<p>I'm going to be attending Bloomington next year. Heard is a fun town, great parties and sports, but also top notch education. If any current hoosiers have any tips or knowledge please share with me and other bloomington admits.
I have these questions:
1) Is it hard to get a 4.0 here? How does IU's grading system work? Are more professors hard graders? (i want to be able to go to stanford graduate business school after IU, so good grades would be nice)
2) What is there to do for fun around here?
3) Is it sunny alot?
4) Where do you go to find parties?</p>
<p>It is hard to get a 4.0, mainly because in almost all of your classes, your grade is determined by how well you do on exams which are almost always scantron. The exam difficulty is higher than high school, and professors love to throw in little tricks in every question. Nearly all my classes they curve up to a C.</p>
<p>What you can do, and I would advise all freshmen to do so, is look online in the Grade Distribution Database. You can look at what professors give better grades than others, what classes are harder than others (and consider taking them over the summer). It shows average GPA of the class, and all the grades given out.</p>
<p>For things to do, there's Kirkwood which has a bunch of bars, you party off campus or at greek houses. IU is one of the top party schools in the country. Lots of kids have fake IDs to drink in the bars. Parties are everywhere, you just hear about them from friends. Little 5 week is next week and should be amazing, Three 6 Mafia, Yellowcard, OAR are all coming to Bloomington. If you don't like to drink/party, there's a big music arts scene here at IU with lots of top performers who the school gets.</p>
<p>It's not sunny a lot because you're in school for the cold months. It's cloudy, cold, and snows at times. In the summer it's frequently sunny and humid, there's even stroms at times that get pretty bad.</p>
<p>It's not that simple... you have lots of classes where the average GPA is below 3.0, some lower than 2.5 (ACC-A 100, ECON-E 201, ENG-W 131, MATH-M 118, MATH-M 119).</p>
<p>A2Wolves6: What would a Direct Admit freshman schdule look like for me? I don't have to take Eng-W 131 because of my ACT score. I had surgery last year and missed all the AP tests so no credits. Thanks.</p>
<p>If you can get into Honors versions of classes - do it. The grading is much easier.</p>
<p>Typically you take general electives (Arts + Humanities, Social + Historical, Natural + Mathematical) classes where you have a huge list to choose from, in your first few years. You also have a requirement to take a math class and an english class as a freshman (W131/W170), M118, M119, or a lower level class.</p>
<p>As for business classes, you can take K201 (Computers in Business), X104 (Business Presentations), A100 (Basic Accouting Skills), E201 (Introduction to Microeconomics), X220 (Career Perspectives) and G202 (Business and Economic Strategy in the Public Arena). None of those classes have any prerequisites to them.</p>
<p>You are also required to take an Introduction to Management class (either X100 or G100), a Business Communications class (X204), Public Speaking (CMCL121), a statistics class (E370), a Business Law course (L201), a technology course (X201), and two other accounting courses Financial Accounting (A201) and Managerial Accounting (A202) before you take the I-Core classes in the third year.</p>
<p>The law course listed above has to be taken in the second year.</p>
<p>Also, note that many of these courses have honors versions. For example, G101 is the honors version of G100. And when you take the X220 course you also have to take X230 (a zero-credits course) at the same time.</p>
<p>Lastly, while it may seem easy to use the Distribution database to "hand-pick" the easiest professors, as you can see above, there are many classes that are required and some have no easy professors. For example, A100 is offered only by Tiller who has a 2.3 GPA (C+) average. And there are some courses where you don't know who your professor is until after you have enrolled (like K201) or where you get new professors or graduate students teaching the courses--meaning they are not in the grade distribution database. Thankfully, these are the exceptions and not the rule.</p>
<p>
[quote]
You are also required to take an Introduction to Management class (either X100 or G100) ... before you take the I-Core classes in the third year.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Direct admits do not have to take that class.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, A2Wolves6. I didn't know that direct admits weren't required to take that class.</p>
<p>Phyllo,</p>
<p>The cutoffs for the grades depends entirely upon the professors. Each professor is entitled to set their own level (as I found out only after I questioned the Dean). The key is to make sure that the professor either puts the grading scale he/she will be using in the syllabus on day 1--or else be sure to ask about it (in class) early in the course.</p>
<p>In general, though, the breakouts are as follows:</p>
<p>97-100 A+</p>
<p>93-96.99 A</p>
<p>90-92.99 A-</p>
<p>87-89.99 B+</p>
<p>83-86.99 B</p>
<p>80-82.99 B-</p>
<p>etc. </p>
<p>Some professors will round up a 92.5 to a 93, others won't (92.99 as an A- means just that). I heard one professor (not in the business school) made his tests so difficult that the average score in the class was a 62, but then I understand you only needed an 86 in that class for an A, and a 68 or so was a B-.</p>
<p>Tiller, like most professors, uses the exact scale above--but his tests are difficult for most students. To compensate, he curves the tests significantly. Oh, and he does give no C minuses (he rounds them all up to "C"s since he knows everybody needs a C to have the course count for business school). Oh, and he does encourage people to drop if they are below a middle C after the first test. And 10% of the course is based upon attendance. So, even though he does have a tough couple of tests, he does have a heart if the students try hard.</p>
<p>1) Is it hard to get a 4.0 here? How does IU's grading system work? Are more professors hard graders? (i want to be able to go to stanford graduate business school after IU, so good grades would be nice)</p>
<p>Very hard to get 4.0 since IU grading system stinks in which an A- a 3.7, and they dont compensate that with an A+ = 4.3.</p>
<p>2) What is there to do for fun around here?</p>
<p>Watch Pirates of the Carribean and watch what Mr. Jack Sparrow loves to do.</p>
<p>3) Is it sunny alot?</p>
<p>No, it rains a lot here. Weather very variable.</p>
<p>4) Where do you go to find parties?</p>
<p>Make connections! If you live in NW neighborhood someone in your floor is bound to know a party. Word travels around.</p>