<p>Inquiring minds want to know! How difficult is it to get A's at Vandy...?</p>
<p>It’s probably similar to any other school at a comparable level. I think I saw somewhere that average GPA runs somewhere between 3.5 and 3.6. I think you might hear “it’s hard to get As”, mostly because students come (mostly) from the top 10% of their high school class, and are used to getting As as a matter of course. Well, college is different. (I heard the Eng Dean say to a group of admitted students: “If you attend VU, you will get some Bs. Just be prepared for it.”)</p>
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<p>Grade inflation: Brown, Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Duke
Grade deflation: MIT, Cal-T, UC, Princeton, JHU
Vandy is similar with the other top 20’s.<br>
Vandy is more difficult than most state flagships.
Note: All U’s have grade inflation over the past 20 years.
STEM students & pre-meds (and students who will take over the family business) tend to have lower GPA’s.</p>
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<p>It can be very difficult to get an A at Vanderbilt. STEM classes have no grade inflation and some have grade deflation. Some classes are actually curved down. Many classes are “weed-out” classes. Vanderbilt can be very difficult and result in a lower GPA than you would like. It can be very hard to take for a top student, and everyone at Vanderbilt is a top student. Still having Vanderbilt on a resume has opened doors even with a low GPA.</p>
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<p>The average undergraduate GPA at Vandy, for all students, was 3.4049 in the fall of 2013, according to the Greek Life office Fall Grade Report: <a href=“http://www.vanderbilt.edu/greek_life/wp-content/uploads/Fall-2013-Grade-Report.pdf”>http://www.vanderbilt.edu/greek_life/wp-content/uploads/Fall-2013-Grade-Report.pdf</a> The average for all men was 3.3401; the average for all women was 3.4705. Some schools specify freshman GPA info, as well, but that doesn’t appear to be in this most recent report.</p>
<p>Greek Life grade reports are a handy way to see what a school’s undergraduate GPA is; not every school provides that information otherwise. Not every office of Greek Life provides it either, but it’s still one of the easiest ways I’ve discovered to access that particular info.</p>
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<p>@go2mom, thanks for starting the thread. This inquiring mind wants to know, too!</p>
<p>Thanks for all the information…very helpful!</p>
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<p>You may have read about Vanderbilt’s freshmen dorm competition called the Commons Cup. Average house GPA is part of the competition. The GPA’s for the first semester for the class of 2017 were published in a student email (note the house names have been removed from this CC posting):</p>
<p>"Academics:
First Semester Success
House GPAs and Rankings</p>
<p>One of the great things about the Commons Cup is that everyone in each House has the opportunity to contribute. This is seen clearly in the House GPA rankings, where every student’s performance affects the outcome. Note that HR’s and RA’s GPA’s are included in this year’s cumulative GPA results.</p>
<p>Congratulations to each student and each House on a semester well done… keep up the good work!</p>
<ol>
<li>House 1 - 3.32</li>
<li>House 2, House 3 and House 4- 3.31</li>
<li>House 5 and House 6 - 3.28</li>
<li>House 7- 3.27</li>
<li>House 8 - 3.22</li>
<li>House 9 - 3.18</li>
<li>House 10 - 3.15"</li>
</ol>
<p>I know we are hoping our student’s GPA improves as the years progress. Freshman year has been difficult. B’s are considered good, and you may also get some C’s. Like I said, for top students like those at Vanderbilt, it can be very hard to take.</p>
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<p><a href=“Female economics majors: Claudia Goldin study shows women leave economics to preserve their GPAs.”>http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/03/11/women_economics_majors_claudia_goldin_study_shows_women_leave_economics.html</a><br>
This is an interesting article on STEM courses and how different genders may have different “needs” to make higher grades. Speaking as the parent of a male Econ grad from Duke with a 3.4. I would say that a 3.4 won’t get you that internship in a top finance company and our son had to accept the reality that in comparison to his peers at Duke he was a B student. But keep your eye on the long term benefits of toughing out the STEM coursework. Graduate schools know that Vanderbilt is a different playing field re peer excellence. One person’s 35 in ACT math may mean one thing (excellence at advanced high school math)…to another student the 35 doesn’t measure their ability to pursue higher level math and quantitative classes because they have deeper reserves for learning more and more quantitatively. I say get into Vandy, and dig deep into your abilities. Vandy also has a very fair option of allowing a student to repeat a class (with advisor approval). Your lower grade stays on the transcript. The higher grade goes into your GPA. Not all top schools have this provision. It helps kids not get weeded out if Freshman Follies interfere with their focus or they simply become more mature students after a year on campus. Do not dwell on GPA. Vandy has very good graduate school pathways. </p>
<p>I agree with Faline2. Our STEM freshman already has a relevant paying summer internship lined up even with a lower GPA. Having Vanderbilt on the resume seems to have been a deciding factor. Vanderbilt is just hard and employers seem to know that. I expect this is true for most top schools.</p>
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<p>wtstatus- How did your STEM freshman line up a summer internship? Was it through the University?</p>
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<p>It is certainly possible to get a good GPA at Vandy, although I agree that it is difficult. My D had a very high GPA, so I know it can be done. She felt that the fact that she learned to write well in high school was a definite plus at Vandy, since she was asked to write essays in every class.</p>
<p>It is always difficult to get high grades in STEM classes. My D’s good friend, who is now in her 3rd year of med school, was blown away by how difficult organic chem was at UMich. I went to an engineering school & found out quickly that I had to work many times harder than I did in high school just to get a decent grade. STEM classes are tough everywhere.</p>
