<p>I'm an incoming freshman econ major, and I'm wondering how rigorous the academics are at Vandy. How easy is it to get consistently above B-? The reason I'm asking this is because my parents said that if I get any grade in a class that's B- or below, they will make me drop out of school. Do you guys think its possible to get above a B- in every class without an insane amount of effort?</p>
<p>For my first semester, I'm taking astronomy 102, math 155a, econ 100, and ees 114 (ecology, evolution, and climates through time)</p>
<p>I think everyone at Vandy wants to make more than a B- but the majority of students will have a few stumbles. Econ majors may want to chime in…it is not an easy major. Duke son worked hard for his Bminuses in Econ believe me. But he is glad he had the discipline to take a quantitative major. Ditto for brave engineering majors. People who can’t cope with the occasional bad grad should not apply to engineering programs. But engineers get jobs.<br>
With time, I hope your parents will quit threatening you and will instead get more educated on the realities of your intended major. There would be a good argument that it is smarter to have a B average and major in Econ and Engineering and sciences than it is to take the easier path and this is an argument you can develop over time as you mature at Vandy.<br>
You can ask your advisor about “averages” in various departments and help your parents get a Reality Base. That is right. Sometimes parents of kids who were grinds and perfectionists in high school do not have the life experience to understand how the college cultural landscape works. Graduating from Vandy with a B average is a triumph. Your peers are all brilliant eager students. There are no slackers or people who help the curve.
Every department has its own ups and downs. You will have a senior VUcepter assigned to you for a few weeks with a group of freshmen for social meetings and for help. Ask this person to introduce you to upperclassmen or women in Econ so you can hear the insider’s view. Don’t panic now.<br>
You have all you need to succeed at Vanderbilt academically. The real challenges are in learning to create a circle of friends and faculty mentors and workplace internships in your four years.<br>
One nice thing I am happy to tell you that is NOT true at Duke…is that you can drop a course at Vanderbilt if you are failing or you are unhappy with the Grade you anticipate getting stuck with…by a certain Drop Date. Tons of people do this when they overcommit socially or in extra curriculars or they simply don’t manage their time correctly or like my VAndy son…they don’t realize they can’t learn the material in two hours the night before just because they went to class. Our son dropped a class, and was only taking 4 classes instead of five after that because he was traveling on a Vandy team and didn’t study enough on weekends. His sense of “what it takes” was altered by this shocking experience of failing an exam. He ended up in summer school working ahead a bit so that he could continue on with his chosen path of doing tons of extracurriculars on campus that take up a lot of his time. You don’t get points for much in college but actual tests. Very few classes care about participation for points and this is news to people sometimes.
The really good news is that you can retake classes at VAndy…once I think. Your “bad” grade remains for all to see on your transcript. But the new “better” grade is in your GPA. How fair is that? This of course helps many people who stumble remain on target for premed, and to not “give up” the first time things are too hard for classes with hard exams.<br>
Whether you drop a class or repeat a class…Vandy wants students to have that flexibility to get up and get going again. This prevents people from being too afraid to take hard classes…which is an awful consequence of preoccupation with perfect grades. </p>
<p>There are checks and balances to prevent abuse of these little loopholes. For instance, dropping to four classes will cost you in permutations for taking all you want to take in double majors traveling abroad etc and takes some real thought but is doable. </p>
<p>Dropping to three classes puts you on academic probation…it is a luxury with a price…and you have to hustle to reinstate yourself and to work all your classes back into your four year plan. Dropping classes past the drop add date is also a financial cost (theoretically speaking) because you have just lost another chance for a class covered in your semester tuition.</p>
<p>I do not believe you can take a class more than twice for credit and grade improvement but students might know better.</p>
<p>Above all, know that your relationship with your parents will change for the better. I would suggest that you get “ahead” of your parents. Set up a routine of once or twice a week on the phone and make sure to give them polite and honest summaries of what you are doing, but if you need further help in how to reshape your relationship with them, sometimes a couple of sessions with a Vandy counselor can help you find your voice and message. </p>
<p>depends on your major. I’m not sure how difficult econ is but the harder science courses may be a little more difficult. The reason why I say it depends on your major is because I was at graduation and was just looking through the names of graduates and their accomplishments (cum laude, magnum cum laude, etc.). I noticed that a very large percentage of students who majored in HOD, or Education (Peabody Major’s) and other “light majors” graduated with honors while there was only a handful of students who had high honors in more “difficult majors” (math/sciences/engineering). If you want a high GPA try out econ and if that’s to hard go with HOD</p>
