<p>Basically, what I wanted to know is, are the classes at ivies harder than at another 'non-ivy' college? </p>
<p>Like, if a student doesn't have like 150 IQ like his other mates at Harvard, will he be doomed to fail when if he attended a lesser known college he would have the same classes but they would be less academically challenging?</p>
<p>I don't know if this makes sense, sorry. :)</p>
<p>So you’re expecting answers only from people who attended both an Ivy and non-Ivy in undergrad?</p>
<p>My son’s classes as a theatre major at a second tier LAC are harder than what I took as a government major at Harvard. A required soph level course in his major required an 80-100 page paper plus a couple of shorter papers, a test and extensive reading. I wasn’t required to write a paper that long until I wrote my dissertation.</p>
<p>From what my husband has told me, my husband’s classes as a humanities major at a second tier LAC were harder than what I took at Harvard</p>
<p>The undergrad classes that I took for fun a few years ago at a second tier public in the place where I live were much easier than what I took at Harvard. Sheesh! Multiple choice tests!</p>
<p>Te undergrad classes I taught at a second tier public were much easier than what I had to take at Harvard though I was one of the toughest profs in my department.</p>
<p>Make of all of this what you will…</p>
<p>I think at any top school classes will be harder because grades are standardized and students are more competitive.</p>
<p>They have easy majors just like every school. Bush, Kerry, and Obama went to ivy leagues, remember?</p>
<p>So I guess it only depends on the classes and there is no real correlation between how hard a class can be in an ivy/ non-ivy. I was just wondering this, because I am certainly not a genius (haha not close) and if I ever studied extensively in college and decided to go to a better school, would it be a good thing or not.</p>
<p>*Actually I don’t mean ‘better’, I mean more prestige/ ivy league schools not saying that there aren’t any non ivy that can be better personally for me to fit in.</p>
<p>I think it’s probably harder to get an A because you’re in a class with a bunch of other geniuses who work just as hard if not harder than you do in class. I feel like most schools try to give as much of an education as you would receive at an Ivy, but it is the other students’ contributions to class and the work you put into it that make a difference. So, same level of difficulty, but either much harder or much easier depending on who you go to class with.</p>
<p>I’ve read the same books in my core courses as you would at an Ivy, and thankfully the professors and other students really facilitated discussion and thought surrounding these books. If the students had not been as intelligent or intellectual, I doubt I would have received such a similar experience to what I assume you receive at an Ivy-level school. But at the same time, you could be stuck with a TA and a bunch of silent kids at an Ivy, so who knows who is really getting the better education and the harder class?</p>
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<p><em>Leaves thread</em></p>
<p>When it comes to Harvard, the hardest thing about Havard is getting in. Most Harvard students graduate with honors. It’s not hard to get high grades as long as you do the work.</p>
<p>The difference between Harvard and less competitive colleges (except for liberal arts colleges which all seem to require a lot from their students) is that professors don’t spoon feed you. In other words, they expect you to read the textbooks so they lecture about things not in the book, and you will be tested on those things, too. </p>
<p>Exams are not multiple choice (something that seems typical at many less competitive colleges that aren’t liberal arts colleges), but are essay exams.</p>
<p>Grading is not curved, so if everyone does well in a class, everyone can get As.</p>
<p>I think a lot more spoon feeding, pop quizzes, and make-work assignments designed to make sure students do the reading goes on at less competitive colleges that aren’t LACs.</p>
<p>Correct me if I’m wrong, but that was said with Princeton’s grade deflation policy in mind, not Brown’s pick-whatever-class-you-want-a-good-grade-in attitude. And it was also said from the point of view from a student who takes honors classes with Ivy-level students and regular classes at the same private college, and finds that the honors classes are much harder.</p>
<p>I’m not so sure about the competition argument because I don’t think most elite private schools grade on a curve.</p>
<p>Whistleblower - Bush may be an idiot, but calling Kerry and especially Obama stupid is just…idiotic.</p>
<p>Honors colleges at a private college are designed to be harder than are regular classes. It may be that more complex work is required and longer papers as well as essay exams being the norm instead of simpler forms of exams.</p>
<p>My experience – as someone who has taught at second tier colleges – and went to Harvard - is that what was harder at an Ivy was the work required and the tests were more likely to be essay tests, not multiple choice or fill in the blank.</p>
<p>For instance, I thought an easy class at Harvard was one that required just a 20 page paper and an essay midterm. Students at many nonLAC less competitive colleges may not even be expected to write any 10-page papers during their college careers. LACs, however, tend to require more writing of their students.</p>
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LOL! Bush actually had a higher GPA at Yale than Kerry did!
[The</a> Week - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/050620/20week.lede_2.htm]The”>http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/050620/20week.lede_2.htm)</p>
<p>“Whistleblower - Bush may be an idiot, but calling Kerry and especially Obama stupid is just…idiotic.”</p>
<p>Dumb statement is dumb. </p>
<p>While the students are of a higher caliber at an Ivy League school than a state school, far more As are given there. Whether or not that under or over compensates for the difference in student body is debatable. </p>
<p>It also depends on what non-Ivy you’re talking about. No one could reasonably doubt that it’s harder to get an ‘A’ at Harvard than Eastern Michigan. Most would probably agree that is it easier to get an ‘A’ at Harvard than MIT or Chicago.</p>
<p>People I know who transferred to Cornell from a few state or lower tier private schools have told me that the classes are undeniably harder here, and I’ve heard the same from friends from Cornell who have taken classes at NYU or their state schools. </p>
<p>Then again, Cornell is known to be the hardest Ivy so idk whether it stands for all highly ranked schools or only some. Unlike some other schools, Cornell definitely doesn’t have grade inflation, and instead most classes practice grade deflation. </p>
<p>I haven’t taken a hard science class yet, but people who do say they are very difficult to do well in because the tests are scaled down, like you have to do better than the mean or you’re screwed. Even for my Fiber Science Lab, part of an relatively “easy” class, Intro to Fiber Science, this held true.<br>
The labs were graded pretty easily, as long as you did everything correctly/got the correct results and put the time in, and I had a 97 as a numerical average. According to a typical grading scale a 97 would be an A+ (and yes, Cornell differentiates between +s and -s, with an A- being a 3.7). When I emailed my professor asking why I had only received an A in the lab portion (I had been hoping the lab section would boost my gpa since in the lecture section I had a…not so great grade), he said that he only gives A+s to students if they had a perfect 100%.</p>
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<p>You’re full of it. This is pretty much the case at every college. I didn’t have a single class that was an exception to this. Sounds to me like you went to a ‘liberal arts college’ and are condescending and class-conscious toward cheaper and dumber institutions, so much so that you completely exaggerate their weaknesses.</p>
<p>^Did you read Northstarmom’s other post?</p>
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