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<p>@kelsmom: Yes, I’m actually pretty sure that organic chem at Ann Arbor is perhaps more difficult than the sequence at many private schools (probably one of the harder sequences in the country, but Ann Arbor is excellent at chemistry/chemical engineering and making teaching innovative in those courses, so no surprise. I found the website for their course and was pleasantly surprised. It was more challenging than about 1/2 of our instructors. The other half, on the other hand are on a completely different level, but many privates whose sites I’ve found don’t even have sections at the level of Ann Arbor, so that’s saying a lot). It also depends on the grading. Vandy, Emory, and JHU still grade many of their science courses on the B- (this mean is more typical for public schools than it is private now) sort of curve, and maybe the highest it will go is a solid B. Many other schools have decided to set the mean or median at B/B+ instead. Engineering courses have difficulty of content (thus you will work extremely hard) and workload, but on average, give higher grades than natural and physical sciences perhaps because not all or even most engineering courses are purely exam based. Many have other assignments and projects. An issue at Vandy and the other two in STEM is the lack of inflation vs. some other places and lesser so deflation. </p>
<p>I feel like a higher GPA is more probable in non-STEM just as everywhere else. However, when some social science departments have a reputation at some schools, getting a super high GPA even in those can be challenging. Some schools, for example, have surprisingly challenging economics, political science, psychology, or even anthropology departments. On the humanities side, English tends to vary a lot and at some schools, many courses can be a bear. Selective schools tend to surprise in these depts more so than anyone else. For example, some STEM student will try to take a course in these depts anticipating an easy grade because of their reputation at other places and then get the exact opposite of what they were looking for in many cases. And some students will mistake them as an easy major or double major to pick up). I have no idea which non-STEM depts. have that reputation at Vandy. </p>
<p>However, I guess if you want to avoid a low or mediocre grade, it’s not the institution more so than the instructors. Unfortunately for the one extremely concerned about grades, some depts are filled with challenging instructors or those who curve somewhat harshly. However, I must say, in many cases a more challenging instructor correlates with higher quality teaching and a better learning outcome. Sometimes, if you have time, it is a worthwhile experience being challenged, even if you don’t make that solid A. You can make almost any school a relatively smooth ride by choosing the easiest path possible, or you could take a course for the sake of learning every now and then and work harder than normal for that instructor. The latter will get you much more out of the experience. I would not worry about this, Vanderbilt appears rather normal for a top 20. It’s not pulling a Princeton or JHU, and is not as intense as some other places (some places which have a ridiculously competitive atmosphere and extremely challenging courses content wise across the board, especially in STEM. I’ve seen many of HYPS STEM courses, and I am convinced that they really deserve some inflation after those…I guess some schools will scare the crap out of you before giving you a decent grade. Courses at those schools and maybe like Chicago and some others are challenging beyond belief. Poor MIT does not get the inflation and it’s that way as well…). . It appears just fine. You get what you put into it. You want to be challenged, you will be (especially if you are pre-med or Engineering, you won’t have a choice. It may not be those I mentioned, but it will darn sure be much harder than high school and most state schools, even some top ones), if you don’t really have to (I suppose you can maneuver your way through it, but it’s not worth it to spend the whole time doing this IMHO). </p>
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<p>For the Class of 2014 (all Colleges in the University), below are the Latin Honors cutoffs:</p>
<p>Summa cum laude (top 5%): 3.905</p>
<p>Magna cum laude (top 12%): 3.793</p>
<p>Cum laude (top 25%): 3.681</p>
<p>Yes, Chemical Engineers and Sociology majors are on the same scale.</p>
<p>Its difficult to get A’s, however if you work hard its not to hard to get B’s. Compared to its peers, I would say Vanderbilt has grade deflation. </p>
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</p>
<p>Are you sure? From my understanding, those cutoffs were specific for the college of Arts and Sciences, and each school had their own Latin Honors. Where do you see that these apply to all schools?</p>
<p>You can see those stats here, and it’s from the registrar of A&S: <a href=“http://ask.cas.vanderbilt.edu/index.php?View=entry&CategoryID=1&EntryID=24”>http://ask.cas.vanderbilt.edu/index.php?View=entry&CategoryID=1&EntryID=24</a></p>
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<p>Pancaked,
Short Answer: no, I am not sure.
Long Answer: My dear son forwarded the following email:
Dear VUSE Senior:</p>
<p>At the beginning of academic year 2013-2014 I sent you the GPA cutoffs for the various levels of Latin honors (cum laude, etc.). Today I send them again. They are the same for all four undergraduate schools and colleges.</p>
<p>Summa cum laude (top 5%): 3.905</p>
<p>Magna cum laude (top 12%): 3.793</p>
<p>Cum laude (top 25%): 3.681</p>
<p>GPAs are not rounded off. They are truncated after the third figure past the decimal point.</p>
<p>K. Arthur Overholser, PhD, PE
Senior Associate Dean and Professor
Vanderbilt University School of Engineering</p>
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<p>Thanks for posting this, it’s very helpful. Now I know what goals to set for my son … :-)</p>
<p>Well, that email definitely would suggest they apply to everyone.</p>
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<p>And what do we think of Vandy’s policy?
I agree with the 5, 12 and 25% cutoff levels, but I am not sure about treating a 3.7 in engineering the same as a 3.7 in the HOD school. On one hand, it is objective fact that engineering is harder than HOD. On the other hand, if you set up school specific cutoffs, an A&S chem major 3.7 will compete against a sociology 3.7. No policy will be 100% fair. Even if you did cutoffs by DEPARTMENT, you would have kids who double majored (and minored) compete against kids who did not.</p>