<p>I was wondering how difficult it is to maintain a 4.0 GPA during the undergraduate experience at MIT. If its impossible, is it difficult to maintain a 3.75? Maybe 3.5? Or maybe a 3.0 is still kind of really hard?</p>
<p>Thanks for your responses.</p>
<p>Well MIT is on a 5.0 scale (I'm not sure if you were referring to keeping a B average or an A average). Keeping a 5.0 is very difficult. Most classes usually aim for 25% A's but many are even lower than that. So a 5.0 would require a student to be one of the top 25% of EVERY class he takes at MIT (you can get a couple B's depending on how many total classes you end up taking at MIT). A 4.0 is manageable but I would by no means say that it's "easy." You still have to work your ass off to make sure that every class you take you can get a B (sometimes this is very, very easy and sometimes rather difficult for many students).</p>
<p>In engineering classes the B/C line was typically the mean. (50% of the class gets a C or worse.) This was true in electrical engineering and computer science. In a couple of classes, it was slightly easier (40% of the class got a C or worse.) In a lot of the classes it was the top 15% who got an "A".</p>
<p>In the science classes, the grading standards were a little more relaxed. (About 35-40% of the class gets a "C" or worse.) 20-25% may have gotten an "A".</p>
<p>Humanities classes are typically a guarenteed "A" or "B" with a few exceptions. I am good in the humanities, so they were pretty much an automatic "A" for me. However, I remember others who said that they were good at english in high school being somewhat disappointed that they got "B"'s.</p>
<p>When I was there, it was common knowledge that the average undergrad GPA was 4.1/5.0. I don't know if this was true or not--I never saw anything official.</p>
<p>hmm, I am trying to gauge the difficulty of some classes at MIT. Say for a Calc I course. Does anybody have an example of some of the difficulty I might experience in that course. The course is obviously fairly basic, so if only 25% get A's...I'm very scared.</p>
<p>I don't know about Calc I, but the first semester is pass/fail anyway.</p>
<p>Are you going to MIT next year or a prospective applicant.</p>
<p>it can get hard, but don't worry, everyone finds it difficult. I got an A on a test with a 46 (the average was in the 30s), so struggling with coursework is nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>As for calc I, just pass the class, don't worry about individual grades, just pass the classes. Unless you're applying to top level med schools no one ever sees those grades again. MIT is not out to fail people, you can get a P pretty easily as long as you do the work and go to class (the people who fail are the people that skip class and punt psets).</p>
<p>It really depends, like most people take Intro to Solid State Chemistry first term on pass/no record, and the only requirement to pass is to get above a 50 for your final average, and most people do. Obviously it's harder to get an A, but seriously, pass/no record only happens once a lifetime, take advantage of it.</p>
<p>I don't know if all classes only have a 25% rate of As, but they are almost all curved- you'll get your first test back and be like "?@?#! I got a 55?!" and then the professor will show the data for the test and it shows that the class average was a 50. Then you start dancing around in your seat, like "I am smarter than the average MIT student!" Trust me, your entire concept and perspective on grades will change drastically after just a few weeks here, so I wouldn't worry a whole lot about it.</p>
<p>I am going to attend MIT next year. So, after the initial introduction to courses of the pass/fail nature, how difficult is a Calc III (or some other class) pset? Does anybody have any examples (I've taken Calc III so some problems would help me compare my knowledge with the knowledge that is required to answer some of the more difficult questions accurately)? Thanks.</p>
<p>mmm yeah, don't bank on the perfect gpa, haha. Few MIT students get it, and that should tell you something ;)</p>
<p>Go to OCW for a very good idea of MIT classes. <a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html</a></p>
<p>MVC wasn't too bad; got an A- by just doing the work and trying. Most people I know aren't too concerned with getting all A's, so the competition for A's isn't that murderous. I've heard of people getting 5.0's, and a decent number getting 4.75, especially if they pick classes based around it (for med school).</p>
<p>A 4.0 out of the 5.0 scale comes out to be a 3.2 :(, isn't that like horrible by grad school standards? What's a good GPA for grad school?</p>
<p>I'm confused by the reference to an A-; I thought MIT only have whole-letter grades? Are the +/-'s on the transcript or only for internal use?</p>
<p>Grad schools know how hard MIT classes are, how there is no grade inflation, and what the competition is like. Same goes for CalTech.</p>
<p>If you get a 3.2/4.0, you have a chance to get in anywhere as long as your GRE's are decent (above 700/990) and a good research recommendation.
For science grad school, the research recommendations are far more important. You should publish a paper by the time you leave (2nd author).</p>
<p>Med school/law school may be harder to get in though with those stats, though.</p>
<p>To answer Aedar's question, +/- modifiers are only for internal use.</p>
<p>If you are premed and concerned about your GPA, you should choose a major which suits you. Don't major in comp sci. just because everyone else is if you 3really have no interest in it and don't know about computers...</p>
<p>Calc really isn't that hard...of course, I had taken MVC in high school already. Actually, my MVC in high school was much harder (more like 18.024 than 18.02.) Don't worry--they have a theoretical version of calculus for people who want that, so they are not going to make calculus super hard in the regular class. If you actually study, you will be far ahead of everyone else. On Pass/no record, most people don't take class seriously.</p>
<p>I currently have a 5.0, and it requires a lot of effort. And to be honest, I've found that employers really don't care that much, it's more about what you know. Everyone I talked to was more interested in my skill set than my grades. Just going to MIT and surviving is enough to convey competence. And it gets harder every semester because you shoulder more and more responsibility. Throw in a UROP, maybe a Job, etc., and it really starts to pile up. So, my advice is, don't worry, be happy, it's not a big deal.</p>
<p>A 4.0 on a 5.0 scale is a 3.0 on a 4.0 scale -- the way MIT's scale works is that you can subtract one point from your GPA to convert it, as long as you have no Ds or Fs. Plus and minus modifiers are given on MIT grades, but they are internal only and not shown on any outside transcript.</p>
<p>To be honest, it's absolutely impossible to tell anyone how hard it will be for him or her to get a certain GPA at MIT. Some people are way better at getting good grades than they think they will be, and some people are way worse at it.</p>
<p>And my fiance has a D and several Cs on his transcript, and he still got into grad school (master's in aerospace engineering) and got a rockin' job offer.</p>
<p>Wow, 50% of the class gets C's?
Wow, these are people who were at the top of their class in high school.
Just wow.</p>
<p>What? What class?</p>
<p>Most classes I took at MIT were B-centered; this tends to vary by department and professor, so YMMV. A typical distribution in a biology class is something like 50% Bs, 25% As, 25% other stuff.</p>
<p>As I said, in most of my engineering classes the mean was the B/C line. I was an EECS major.</p>
<p>I took 8.03 and many other science classes like organic chem and the grade curve was not as harsh. I didn't take bio though.</p>
<p>I'm worried about maintaining a 3.0 (out of 4.0) so I can get good internships. From what I hear grades are important when competing for internship slots. My mom is really scaring me. I think she just wants me to go to Harvard (she's an alum)</p>