<p>How hard is you college? (To whoever is reading this). Realistically, how hard is it to get a 3.6 or something like that in college? Is it be a good idea to take 5 years to finish undergrad?</p>
<p>well a lot of how "hard" college is depends on a few things.. such as where you go, what your major is, how you learn, etc.. for example, i probably do twice as much work as all of my roommates.. i am constantly doing papers, preparing presentations, doing projects, etc.. as well as working at my job.. so someone like myself would say its difficult, whereas someone like my roommate would say eh its' been easy (she's graduating in 3.5 years and hasn't taken any summer courses)</p>
<p>Unless you take summer classes, you should probably plan on spending 5 years for undergrad. Esp if you have a job, which after a while you will, it takes a while. 3.6 is doable in the right major. But 4.0 is totally impossible.</p>
<p>How is 4.0 impossible??</p>
<p>uh joev - i'm graduating in 4 years :)</p>
<p>4.0 isn't TOTALLY impossible, but you have to realize that college is a whole different level than high school. in high school you may be in the top 5 percent of your class or whatever, but remmeber, when you choose to go to college - most likely the other students going there were also in the top 5 percent of their class as well. because of this, classes are much harder, and grades are much harder to "earn".</p>
<p>if u do business/communication major then it's not hard at all to obtain higher GPA than 3.6. The engineering/science major will be totally different...it requires real hard work.</p>
<p>It's also depend on what school u go to and learning environment</p>
<p>It also depends on your teachers--I'll bet some English majors have trouble with brutal-marking teachers.</p>
<p>well a 3.5-3.7 is a lot more common than a 3.8-4.0. In high school however, there are plenty of 4.0's. It just seems like that's an unrealistic goal, while a 3.5 to a 3.6 is.</p>
<p>lenny - business is not as easy as you make it out to be. it requires really hard work.. i spend just as much time on work for my business classes as my friends do for their science classes... actually i spend more, i know this because my one roommate is a science major..</p>
<p>17 credits per term x 8 terms is 136 credits. More than ya need for most majors</p>
<p>For all of you who are used to getting 4.5 GPAs, college will be a big shock. Remember - almost everyone in college was a good high school student, and some of you will be at the bottom of the curve now that the competition is tougher. For most people, college is the first time away from home and not having anyone to tell you what to do. It is very easy to get distracted, and most poor grades come from a lack of studying. If you put in an honest effort (which is saying a lot), you shouldn't have any problem maintaining a 3.0. For every class that I attended lecture for, kept up on the reading, and studied for the exams, I got an A- or better. Unfortunately, I didn't always do that and it was in those classes that I got my lower grades.</p>
<p>remeber you only get in what you put out,(no pun intended) but i think if i took sociology i would have a gpa of around 3.8 with many 4.0 in that accumulation,but most others, esp enginnering is very hard to do well in(meaning above like 3.5)i have a friend taking a class over that he got a C in to raise it up to a B or better, i guess some people are egomanicacs and think their whole life is grades,its not even half, its like a quarter for some...</p>
<p>Example: My current school admits student with an avg of 3.9. The avg gpa here is a 2.8 among full-timers. That means the "average" student here(read: that A student in HS) has a 2.8 college gpa.</p>
<p>Just because you graduate in 3.5 years doesn't mean it was easy. Taking more credits is harder work. I see no reason to take 5 years to finish an undergrad education when it's planned as 15 credits (usually 5 courses) x 8 semesters = 120 credit hours = what you need to graduate. At my school you have to take 12 to even be a full time student, and that is bare minimum (though they recommend 12-13 for freshman due to transitions to college), so doing the bare minimum you graduate in 5 years. No reason you can't do it in 4.</p>
<p>GPA matters a lot on how much you take and where you go to school. It's a lot easier to pull a higher GPA with 12-14 credits than with 17-18. You can pull higher grades in more credit hours at a Tier 3 school than a Tier 1.</p>
<p>The average GPA for admitted students at my school is 4.0.
~20% of freshman earn a 3.5 or higher.
~5% of seniors have a 3.8 or higher.
2 kids graduated from the college class of 2004 with a 4.0.</p>
<p>I jumped right into it, taking 18 credits this semester, against the advice of parents, orientation aides, RAs, and my advisor provided to my by the college. I'd say I'm doing pretty well considering my course load. Probably not a 3.5, but I'd venture I'm one of a very few # of freshman taking 18 credits.</p>
<p>Graduate schools and such will look at how much you take, and what you take, and your grades in the subjects that you are looking to continue in grad school are often more important to them.</p>
<p>I agree that grad schools will look @ what u take, but not how much. I've ALWAYS heard that they don't care if u take 12 or 20 units, they just want to see good grades in relevant subjects.</p>
<p>Hm ok, so I have a related question to tack on.</p>
<p>I really only do so/so in high school academics, which I think is partly (or mostly) because of the way high school is set up. </p>
<p>For instance, in high school I have 6 or 7 classes in a row, and the only break I get is the 5 minute passing period and a 30 minute lunch. I have ADD, which makes that a really demanding, tiring schedule. </p>
<p>There's also more extra-curricular obligation in the number of things I'm involved in and how big of a deal every activity is at my school. </p>
<p>Then also the social scene can sometimes be pretty cuthroat and just hard to deal with. None of these things is unique to my school, but they give me and probably other people a lot of trouble.</p>
<p>A lot of people (parents, teachers, counselors) have told me I'll be more successful in college because of the breaks between classes, the more independent nature of the work, more freedom with my class choice (though my high school is pretty good about that) and fewer extracurricular obligations. </p>
<p>In that case, would it be probable for someone like me to expect a 3.6 or similar gpa if I got a lower one than that in high school?</p>
<p>that depends on how you learn and if you can make yourself sit down and study</p>