<p>how challenging are classes at georgetown, specifically the MSB? do you have to work your butt off to get a > 3.7 GPA? is there a significant grading curve involved?</p>
<p>Guess I can take this one.</p>
<p>For the MSB, you DO have to work hard to get a 3.7 (which is magna cum laude), but arguably less so than the SFS (which entails a lot of written work).</p>
<p>The key to the MSB (to much larger extent finance/accounting majors that want to work on Wall Street) is professional experience. To be competitive here it is uncommon for someone to have an internship from freshmen year and be involved in organizations such as the Credit Union or Hilltop Consultants (the Corp, GERMS, list goes on), but really clubs and organizations that are very pre-professional that are not just activities but you gain key work experience.</p>
<p>How challenging is it in the main college for a science/preprofessional major to get a >3.7 gpa?</p>
<p>Getting a 4.0 at Georgetown is quite hard and you have to do a lot. Getting a 3.7 GPA if you are in the MSB is not hard (sorry...). You have to be lazy to not get above a 3.5, at least in your first two years.
I personally would recommend you to go to the SFS if you go to Georgetown. Its definitely the university's best school. If you are a good student and you go to the MSB, many professors will soon advise you to transfer to the college/SFS.</p>
<p>jipperag,</p>
<p>how far off would you say the college is from being the 'best' school?</p>
<p>very challenging</p>
<p>nibrah, sry, Im not sure whether you mean the College (Georgetown College) or Georgetown in general...
The college is in my opinion the second best school at georgeotown, but it does not really have good competition.
The MSB lacks a good program and has a reputation for lazy students and only few work. Only a few students really get recruited by top companies each year.
The only school that has world class is still the SFS. International Politics and IPEC majors are highly regarded and will make their way through life. However, even the SFS has been suffering from severe grade inflation in the last years. The university is currently debating to change that. Last year, so many students got a GPA above 3.5 as never before (which is hurting competitiveness). In my class, a couple of good students have already left for rival schools.
The college is trying to improve its econ program (which is only ranked 60 or sth nationally) and is IMHO somwhere between the SFS and the MSB.</p>
<p>thanks, that was very informative. and yep i meant the Georgewn College.</p>
<p>what about the International Economics major. is that as highly regarded/challenging as the ipec and ipol majors?</p>
<p>i think that what jipperag says is partially true. It doesn't make sense that you should be in the SFS "if you go to georgetown". Choose the major that you would be most interested in. You can switch later if you decide you like something else. Don't choose a major b/c it's "highly regarded". It would make more sense to choose a university with the highest regarded program that you're interested in, than to choose a major that is the highest regarded at a specific school. Saying that one school is "better" than another only makes sense if you're trying to decide what you want to study. SFS isn't the best school at georgetown if i'm interested in studying biology. MSB isn't the best school if i'm interested in studying culture and politics.</p>
<p>SFS is great if you're interested in programs focused internationally. So lets say you're interested in finance. You can study finance in the MSB, and you can also major in International Economics, concentrating in international finance and commerce. So, I wouldn't advise choosing SFS unless you're actually interested in the programs it offers, not because it might be more "highly regarded". You don't need to transfer out of MSB if you're a "good student". Transfer out of MSB (or any other school) if you find something more interesting in another school. If you're interested in the business fields as a career, you can reach those from any major at Georgetown (provided you do internship(s) to show your interest in business), however it might be easier if you're in MSB due to recruiting. Each school at Georgetown is the best for the students in it. NHS has one of the top nursing programs in the country, one of the few International Health and health management undergrad programs, etc.</p>
<p>International Economics is probably more challenging than ipec and ipol, simply because of the number of economics courses you take and other requirements. Again, choose the major you'd be more interested in, AND that you can do well in. If you choose something that you think is more "highly regarded" but fail at it, then that high regard won't do you anything when you apply for jobs/grad school.</p>
<p>jessica, the sciences are pretty rigorous at gtown, especially the organic chemistry and physical chemistry courses. If you're pre-health (med, dent, etc), you're only required to take organic chem, not p-chem (unless you're a chemistry major). Biochemistry is one of the more difficult science majors, and the general Bio major is the easiest (due to the nature of the subjects-biology is more memorization, chemistry is more applied, esp. physical chem, which includes intermediate-advanced calculus applications). Again, choose the major you're most interested in, especially if you're pre-health, b/c if you choose biology (like a large percentage of pre-med students) but you're not interested in it, you'll get a lower gpa, and that won't be good for med school applications.</p>
<p>"The MSB lacks a good program and has a reputation for lazy students and only few work. Only a few students really get recruited by top companies each year."</p>
<p>"Getting a 3.7 GPA if you are in the MSB is not hard (sorry...)."</p>
<p>"If you are a good student and you go to the MSB, many professors will soon advise you to transfer to the college/SFS."</p>
<p>Dude, although I don't deny the stereotypes that you say about the MSB is widely circulated, you serious need to stop passing those on as facts. </p>
<p>3.7 GPA at Georgetown (at any of the 4 schools) is hard, and also being involved in EC and internships makes that even harder. That's so ridiculous that professors would advice a student to transfer schools, not b/c of interest, but b/c of intelligence. Are you a student here?</p>
<p>he transferred out after a year.</p>
<p>sophomore12, Im sorry to sound insulting, but much of what I said is unfortunately true. are you a msb student?
