2.85 or above. No grade lower than C in pre-major courses will be accepted. In addition, students must complete PSTAT 109, Math 3A-B or 34A-B, and Writing 105AA-ZZ or 107AA-ZZ or 109AA-ZZ with a grade of “C” or higher; the grades in these courses will not be used in computing the pre-major GPA but will apply to the overall major GPA.” </p>

<p>It also says this:
“The pre-major GPA’s in the Economics Department are calculated on the basis of grades earned in economics and accounting taken at a University of California. Grades in the math, statistics, and writing courses must be a “C” or higher and are not used in computation of the pre-major GPA. Students must maintain a continuous 2.00 GPA in all major courses (preparation and upper-division) while attending the University of California. At its discretion, the department may discontinue students from the major who do not maintain the continuous 2.00 GPA in all pre-major and upper-division major courses. No course in the department may be taken on a P/NP basis.” </p>

<p>With respect to trying to earn below a C in any one of the pre-majors in order to retake the class, I may be wrong but it just seemed to me that when my daughter was taking her pre-major classes and I was looking at a couple of her classes’ student grade distributions that if a student was doing very poorly in one of them, getting below a C was almost impossible unless the student set out to fail the class from the start. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think they want students retaking pre-major classes which makes sense if they are weeder classes.</p>

<p>Here is her 3A class curve posted by her professor when she took that course which I believe is identical to the Econ 1 and Econ 2 curves iirc:
A no more than 6 percent of students</p>

<p>A- or above no more than 12 percent of students</p>

<p>B+ or above no more than 21 percent of students</p>

<p>B or above no more than 30 percent of students</p>

<p>B- or above no more than 39 percent of students</p>

<p>C+ or above no more than 50 percent of students</p>

<p>Here is the curve for her upper division accounting course she is currently taking:
A Top 10%
A- 10%
B+ 10%
B 25%
B- 10%
C+ 15%
C 10%
C- or below 10%</p>

9

<p>Just bringing something up that some might not be aware of…</p>

<p>As of today, May 29, 2014, and based on the information provided in UCSB GOLD: there is only 1 spot available for the Econ 10A courses for the Fall 2014 quarter. </p>

<p>This is incredibly alarming for incoming transfer students, such as myself, who are hopeful to begin UD courses, but have to wait until we are able to not only enroll in, but pass Econ 10A.</p>

<p>Perhaps I am overreacting, and perhaps they haven’t released their entire course schedule for Fall, but if this is proven to be the case, this is very disappointing news to all “Pre” Econ majors.</p>

<p>If anyone has any insight on this matter, please enlighten those of us who are concerned.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

10

<p>@CodyNigh71 my understanding is they save some slots for transfer students and freshmen as well, and they open them during orientation. I am not sure it specifically relates to this course, but I would think it would.</p>

<p>@rwscpa it is Econ 10A in particular that has the reputation of having a tough curve, as I understand it. Has your daughter mentioned that?</p>

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<p>@collegevetting, yes, she was very frustrated with this particular class. 10A is the hardest class she has taken so far with respect to how the curve affects the final grade, and according to my D, the class is just very hard in addition to the curve stuff. She earned a B+ in it in spite of it. The class midterms and final average scores for all the students in her class were extremely low…unbelievably low actually. I often wondered to myself how the students learned anything if they’re in essence failing the midterms for which they end up with a C letter grade for the class in the end. </p>

<p>As a Sophomore in her major, she is enjoying her upper division accounting and econ classes much more than when she was pre-majoring. A lot of it probably has to do with the pressures of making the major are over, but she feels her current classes seem to have a more “we’re all in this together” attitude toward the students instead of the pre-major “we need to weed some of these kids out of the program” attitude that she perceived.</p>

<p>@codynigh71, classes fill up fairly quickly in the pre-majors. I asked my daughter if she had any difficulty getting into her 10A class and she said she had no trouble at all. She took 10A in the fall 2013.</p>

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<p>@rwscpa that makes sense. Good grade, for that course.</p>

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<p>@collegevetting @rwscpa</p>

<p>Thanks for settling my nerves guys! I appreciate it.</p>