Hi all, this is my inaugural post so hopefully it complies with forum rules, etc.:
I am a Junior College transfer student entering Junior year at a 4 year school, and am trying to decide between an Accounting Major or a Finance Major.
I had trouble with a weed-out class Freshman year, and know for a fact I would have to take a weed-out intermediate accounting class.
However with Finance, I am unsure. The suspect class is a 300s level “Business Core” called “Corporate Finance” it is a prereq for most Finance classes.
Is it likely that a non-Finance class is the weed-out for the finance major? Is it likely to be a weed-out considering non-Finance majors in the Business College are encouraged or required to take it?
The only way a student gets weeded out is if he cannot handle the material in the course. If you get a D or F in in intro finance it means that a finance major is not for you.
Tom- I meant weed-out as in culling the herd to keep the value of the degree up, not to learn material relevant for the future.
In order to cull the herd, the class goes beyond learning what’s necessary for future classes.
Now I understand the two ideas aren’t mutually exclusive, perhaps.
And if I had to take a weed-out class, I would prefer to take them not the first semester at a new campus, as I am also beginning a somewhat demanding paraprofessional internship.
At the four year school, do you need to maintain a GPA higher than 2.0 or grades higher than C in any course or combination of courses to enter or stay in your desired major? If that is the case, then all courses that this applies to are “weeder” courses.
The other way a course can be a “weeder” course is if it intentionally has a grade distribution with a greater percentage of D and F grades than typical courses, with the intent of flunking students out of the major.
Problem is- I’m not sure what the grade distribution is for this particular class, and I was wondering if there were any other indicators of whether it was a weed-out.
I can’t really tell how many people advance from that class to the next, as the class is an immediate prereq for many classes.
Naturally, I do need a C in major classes, and some classes require as high as Bs in this class.
Dejure- C in Business classes, D in electives, C overall.
Defacto- A B- is required in the BCORE class to advance to some other classes, though.
It seems like the class isn’t weed-out in content, as it applies to other majors, it is similar to a weedout in you have to earn a relatively high grade (B-) to be able to advance within the Finance Major.
For example, an accounting major could take the class earn a C and be able to get his degree. A Finance major would have to get a B-.
In other words, it is a “weeder” if you want to major in finance where a B- is required, but not if you want to major in something else where a C is required.
B- is not as aggressive “weeding” as at some majors at some schools where the minimum grade or GPA is much higher to enter or stay in the major.
As already pointed out, a poor grade in a required course probably sorts out students who are unlikely to succeed in a major. There are classes in which a C allows you to retake a class once and perform well. Advancing academic level contains a weed out component. Progressively, a higher gps is required to remain off academic probation. If students are not progressing successfully towards graduation, they will be dismissed even if are upper class students. Thus, while there may be specific academic challenges along the way, colleges do weed out students who are not making timely or sufficient progress to graduation. Consequently every class in the catalog will weed out some students.