I have been trying to find the number, but I think more than 60% of MSB students were above a 3.7 GPA last year, which is way too much. Georgetown is debating introducing quotas for As next year to limit grade inflation. Students expect at least an B-/A+ in a class if they just make the effort to show up (sadly, they often get it).
If you are a student at Georgetown, maybe even in the MSB, go and talk to your professors about the MSB (not MSB professors....). Many of them will advise you to transfer out and to enjoy a broader liberal arts education. The MSB attracts some good recruiters, mostly for accounting and some others for investment banking. But academically, its far behind the SFS. If you are just out for a good career, you can stay at MSB, work hard, score at the top and get a fairly good job at WallStreet. But if you are out for obtaining a certain intellectual framework (which is generally the idea of a university education), the MSB will utterly disappoint you. At least thats my experience.</p>
<p>Okay, 60% is the wrong figure, my friend works in the MSB dean's office, for graduation he had to personally count the number of Cum Laude, Magna, and Summa. It was more like 55-60 students with Magna and about 10-15 with Summa, it's out of a class of 320-350. Come on, 60% really?! How and where did you come up with that?</p>
<p>Regarding your opinion of the MSB on an "intellectual framework" and about a achieving good career. I agree with you. I don't think the business students are looking for the same intellectual challenge as a philosophy major: to each his or her own.</p>
<p>Btw, I am a MSB student. Frankly I think it's humorous when people say the MSB is lazy and have no work ethic, but as a joke. When you try to pass it on like every MSB student is inferior and lazy and unintelligent, you are just making an ignorant and arrogant remark. What about the students who wants to do Finance (or Accounting) and finds it intellectually stimulating, and works hard in his or her classes, active in student organizations, and has an internship? I won't deny that there are instances where I question how some MSB students made it into Georgetown (but you get that everywhere, yes even at Harvard).</p>
<p>Look, I think I get you're point, but the way you express your opinion is offensive. Where you in the MSB?</p>
<p>At the MSB, banking is the #1 career for graduates, then consulting and accounting. Feel free to check the career center (you should know where to go). And there are definitely room for improvement, but we're working on it, and the first sign of that is the new business school building (opening fall of 09 baby!).</p>
<p>good, you are in the MSB. Then you know what I am talking about. I was in the MSB as well (til May). Work in the MSB is not that hard, its just busy work all through the year. The Business classes are not that challenging, and as far as my friends from the upper classes told me, they stay that way until senior year - with some exceptions.
The new building might give the MSB a boost in terms of facilities and so on, but it will hardly improve the teaching. I got a 4.0 every semester at my time in Georgetown, but sadly most of it was busy work, not really challenging "mind-work".
Btw, I didnt say that the MSB students are unintelligent. But sadly intelligence and good work ethic do not always go hand in hand. Classes like International Business just demand that you read the newspaper daily and if the professor then wants to start a discussion and only three out of 50 or so students even have a clue what is going on and the others are asking questions like "Why is China so evil" (no joke), then you just have to face reality to a certain extend.
I agree, at every university you will have some point the feeling "How the hell did that student get here". I just found - and thats just my personal opinion - that you get that feeling quite often at Georgetown. It may be that I had way to high demands to an education at Georgetown. I enjoyed the professors and some of my classes were really good. I just had the feeling that the other half of the education, namely the intellectual advancement in conversations with other students, was almost completely missing. Without wanting to sound arrogant, but Georgetown students only very rarely fascinate you. The good students in the class are dragged down by the other ones, which harshly hurts the challenge at Georgetown.
Georgetown is not a bad university and I enjoyed my time there. If you dont share my opinion, thats only better for you (since you are still there) and I wish you all the best in your education.</p>
<p>Jipperag, could you please share your stats that got you into GU with us? And you're an international, is that correct? I'm curious about your qualifications because I know so many exceptionally bright, hard working kids that go/are going in the fall that your comments about the student body surprise me. Thanks.</p>
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<p>How involved were you in terms of ECs and internships?</p>
<p>I'm just curious, b/c if you maintained a 4 point with ECs and internships, then you are just a really bright kid...</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the compliment, sophomore12. I have to contradict, though. Indeed, im not from the US, so I will translate my high school results into GPAs</p>
<p>high school (in Europe):
-4.0 since 8th grade
- scholarship by government
- Internship at McKinsey
- award from European Union
- politically active (party member)</p>
<p>1 yr US high school:
- 4.0 GPA
- AP Latin: 5
- AP French: 4
- First Honors Award
- French Award
- SAT (2005): very bad, 1800 or sth</p>
<p>Languages: French, English, German, Spanish, Latin</p>
<p>ECs:
- party member (see above)
- sports (crew, swimming)</p>
<p>ECs at Georgetown:
- interned at house of representatives during the year (took up most of the time)
- some clubs
- consulting club</p>
<p>hope i didnt forget anything.</p>
<p>NYmama, do you mean that a lot of good students are leaving or coming?</p>
<p>seeing what others mention under "stats", I notice that I forgot some things, but these are the most important facts, i guess</p>
<p>Can you clarify consulting club?</p>
<p>lol, why? where you in it? im risking to disclose my identity... :)</p>