<p>How hard is it to get a 3.8 GPA at Vanderbilt with a biology or chemistry major?</p>
<p>What is the average GPA at the school? Is it around 3.4 or 3.5?</p>
<p>I think it's pretty hard especially with a biology major. </p>
<p>From an earlier post: the average GPA is 3.2 (?)</p>
<p>All Undergraduate GPA (according to page 5 of this</a>) is 3.266.</p>
<p>PS - Interesting to note that the All Men GPA is 3.180 while the All Women GPA is 3.348.</p>
<p>PPS - johnnyq, I'm shooting for a 3.85 as a bio major (I'd probably be happy with a 3.75 though). i hope it's not TOO hard. i figure i'll be set for freshman year as long as I can get 5 As and 3 A-s or 6 As, 1 A-, and 1 B</p>
<p>When will people understand that university is NOT like high school...</p>
<p>what do you mean, MatthewM04?</p>
<p>getting a 3.8+ would be ridiculously hard.</p>
<p>this is probably a stupid question....but i dont understand how they calculate gpa's in college. don't all A's count as 4.0's, regardless of whether its an A- or an A?</p>
<p>Not at any university I've seen. A's are 4.0, A-'s 3.7 (or 3 and 2/3 at some), B+'s are 3.3 (or 3 and 1/3 for some), B's are 3.0, etc etc.</p>
<p>Basically, at Vanderbilt a 3.75 would get you summa cum laude, which puts you in the top ~5% of the university. Keep in mind if you have a 1350, top 5% of your class - you are <em>average</em> there. Prepare to be humbled a bit as people who make straight A's in high school make B's, C's, D's, and yes, some will even make failing grades.</p>
<p>A 3.2 average GPA seems a bit high too, as the cut-off for cum laude (roughly top 30%) is 3.25.</p>
<p>It wouldn't be hard to get a 3.8 GPA at Vanderbilt or any other school if you were willing to work hard in high school. If you got into Vanderbilt and you had a 3.8-4.0 unweighted GPA, it doesn't matter how easy or competitive your high school was. You're going to want the same GPA that got you into Vanderbilt, so you could get a 3.8 if you wanted it. It doesn't matter if a college has grade inflation or grade deflation, you'll get the GPA that meets your standard, so I think people who say a 3.8 is really hard are really naive, because if you got into Vanderbilt or any other top 30 school, you care about your grades, no matter what the distractions are.</p>
<p>As someone who's already gone through a year of college, I will tell you to try your best - but it is naive to think you can get the same grades you got in high school without a <em>massive</em> effort of work. A "B" will be a good score that almost anyone would be happy with when you're at Vandy.</p>
<p>The best way to answer the original question is through evaluating what you view as hard work. There are people who will study for hours on end, but they will not call the workload particularly harsh. Furthermore, there are other people who want to study the bare minimum, and any more studying than a last minute review before an exam will be considered onerous. The theme is simple: standards are different. I will not be setting a goal for myself any time soon because Vandy is much more than just a GPA for me. Don't worry about your GPA; worry about getting into class and learning the material.</p>
<p>Also, I think we can finally see Vanderbilt slightly falling into the grade inflation vortex. Though I'm not complaining, the average GPA is finally reaching levels, as commented by Matthew, that qualify for Cum Laude. Is this grade inflation or are students getting more intelligent? Provocative, eh!</p>
<p>MatthewM04, I had a 4.0uw in high school and I'm a "college scholar" at Vandy, so I hope that I'll be able to rise above the rest of the students. I know it's going to be a lot of work, but I REALLY want a 3.8+ to look good for med schools (and vandy's early med program)</p>
<p>VolStomper makes a good point. As for the average GPA, it seems like that could be in the range for honors. On University Wire, it said 55.3% of Vandy students graduated with honors in the 2001-2002 school year (up from 29.85% a decade earlier). Vanderbilt insists that grade inflation is not a problem: "Vanderbilt is an honest school," said VU Medical School Assistant Dean of Admissions Dr. J. Helderman, "Vanderbilt ranks among Duke, John Hopkins, UVA, MIT and Michigan for giving honest grades."</p>
<p>It <em>is</em> possible to make a 3.8 or above, I'm just warning against the mentality of high school students who don't realize yet that university work is much, much harder.</p>
<p>Correction to that: not all high schools are easier than university. For example, I found my high school to be a fair bit more difficult than what I faced the first year at Vanderbilt (and these were not easy classes: premed physics, algorithms, linear algebra, abstract algebra, digital logic, etc).</p>