<p>So I'm a student at Stanford and we just got our grades back for winter quarter. Let's just say I didn't do so well. I'm an engineering major and last quarter I took cs106b and cs103, both of which I busted my ass for and got anal raped in return (sorry about the butt expressions). I did fine last quarter (all A-'s) and 106A was a breeze, but this quarter took a turn for the worse. (To be fair, 103 is a new course that merged together 103a, 103b and 154; and Cain's 106b this quarter is said to be the hardest in a while.)</p>
<p>As I get deeper into the curriculum I'm beginning to feel the pressure, which I hear only gets progressively worse each quarter. Now I knew Stanford was going to be hard, but I also heard Stanford had a little thing called grade inflation. I even heard that getting an A at Stanford was easier than doing so at UCLA or Berkeley (notorious for grade deflation and competition). After this quarter, however, I'm beginning to think otherwise. My buddies at the lower UC's are owning their classes, while I see some of the smartest people here getting owned. Any other students have any experience with this? Perhaps it might just be in the engineering department? Or worse, I might be the only one with this problem.</p>
<p>This is not meant to deter any prospective students from going here. Other than the rigor of the courses--which I doubt you'll be able to escape at any top school--it is an awesome school.</p>
<p>Well, even avg. GPA’s at stanford for engineering are pretty high, I remember pretty close to 3.5 (maybe 3.3-3.4?).</p>
<p>I’m a freshman here in the engineering department, and I have the feeling that while there is grade inflation, there’s CONSIDERABLY less so in engineering, and the CS class that I took this quarter (106A with eric roberts is a no-no profros) turned out to be toughest class I’ve taken at Stanford so far (not saying too much but still) but with help from others and hard work on my part I still managed a respectable grade, A-. Yet in the classes that are engineering requirements- but not strictly used by engineers only like Math 51- I found them to be pretty easy. What has this experience has taught me? Stanford engineers are frickin bright so be ready for a battle of sorts. Furthermore, the cooperative nature here is unbeatable, so always ask for help before things get too hard or spiral out of control.</p>
<p>Also, I sort of don’t understand why you would take 2 CS classes in one quarter. These classes are very time intensive and while I know CS 103 isn’t exactly programming, but logic I think, it seems like you may have been biting off a little more than you could chew.</p>
<p>faraday: Hmmm, I highly doubt Stanford’s engineering GPA is anywhere close to 3.5. I think it’s overall GPA is 3.4 as of 2000+something, and this includes all the fuzzy majors. </p>
<p>Yeah 103 was more of a math class with no programming, so I thought I could handle that and CS106B. Turns out I was cranking 20+hours a week for the both of them. But still, I see a lot of kids taking both last quarter, so it’s not too weird to do so.</p>
<p>And yes, the techie students here are brilliant. Stanford really humbles you.</p>
<p>I’m a freshman in engineering at Stanford as well, and all of the classes I’ve taken so far were hard to get A’s in. I took 106A with Roberts last quarter, too, and it was definitely harder than I expected. You really have to work hard at Stanford to get B’s or better, at least in engineering classes. There are, of course, classes like IHUM where you can do almost nothing and get away with a B.</p>
<p>well you are an engineering major after all … maybe grade inflation applies to other areas?</p>