<p>I'm considering Penn for engineering, but I hear the average GPA for freshmen there is 2.7-2.8.</p>
<p>Is this how it normally is for engineering schools? What are some GPA's at other colleges? Should I be concerned!?!</p>
<p>That GPA range seems to be the norm for average GPAs in engineering programs. But you have to consider the extremes because there are students with GPAs far below and far above the average. Sometimes the trend is that your GPA will go up as you progress through school. This isn't always the case but many upperclassman courses may be heavily graded on design and projects, things most students tend to do well on as opposed to exams which may be meant to ruin a student's grade. I've had professors who weren't happy unless the exam mean was in the 70-75 range. That was at a different school. Right now my exams aren't curved so they tend to be a little easier.</p>
<p>how hard is it to get a 3.5-3.7 GPA in chemE, bioE, or material science?</p>
<p>Hard, it's just hard. Nobody on this board seems to understand that college isn't high school anymore. Although exams are curved get ready to be receiving lower grades than you ever have before. My friend has a 3.8 but his test average was in the 70s. One of the exams average we had last year was 35%. Most profs set the curve at 60-70% but one of mine said he liked a whole spectrum of grades and set it at 50%. That was all advanced chemistry in case you were wondering. Never say easy and engineering in the same sentence. They just don't belong. I think chemE is the hardest of those three tho. You will have to try no matter what.</p>
<p>How much should one expect their grades in BioE to drop from high school?</p>
<p>I want to know how hard it is to get a high solid GPA.</p>
<p>How much should one expect their grades in BioE to drop from high school?
I want to know how hard it is to get a high solid GPA.</p>
<p>A: It really depends on the school you go to. Engineering in general is much much harder than other majors. If you go to a school that does not have grade inflation (such as the school I am currently in), it could be pretty hard to get a high GPA during your freshman year. Most of the engineering math, intro sciences and intro engineering classes at my school sat the median grades at B/B-, which is between 2.7 and 3.0. So, if one gets around the mean on all the exams, he/she will get a grade between that range.
I was a straight A student back in high school, but I had to work my ass off to get B+ during my first semester. After I learned how to study for college exams, I began to do much better and had very respected GPA in my past few semesters. I think the first semester will be the toughest. But, once you committed yourself to the engineering curriculum, you should be able to get a high solid GPA.</p>
<p>I did horrible my first two years because I didn't understand anything. When I transferred to another school my understanding of engineering increase signficantly and my GPA went from 2.5 to 3.5 cumulative. My major GPA is 3.21, so I'd say I'm basically a B engineering student who aces all lab courses and non-engineering electives. But even if you understand engineering very well, your GPA could be low because some schools give very hard exams in order to shine light on the best of the best. And it is easy to get tricked up on an exam. I once made once made a mistake that cost me 28 points, and it was on a problem that I knew how to do but I read it wrong. My current exams in general are not nearly as difficult as the ones at elite programs. However, although I think they are easy and we do have open book, many students do not have GPAs above 3.0. My school is more about teaching engineering instead of promoting competition between students during exam time. It takes the pressure off and many of us do very well in lab and design courses where our skills really matter, not on some dumb exam. Exams aren't really a bad thing. I'm just at the point where project work is more beneficial than exams. I never cared for academia, hence my hatred of exams.</p>
<p>UCLA's engineering-wide average GPA is ~2.8.</p>
<p>at my school I don't know the official average but from friends I'd say between 2.7/2.9</p>
<p>UToledo's avarage engineering GPA is 2.87654321</p>
<p>i have heard that average at michigan engineering is about 2.85, altho if u do have a 2.85, people will make u think that u are a piece of ****, brainless crap. but i have to tell you, it is a difficult major, but this isn't like advanced research where u need super IQ to do the work, it is just something u have to study and work hard at. your gpa will be the product of how much time u put into your coursework. the thing with engineering is that kids in engineering are all capable in terms of intelligence but they are also the hardest working people. u have to compete for the A's(20%). the best engineering schools use the curve, because this is how they maintain their elite engineering status, they can't allow everyone to get great grades. like justinmeche said, u might get very frustrated at top engineering schools. in high school, u are taught something and u are tested on it(almost the same material). in the top engineering schools, u are taught the basic material, U have to put the time into understanding everything(doing problems, going to office hours), so that u are prepared for the test, which will build on the material you were taught.(significantly harder)</p>
<p>Cum Laude - 3.8
Top 10% - 3.7
50% - 2.9
Bottom 20% - 2.4</p>
<p>No one thinks you're a dumb%## if you have a 2.85 gpa. By upperlevel, most people learned not to judge anyone at all without knowing their situations first. Some of the smartest people have high gpas, and some have the lowest gpas.</p>
<p>Also, 20% As in core engineering class is kind of high. It's about 5-15% avg. that gets As (around 5-7 out of 60 people).</p>
<p>ahhh UCB EECS avg GPA~ 2.6</p>
<p>For UIUC ECE:
Median ~ 2.9
Top 25% = 3.5
Highest Honors = top 2-3% = 3.8</p>
<p>jeffl, can you give me the source for the Michigan engin stats? I also go to UM and my friends go to much easier colleges and are very surprised by how "low" my GPA is even though it's above a 3.0.</p>
<p>Does "easy" professor = easy "A" = high GPA?</p>
<p>can you learn anything ?</p>
<p>thats just the problem with American High Schools. they get you into the habbit of getting A's and you start to think B's and C's are bad. but man College is completley different and Im not just talking about the top colleges. just and credited university is difficult. In HS I maged a 3.8 with out any effor what so ever. and now after 2 years of college I have to work my ass of to keep GPA at 3.3 and im going to a state school. so ya dont expect A's in all your classes like HS. but the AVG GPA here is about 2.9</p>
<p>If you are looking to get into the workforce after undergrad, I wouldn't get too upset about the new paradigm in grading at college eng dept's vs HS. As an employer of engineers, we only look at grades when the candidate is going for their first job, and everyone on the hiring side knows the story with tough grades in college eng programs. In fact, I worry if someone has too high a GPA.......that is, worry about the candidate's ability to interact with the rest of us & our clients.</p>
<p>So relax, and just try to soak up as much from the classes as you can.</p>