<p>"stanford students are happier. you might grow to like stanford better once you go there. cornell likes to force the competition through harsh grading curves enforced by university policy, creating an unpleasant atmoshphere."</p>
<p>--- someone said it on an earlier post ...</p>
<p>i was just wondering whether the following engineering colleges have a grading curve so it makes it harder for students to get a better gpa ... and where can u find it out ?</p>
<p>U I C =
U of I: Urbana Champaign=
Northwestern =
University of Michigan: Ann Arbor=
University of Wisconsin-Madison =
Stanford =
Duke =
Washington University at St. Loius =
Upenn =</p>
<p>Almost all engineering colleges have a grading curve, especially public schools. Some schools like Stanford do have "grade inflation" though. I know UIUC has a B- curve, i.e. the mean score will get a B- and one standard deviation above the mean will get an A-. Stanford has a B+ curve.</p>
<p>It means that the average of the grades will be set at that grade (B+ at Stanford). It also means that if you score 1 standard deviation above the mean (84th percentile), you'd get a higher grade (probably an A). At least I think that's how it works...</p>
<p>At UIUC the curve is set at a C to a B-. It depends on how harsh and how few people there are and how well the whole class does. If it is still hard and the class does really well it might be set at B-. But yeah it can be from a C to B-. The average engineering GPA is a 2.7 which is about a B- so that makes sense.</p>
<p>umich, if the whole class gets 90%, the professor will usually give everyone A's. But as we all know in engineering, this is nearly impossible. So most classes will have average around 65-70%, which is a B-, depending on the situation, most classes have class average on the C+/B- border.
I don't think u need to worry about other people, there is no way you will get a B if u get 90% in the class, no matter how well other people do.</p>
<p>The biggest thing about a curve is always managing to stay above the average. If you are ten points above the average there is a good chance for a B or above. It is just the unpredictability of what the average is going to be that can be annoying. In my first semester of accelerated gen chem the average test score change from 70% on exam 1 to 35% on exam 2. So just try to know more than your friends and stay in what would be an A on the exams and quizzes and you're bound to get a good grade. When I go into tests I just shoot for as high as I can b/c there is just not set way to predict your grades for certain at almost anytime.</p>
<p>The best classes for that are huge classes that curve but have a set scale like physics or cs classes at my school. They tell you what you need to get an A but they curve exams that are worth 120 pts to 100 pt tests. So I may have gotten 93/120 on exam 3 but that is a 91% after the curve. Not bad but still even with set grading scales it can be hard due to individual test curves and huge final exams.</p>
<p>But a set grading scale doesn't mean too much if the final exam is worth a lot, I mean for my CS class I had 100%+ of the points available before the final exam. Good you'd think, don't have study that hard for the final. Well, the final was worth 50% of the grade. Even though it was 350 pts out of 700, I still had to miss 35 points to get lower than an A+. I wasn't too scared but hey I still studied hard enough to insure that A+. I better do the work to deserve it, if I want to get it that bad right?</p>
<p>IlliniJBravoEcho, are you referring to either CS 125 or CS 225? As I recall, Zych doesn't have a set scale for those classes. I ranked something like 5th out of 330+ in CS 225 and got an A+, so maybe the top 1-2% get A+'s.</p>
<p>I've mostly seen curves but I have had some professors who have a straght scale. In most places it is up to the individual professor to set his or her own grading policy.</p>
<p>Yeah that's true I had Gambill for CS 101, but I had heard he did that for his other classes and other CS classes had that. I wouldn't know tho sorry.</p>
<p>you guys keep mentioning CS ... computer science ... would anyone know if anyone needs that for engineering majors? in general? ... like ChemE, BioMed, or BIo engineering??? thanks</p>
<p>thye were talking about a c.s. class that engineering majors have to take.</p>
<p>my friend recently took thermodynamics and statics over the summer (he's co-oping) and although they didn't have a 'curve' in the traditional sense, they did this: there were 4 tests throughout the session+ final exam. whichever test you did BEST on, it would account for 60% of your grade. </p>
<p>in some of my other classes, like my chem class they looked at the top percent and then made that (i'm guessing a perfect score) and then bumped up everyone's grade by so much. this may seem harsh, but it actually worked out pretty good, because only a 78% was needed to attain an A.</p>
<p>in some of the lower division math classes, my friends tell me (i never took them) that the # of A's on the final would be the total number of A's in the class. their curve was inexplicably difficult to comprehend, (i still dont get it). </p>
<p>some of my other classes were generously curved, my vector calc class was curved to a B+. we were allowed graphing calcs on tests as well (the teacher made some of the questions difficult enough for this to almost be a requirement). </p>
<p>basically i would say just know more than your peers. my test for how well i know the material is that i feel like i would be able to actually teach the material to someone. sometimes i study without the actual intention of trying to 'make that so and so percent'. just get the material and know it thoroughly and generally i dont think you'll have probems.</p>
<p>EE, CompE, & CS have to start with CS 125 at U of I. The rest have to take CS 101. 125 can be tested out of for 175 (I think, it might be 173). So all engineers are expected to take one CS course at least. But CS courses can be very helpful in general b/c they are the one of the few classes where you would be able to get a job just based on having that class. Not many classes have a chance to say that.</p>
<p>"But CS courses can be very helpful in general b/c they are the one of the few classes where you would be able to get a job just based on having that class."</p>
<p>That's awesome, but would you care to elaborate please?</p>
<p>some companies will hire you for internship or otherwise based solely on you taking a programming class. one of my friends who is a MIS major (formerly CS) started programmiing a long time ago and has been developing software for companies since he was 15-16. he makes enough to pay his out of state tuition and bought a car. i'd say he probably makes about 40k a year. i think he got a free car too from one of the companies he worked for.</p>
<p>my roomate (CS major) is also really good at programming and works for Porter Paints doing IT work. he gets paid pretty well (15+ bucks/hr) and has been doing that since he was about 16. </p>
<p>i had research during this past summer and did quite a big of programming and most of the people i worked with seemed impressed that i had learned programming and was able to help out as much as i did. </p>
<p>so basically programming (although i dislike it a great deal) is fairly useful</p>