<p>How hard is it to achieve a 4.0 in college? What would one do if they wanted to get a 4.0?</p>
<p>Are threads like these serious?</p>
<ol>
<li> Choose a major you like.</li>
<li> Pay attention in class.</li>
<li> Think about class material and other questions.</li>
<li> Study briefly each day.</li>
<li> ????</li>
<li> PROFIT!!!</li>
</ol>
<p>OP, did you go to high school or just skip the last 4 years of your life?</p>
<p>same thing you did in high school to get a 4.0......study hard?</p>
<p>LOL deluxe</p>
<p>How do I #fortune?</p>
<p><em>had a 4.0 until 2 weeks ago, when she earned a B because of the math final from Hell. Entering her senior year at a small public university.</em> Actually, deluxe is right. "Big fish, small pond" syndrome also helps.</p>
<p>Step 1: Collect Underpants</p>
<p>Step 2: ?</p>
<p>Step 3: 4.0</p>
<p>4.0's are boring. Get a 3.99. It shows you're fallible, but at the same time highlights your incredible manliness.</p>
<p>^ ahahahaahah</p>
<p>haha notice how meow is going to uchicago. good luck pulling a 3.99 there... you're gonna be feelin pretty feminine.</p>
<p>I really wouldn't count on a 4.0 all the way through college. I got a couple of them, but generally my GPA was a bit lower. Remember at a lot of places a A- is not the same as an A, which makes a 4.0 very difficult.</p>
<p>It's pretty much impossible, especially if you are going to a top-tier school. Aim for something more realistic, like a 3.7 (I know tons of people with GPA's around there, but virtually nobody with a 4.0).</p>
<p>Seriously, why would someone ask something like this?</p>
<p>What do you think getting a 4.0 entails? You study your ass off, that's what you do. Even then, it's unlikely.</p>
<p>Study. Study. Study. Get to know your professors. Study. </p>
<p>Did I mention you have to study? :-P</p>
<p>And it isn't necessarily as unlikely as people think. Granted, if you're going to say, Harvard over No Name University, it's probably going to be different.</p>
<p>Read the book <em>College Rules!</em> before you go to your first class! It's awesome and really helps you get good grades!</p>
<p>It's not too hard for the first couple of years or for most liberal arts degrees but it is usually very stressful to always be striving for the 4.0. If you are in a hard science like physics or chemistry or engineering, I think you're pretty crazy to try for a straight 4.0.</p>
<p>Part of what makes getting a 4.0 so much less common in college is that the grading policies are different than in high school (generally). Don't expect a point system, don't expect regular graded homework, and don't expect an abundance of extra-credit. In high school, it's often easy to "pad" one's grades...plenty of busy-work, lots of opportunities to get "10/10" just for turning something in, and so forth. If you have trouble with a topic and you do poorly on the test, then you can make those points up elsewhere. But if your class grade depends completely on two papers and a written final, as it might in college, then it's a different story. You might have a professor who just hates your writing, period, or grades you down because he disagrees with your perspective (and you might not have many opportunities to figure out how to "play the system," so to speak). In general, and this went for technical classes as well (I studied philosophy and math), I found college grading to be far more subjective than high school grading. I very rarely knew exactly what my grades would be until I got my report card, because finals often counted so heavily, or no assignments had ever been returned, or whatever. Depended on the course. For the record, I'd say that I was pleasantly surprised more often than I felt shafted...just so as not to sound too cynical :p</p>
<p>When I applied for grad school, I was able to see a GPA breakdown of all law school applicants from my school for the past 5 years or so. The number who had received cumulative 4.0? Zero.</p>
<p>Anyway, the obvious advice still applies: work hard, study hard, go to class. One other thing I would add is to TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OFFICE HOURS. Not only will this help you to understand the material, but it'll also let the professor get to know you and see that you're really trying in the class, which can work to your advantage (especially when subjective grading is especially likely). And if you have trouble with one assignment, take advantage of the resources that are available to you the next time around. That might mean bringing an essay draft to office hours, to a writing center, or wherever. </p>
<p>The semi-good news is that life in high school often revolves around "getting a 4.0." It's generally attainable and good students start to take it for granted as the norm. In college, at least in my experience, people were far more interested in just doing their best and accepting the results than they were in hitting a certain number. I think it kept the environment friendlier and the students less stressed.</p>
<p>ETA: It should go without saying that the answer to the original question depends VERY largely on one's school.</p>
<p>It's probably not impossible, ~200 students graduate as Summa Cum Laude(s) at UT. But then, it's 200 out of ~50,000 students o0
Most of them liberal arts, business, or natural science students...</p>
<p>The people who get 4's are majoring in something like Communications, which is a joke major.</p>