<p>If you're on the pre-med track?</p>
<p>How much studying per week do you think it would be? </p>
<p>What are some things you could tell me about Harvard pre-med? Do you find enough time for your ECs and to just have fun?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>The difficulty would obviously depend on course selection, but I’d say that with the average courseload, a 3.6 is not that hard, although requiring substantial amount of work. The key is to stay organized.</p>
<p>It is really hard for me. I kind of died in inorganic chemistry and calculus 2. But then again chem was never my strong point, and I just wanted to get premed requirements done. But seriously I found myself and several other friends second guessing and even completely changing their majors and careers. I kind of had several moments after midterms where I would wish I was a humanities major. I still think my life would be easier doing something else (i have completely given up on an MCB major, no way I’m ever going near chem or math after next year). Most science courses have 3 hour labs and 1 hour section ever week on top of psets so it can be a gpa killer if say you are attempting chem, bio, and math in the same semester (<em>cough</em>cough*).</p>
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<p>Is that supposed to be easier or something? Don’t be a snob. I’ve taken roughly the same number of pre-med courses as I have humanities courses and my GPA contribution from the former is slightly higher because of the difficulty of getting an A in humanities courses.</p>
<p>I wasn’t trying to be snob. I am not saying humanities is easier in general. I personally feel humanities is easier for me because I have a more arsty personality, and I don’t get a lot of the stuff other science majors/friends get so easily, while drawing and writing comes more naturally to me than my sciency friends. It’s not to say one is better than the other. I was only trying to tell them that premed is a long and difficult road that needs to have a central focus. It’s a lot of time commitment and its daunting: that is my experience and my truth. Please take notice that I said, “It was hard for ME” not ‘it will most definitely be hard for ALL OF YOU’. You can explain your way, dwight however you want because that comes from your experience, and because you believe what you have seen and felt that is most certainly correct your experience with humanities and sciences. I think it great to have the opinion of another person because each person is different. However, please do not take my truth and distort it to your fashion when you have already clearly demonstrated your valid answer to his question. </p>
<p>I hope you do not take offense. It seems like you have a lot of experience, as an older student, so we can all take something away from your advice, I know I have many times. </p>
<p>Furthermore, I apologize to you moosebro if I did sound like a snob, as Dwight has put it. I only meant to give a personal account, and I hoped you would get some wisdom from it, such as learning to work on better time management skills or support, if that is what you need, and if not then you could just ignore it, and look to better advice. </p>
<p>This time I should answer your questions better:
1.Studying time depends on the rigor of the course as well as how comfortable you are with the material. I am not a chem person so hence I have trouble in chem, so I generally go to a lot of office hours and get tutoring from the Bureau of Student Council which has subsidized tutor costs.
2. Some people are involved in a lot EC’s and some are not. My roommate is one who is not involved in any, but my other friend has so many she doesn’t know what to do. I tried a few and dropped a few, since I needed to get a job to pay for school. I work about 10 hours a week, so my time is limited for other stuff.</p>
<p>I hope this helps, and it does not offend anyone.</p>
<p>^Fair enough, I apologize for misreading the meaning behind your post. You’d be surprised how there exists some conception among students, pre-meds in particular, that science classes are harder than humanities classes. It’s probably true that the bottom-end of science classes is much lower, meaning it is easier to get a C in a science class than in a humanities class. But it hasn’t been my experience that it’s any harder to get an A. Of course there is a spectrum of hard-easy classes for each. Orgo is harder than lifesci while a history research seminar is harder than some gen eds. </p>
<p>It’s also probably true that science classes require more day-to-day work, doing Psets and practice problems and labs and such, whereas keeping up with your reading is a fairly non-taxing labor. Yet I think it takes far longer to write a good (A) paper than it does to study for a science midterm.</p>
<p>I applyed for harvards summer school program as a high schooler and was accepted. I don’t know what to expect and I’m nervous. What two classes would you recommend for me to take that will give me a taste of what harvard is like? Also, can you explain to me in detail what to expect in harvard classes and how to be successful (B, B+, A) in them? </p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>from Harvard web site:</p>
<p>“Each June, a combined total of 20% of the class will graduate summa cum laude and magna cum laude.”</p>
<p>“The lowest GPA to receive a degree magna cum laude in June 2006 was 3.679”</p>
<p>It will strongly depend on what level of classes you choose to take, and exactly how good you are in those chem/bio/math subjects. There are tracks of various difficulties that can all fulfill the premed requirement, while a super complicated physics problem that takes me two hours to figure out may only take someone else two minutes.</p>
<p>re:Odyssey Tigger.
