<p>Obviously, this can vary from major to major and from professor to professor, but generally, is it difficult to get A's in your classes?</p>
<p>For discussion based classes that have a lot of reading and writing, I'd say it's pretty easy to get an A- if you give decent effort, but to jump the next notch, it can be difficult. I have found this to be the case for Thematic Option.</p>
<p>any input on how the engineering (specifically EE) difficulty is? is it inpractical to hope to get a 3.8+?</p>
<p>a 3.8 is pretty ambitious, and most people probably won't get that high (which, granted, is pretty high already). that said, i'm at 3.88 after 3 semesters...it may drop a bit after this semester, i'm sure, but not much. if anything, it's because i really slacked off this semester. it takes quite a bit of work, and often times little sleep (that is, if you want to have a life outside of engineering, which you should...). the material is pretty hard, definitely, but doable and you can get A's if you put in the effort, not just into finishing the homework, but really understanding the material. my only non-A's were in Intro to C++ programming (which, while an EE requirement, isn't really EE, IMO), and an A- in a GE.</p>
<p>Anyone know anything about a Biology Major?</p>
<p>For me Bio was easy until I hit Biochem. Upper division Bio classes are difficult (except Marine Bio which was my favorite class and therefore easy). The hardest for me was Neurobio because of all the physics. Oh and Physics totally kicked my ass (which for me was a B-). General Chem was tricky for me because my highschool chem class was horrible while OChem was easier for me (less math). </p>
<p>What I liked is that while the classes were challenging, the students were always helpful and it wasn't cutthroat.</p>
<p>I graduated Magna Cum Laude (with a double in Classics).</p>
<p>what about marshall</p>
<p>im deciding between usc and cal (hopefully haas, but thats apparently cutthroat admissions)</p>
<p>will usc be challenging enough
i fear that cal may be too much so, especially with the competetion to get into haas jr year...</p>
<p>thoughts?</p>
<p>Thanks trojanchick!</p>
<p>Marshall is funny. The material you learn within business is not difficult - being in both CS and Business admin, I can confidently testify to the fact that engineering is in fact much more difficult than business. </p>
<p>That being said, my test grades in Marshall are worse than that in Viterbi. Why? Because Marshall's a *****. Don't get me wrong - the material is easy. Learning and understanding business concepts doesn't require vast, profound intelligence. However, Marshall profs write their tests in a manner that makes it near impossible to get an A. Literally, if you want to get an A on a test, you'll need to memorize 400+ vocab words / business models / case studies. </p>
<p>Luckily for us, at the end of the semester everyone's grade is curved, relative to the average. So, seeing how the current average grade is about a D+ / C-, come the end of the semester those D+/C- may become B-/B. </p>
<p>So, to get an A in Marshall, you have to make sure you do better than your entire class.</p>
<p>As for EE, I'm a bit biased b/c I think EE profs curve way too leniently. I'm not a EE major, but I've had to take 2 EE classes (which I think is bogus). Both classes, though the material is certainly difficult, were relatively easy to get As in (EE101 and EE201). The average grades in those classes are actually B+/A-. CS, however, is a completely different story.</p>
<p>Uh, disregard that last post about marshall grading. The tests are not hard whatsoever and dont require memorization. Stop generalizing all of marshall based on 304, and if you feel what you said was true then you are one of those dumb people in the class who doesn't do anything and then complains about how hard it was when you get a C, so I guess I'd just like to say thank you mr Gorilla for making the curve so easy.</p>
<p>To mrgorilla: My son put down CS/EE as his major. He is thinking of doing this or possibly doing CS with a minor in game design. I think he should look into EE with a minor in both business and game design (two minors). Although my son received straight A's in AP Computer Science classes (with score of 5 on the AP tests), I noticed many hours put into writing the code to make his programs work. It was a lot of time consuming work. Also, my son is very hardware oriented which is why I think EE is more correct with the potential minors in business and game design. What do you think?</p>
<p>
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However, Marshall profs write their tests in a manner that makes it near impossible to get an A. Literally, if you want to get an A on a test, you'll need to memorize 400+ vocab words / business models / case studies.
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<p>While I understand your sentiment, I have to disagree here. I'm a business major - getting an A is indeed challenging (as it should be) but getting a grade in the B range is very achievable and requires medium effort.</p>
<p>I think a lot depends on how your brain works.
For undergraduate, not USC though, I got a C in Intro to Psychology class and got straight As in Math/Science/Engineering classes. Got mostly B+ in Business classes.</p>
<p>To both sfgiants and uscfootball07:</p>
<p>I didn't say getting an A was difficult in Business. I said getting an A on a test was. Overall, as long as you don't completely slack off, getting a B in the actual course is very, very easy, much more so than Viterbi classes. </p>
<p>I don't mean to come off as patronizing, but many people in my major, CS/Business Admin, view Marshall classes as GPA boosters. The only resentment we have is the fact that tests are based on rote memorization, not on deductive logic like we're so used to in engineering.</p>
<p>To mdcissp: </p>
<p>Well, you're right in that EE is certainly more hardware oriented than CS. And, if you're son is hardware oriented, then that would be a good fit for him. The only hesitation I have is the dual business and video game design minor. I think it's pretty difficult to major in EE and have a dual minor. But if he's motivated enough, certainly doable. Just a note; if he got 5's on AP CS tests, I think he should be able to test out of the intro CS classes: Intro to Programming and Data Structures.</p>
<p>To both sfgiants and uscfootball07:</p>
<p>I didn't say getting an A was difficult in Business. I said getting an A on a test was. Overall, as long as you don't completely slack off, getting a B in the actual course is very, very easy, much more so than Viterbi classes. </p>
<p>I don't mean to come off as patronizing, but many people in my major, CS/Business Admin, view Marshall classes as GPA boosters. The only resentment we have is the fact that tests are based on rote memorization, not on deductive logic like we're so used to in engineering.</p>
<p>To mdcissp: </p>
<p>Well, you're right in that EE is certainly more hardware oriented than CS. And, if you're son is hardware oriented, then that would be a good fit for him. The only hesitation I have is the dual business and video game design minor. I think it's pretty difficult to major in EE and have a dual minor. But if he's motivated enough, certainly doable. Just a note; if he got 5's on AP CS tests, I think he should be able to test out of the intro CS classes: Intro to Programming and Data Structures.</p>
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The only resentment we have is the fact that tests are based on rote memorization, not on deductive logic like we're so used to in engineering.</p>
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<p>This may be the case in OB, but not really the case at all in most other business courses.</p>