<p>In high school I had almost a 4.0.....and I certainly did NOT get one my first semester of college. My understanding of them is skewed....if I'm considering grad school, what is a "good" GPA? Something foundational?</p>
<p>Depends on the major and the school but at least a 3.0.</p>
<p>3.5 is usually a solid first semester i heard</p>
<p>For anthropology, a 3.7+ overall is “good” (almost necessary for top programs) for grad school. </p>
<p>It doesn’t matter what you get your freshman year, it’s overall. I think my freshman year I had a 3.6xx and now I have a 3.8+. Anthro programs also tend to focus on upper-level (300, 400 level) classes.</p>
<p>Completely depends on the major and school.</p>
<p>Also, the average CC kid is an above average student so take what they say with a grain of salt</p>
<p>Depends.</p>
<p>For some programs, keeping a 3.0 is pretty darned good, for others you should really have a 3.5.</p>
<p>In my experience, most kids aren’t able to do as well grade-wise in college as they did in high school. Kids with GPA’s of 5.0+ can sometimes barely scrape by with a 3.0. That might also have to do with the fact that kids who did really well in high school tend to choose harder majors in college…</p>
<p>But alas. I think the most important thing to do as a freshman is to make sure you keep your scholarships, make some good friends, and adjust to life as an adult/college student. Some people have really lofty goals and that means keeping a 4.0, but for most, a 3.0 or a 3.5 are solid starting places.</p>
<p>So, with it depending on the major and school…I guess I haven’t heard that before. Seeing my friends’ Facebook statuses saying they got all A’s at community college when they weren’t A students in hs has me wondering. With majors? I mean, I want to major in anthropology, but I only took 1 anthro course this semester, so certainly that can’t be right. At least not for freshmen. And are there really any “easy” majors? I’ve heard some people say that “communications” is easy, but then I heard some students here say that that is not the case at all.</p>
<p>^ Maybe they got themselves together in college. I’m so sick of seeing people trash community colleges.</p>
<p>What the “easy” majors are varies by school, although sometimes a major that can be easy can also be rigorous, depending on the course selection within the major.</p>
<p>rb, maybe they’re paying their way through CC and they know how precious that money is and therefore they’re driven to do better. You have no idea. Do not compare yourself to anyone else. </p>
<p>Fwiw, anthropology tends to be a pretty flexible major. I only took one anthro class my freshman year and still easily finished my anthro degree in 4 years. </p>
<p>Some majors are easy to some and not easy to others. There’s no such thing as a universally easy major, despite what some one here want to believe. </p>
<p>You worry way, way, way too much. You need to just concentrate on your work, get the best grades you can, and get some anthro-related experience in field work, etc.</p>
<p>Yes, I’m not doubting that those students worked hard to get A’s in CC - maybe the classes they took were more interesting? It’s very possibly and quite likely, actually. But from what I heard from my cousin, it doesn’t sound like he worked very hard.</p>
<p>I would say a lot depends on the rigor of the courses one took their first semester.</p>
<p>“Good” GPA is very relative. Generally speaking, a “good” GPA is one that allows you to stay in good academic standing, which for most schools is above 2.0-2.5. </p>
<p>Depending on the graduate program you’re interested in, what is considered “good” also varies wildly. Most graduate programs tend to focus on your upper level and/or major GPA in addition to a lot of other materials (statement of purpose, research, GRE, writing sample, etc.).</p>
<p>So whatever you have, assuming you’re still in good academic standing, you have plenty of time to improve before you even have to think about applying for graduate programs. </p>
<p>If you’re that concerned, I would speak with an advisor when you return for classes.</p>
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<p>And I don’t work “very hard” in many of my classes because, quite frankly, school comes incredibly easy to me. It’s nothing to 4.0 classes in everything from English to physics. BUT it doesn’t come easy to everyone. STOP comparing yourself to other people. Stop using other people’s experience to evaluate your own. You need to figure out why you didn’t get your “best” GPA and go from there. </p>
<p>Or transfer to a CC. Maybe it’ll be easier.</p>
<p>ETA: I see you only had a 23 ACT. That doesn’t normally correlate with a 3.9x GPA in high school. It’s entirely possible that you had some MAJOR grade inflation in your high school and you have kind of a rocky foundation. So again, figure out why YOU didn’t get your ideal GPA and figure out what YOU can do to change it.</p>