That’s about right. The median at Harvard is usually in the 3.5-3.6 range. The Crimson report from an unofficial senior survey had the class of 2009 median GPA at 3.6 I’m guessing the actual might just be a tad bit lower. I think magna was around 3.71 that year, and considering that a few people with GPAs higher than 3.71 may not have completed a senior thesis (which means they can only get a cum laude…don’t ask…the system is weird), that would make a lot of sense. </p>
<p>In any case, having a 3.7 would probably get you into the top 2 quintiles of the graduating class–though these numbers do fluctuate a bit every year.</p>
<p>Did you even get into Harvard?
I find these threads to be inane.</p>
<p>A median GPA of 3.6? I don’t believe that.</p>
<p>[Seniors</a> satisfied overall; extracurriculars get high marks | News | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2008/6/3/seniors-satisfied-overall-extracurriculars-get-high/]Seniors”>Seniors satisfied overall; extracurriculars get high marks | News | The Harvard Crimson)</p>
<p>I can’t find the graph for 2009, but here it is for 2008. The average self-report GPA in 2008 is 3.53. The median isn’t listed. If I remember correctly, the average for 2009 was 3.55 or so and the median was higher, at 3.6. Again, this is self-reported, so undoubtedly, it’s probably a bit inflated, and the actual median and mean GPAs are likely lower. Lower by how much? I don’t know. Since Harvard doesn’t release the actual data, we can’t know for sure.</p>
<p>I don’t go to Harvard and I didn’t apply to Harvard. However, what I’ve heard through the grapevine is that Harvard works very hard to increase your GPA while there because they want to maintain their prestige. I’ve been told that at least three or four times on separate occasions. </p>
<p>So I would suggest not worrying about it too much, but this isn’t something that should be taken all that seriously. Just thought I’d throw it out there.</p>
<p>^Whadda f.? How does inflating student GPA increase prestige?</p>
<p>I honestly have no idea. They were rambling about Harvard wanting to maintain their reputation for having top notch students.</p>
<p>From what I have observed, I am not too sure how a 3.6 average would happen. D is a sophomore and in the large courses she has taken the “curve” was usually placed about a “B” which would be a 3.0. Unless I really misunderstood, or other courses have way way higher median to balance these out, I do not mathmatically see how a 3.6 could happen.</p>
<p>Second point I will make is that if everyone is talking about 3.6 being average then there are many senior who are unwilling to admit that there GPA is lower. They might then not provide their stats for the data, or they may augment their GPA a little. Self reporting can be a tricky data set.</p>
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<p>Is she concentrating in one of the biologies? Introductory science and/or pre-med classes (Lifesci, Orgo, Psych, Phys sci) etc tend to be graded more harshly than many of the concentration classes you take junior/senior year, according to many of my senior friends concentrating in the various biology departments. Of course I’m sure this isn’t held true for every concentration, but perhaps the 3.0s end up a little higher by year four. Senior surveys haven’t found any one department’s median GPA to be substantially higher than another’s. But…(see below)</p>
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<p>I’m sure this is true.</p>
<p>I’d guess that the average student has mostly B’s and B+'s with a few A-'s thrown in, which would yield an average of about 3.3-3.4.</p>
<p>I would second Polyglot’s answer. 3.5 as an average seems high to me- I’d estimate that the average grade is probably around a B+, so 3.3 or 3.4.</p>