<p>I think you have some serious issues that you need to work out. College isn’t about getting 4.0’s, it’s about giving yourself a solid foundation for either graduate work or getting a job. 90% of students don’t get a 4.0 EVER in their college career, and 99% don’t achieve a 4.0 overall. You need to rethink how you look at academic success, because this isn’t high school anymore. </p>
<p>Based on your previous posts, you wanted to attend UChicago. Do you think you were going to get a 4.0 there? You say after graduation you’re going to be ‘living in a box’ or ‘working at McDonalds’…you really have some serious issues with how you view the world and should probably get those worked on, because guess what? People graduate with <em>GASP</em> a 3.0 and still get <em>GASP</em> a job!</p>
<p>^ The above is absolutely correct.</p>
<p>Speaking as an undergrad engineering student, a good GPA is 3.0+ and a great one is 3.5+. If you plan to go to grad school, I say aiming for a 3.5+ when you graduate would be a pretty good goal. However 3.0+ is still good.</p>
<p>Strictly speaking however, GPA does not matter nearly as much in college. I plan to work straight after undergrad and as a freshman last year I was pretty uptight about GPA too. However, after working my butt off for a 4.0, I went to intern in the summer and realized I learned NOTHING in two semester. It’ll hit you soon enough that unlike high school (which really is about getting GPAs so you can get into the college you want), college is all about learning knowledge. Getting an early internship I think will help you realize that. </p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, learning should translate into a good GPA, but aiming for a 4.0 (at least for an engineering student) is definitely not worth stressing over. College is about having fun and learning things. If you can do both of that and still maintain say a 3.0+ I say that’s pretty good.</p>
<p>OF course, there is one exception:</p>
<p>If you’re a pre-med student, you study your butt off for that 4.0 or any way you can get close to it because I’ve heard rumors from my friends that med schools basically stare at your GPA and mcat scores and that’s it.</p>
<p>I think I need to stress that I DO have a life outside of academics - I’ve never had this many friends and I’ve never had a greater life experience. I’ve also never tried harder for the A’s I got, and frankly I don’t think I can do any better. The GPA I got wasn’t horrible, a 3.75, and I reckon if I raise it my grad expectations would open up greatly. Yes, I did get a 23 ACT and my GPA was probably inflated in hs, but I worked really hard for those A’s. The B+ I got was in Spanish and I just couldn’t pull A’s on the (writing) assignments.</p>
<p>And how is GPA correlated with test scores? ACT tests what you know beforehand, and GPA explains how much you know because of the studying you did. Those are different things. I feel like I learned a TON this semester, and that wouldn’t necessarily be manifested through a test score or a GPA.</p>
<p>^Plus. Some people test well. Others prep for tests. Some people take it cold.</p>
<p>If everyone went in and took the SAT or the ACT cold-turkey with absolutely no prep time, you’d probably see vastly different results.</p>
<p>A 3.75 is a good GPA. It keeps your grad school options open. There will be hard semesters and there will be easy semesters. You might pull out a 4.0 at some point and that’ll raise your GPA.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, my unweighted GPA in high school was a 2.9. In college, I’ve made a 3.75, 3.9, and 4.0 so far as my semester GPA’s. I never once made straight A’s in high school and I only pulled out Honor Roll my junior and senior years. I never had “mostly A’s” in high school, either. So, the point is, if you work hard, it doesn’t matter how poorly (or not poorly in your case GPA wise) that you did in the past. You can still do well.</p>
<p>You are 100% insane if you think that a 3.75 GPA will ‘lower’ your graduate school options. Graduate schools are looking for someone with MORE than just a GPA. They want research experience, they want a senior thesis, they want leadership positions or work experience. That sky high GPA means nothing if you don’t have the resume to go along with it. They would rather see a 3.5 if it meant that student had 2 years of research experience and a part-time job, or wrote a senior thesis and double majored. </p>
<p>GPA is not the end-all be-all, and you need to understand that.</p>
<p>I do understand that. I’ve heard it a million times on here and a million times from my advisors at school. I’m applying for internships for this summer.</p>