<p>You should be fine, but that is a strict ultimatum that they have that could be both healthy and unhealthy. By the way, Vandy’s students, like those most of the top 20s of similar caliber, graduate on average w/a B+ average (3.3-3.4 range to be more specific). The students are motivated and there are soft curves (except in the natural sciences and engineering courses) that result in a majority of students doing decently well (actually B+ is pretty darned good for supposedly rigorous schools). With your courseload, I would imagine that mostly B/B+s (and perhaps As) are more than manageable though I’ve heard that the math class can be rough. By the way, B- is normally considered a lower grade in social science, humanities, and business courses because those depts. tend to grade easier or simply design the courses so that they are less exam based and more essay/project based, for example, thus resulting in more “subjective” and flexible grading criteria (often professors will not give much grades below B on such projects or essays because they want to avoid judging the student too harshly and thus starting a conflict. Often students expect such courses to be easy, or actually believe they are doing stellar work because they put out the same quality of work that would have gotten them an A in HS). In the sciences, engineering and math courses, many of the hardcore classes, such as the introductory courses or those typically taken by non-major pre-meds, give difficult exams that often yield C or D averages and then they curve the class average to the C+/B- area (or perhaps they may not curve at all in the case that the lab is integrated w/the course. They’ll let the exam averages sit at C/C+, w/or w/o curve, and let the lab help slightly to push the average to B- or a higher C+) which means you really only need to be near the average to get a B-. In such classes, being a decent amount above average, depending on the distribution may get you easily get you upwards to a B+. This is the grading pattern I have observed at Emory, and I’ve looked at some Vandy course websites and observe hardly no difference in grading schemes at all. These schools grade softer than top publics, but harder than a lot of Ivies or higher ranked schools (especially in sciences and math. Curving to C+/B- is oldschool for many other privates. Most curve to B or even B+). Must be a southern thing (except that Rice and Duke seem to grade a bit easier despite being difficult schools. I always have to remember that grading is often used internal standards of measurement and doesn’t normally reflect the rigor of the content covered nor the workload. It can indeed be quite arbitrary). Anyway, the point is, that data indicates that things are in your favor. However, data does not determine your personal work ethic and ability to handle the environment. Get in there and do your best and you should be fine most of the time.</p>
<p>Also, please don’t choose a major based upon average grades, choose one based upon passion. For your classes outside of the area of the major you choose due to passion, feel free to choose based upon any criteria you want. However, do not choose a major that will bore the hell out of you intellectually because you think it will be easy. Vandy is known for providing an awesome social environment AND education. It cost a lot so you better be darned sure that you get what you pay for in both arenas. You maximize what you get out of the education part by choosing something intellectually fulfilling or something that will help you get toward whatever life or career goals you have/develop, not choosing one that will merely keep your parents from taking you out of there. If you are going to do that, you may as well not go. What’s the point? You dramatically restrict your potential as soon you step foot on campus.</p>
<p>D came from an excellent private school with 4s and 5s on 9 AP exams, and struggled a bit for her B average her first year. Her classes did not include science or engineering courses, although she did take one econ course. The first year is tough, and there are lots of distractions. Also, Calc 155 is supposed to be notoriously tough, with lots of students making Cs–my D did not take it.</p>
<p>My brother got a 4.0 his first year as an econ major at Boston College and is transferring to Vandy. All his credits transfer but his GPA doesn’t (obviously and unfortunately). He is beggining to second think his decision to transfer based on GPA criteria. Does anyone have any comments on this/things to make us feel better?</p>
<p>I think B’s are pretty easy to get (if you work hard and do the readings), but A’s are difficult to obtain. Compared to most schools, I’d say Vanderbilt has slight grade deflation and you really need to work for your grades.</p>
<p>If you work reasonably hard, it shouldn’t be too difficult to get a B- or better in all your classes. One rather obvious but important suggestion: choose your courses and instructors carefully. Get really familiar with ratemyprofessor.com and find professors that consistently get high marks for being great teachers and reasonable graders. You shouldn’t look for only easy graders since many profs who get midrange scores on “easiness” also are glad to give out A’s and B’s to students who put in the effort. My son struggled his first semester because he took too many tough science and calculus classes and didn’t “vet” his profs ahead of time. The second semester was completely different and his GPA went up almost a full point. If you check on Econ professors, you will find some that get great ratings (though most are not easy A’s) and some that shoudl be avoided. You’d think after awhile they would get rid of the unpopular ones, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.</p>
<p>Econ major here. Admittedly, Vandy’s econ program is incredibly rigorous. B- and above is certainly possible, but you must attend class on a consistent basis, and of course do your homework/study in a timely and diligent manner. It sounds easy, but a considerable amount of students get caught up in the social scene and lose track of their classes. I took an intermediate macro class this past semester, didn’t miss a single minute of class, did my homework, studied, and received a B in the course. Now, I got a 72 on my first exam and a B+/A- on the next two, so perhaps I could have finished with an A- had I been more prepared for the first exam, but this is life at Vandy. </p>
<p>If I had to give you one piece of advice, it would be to never skip class. I know two students with sub 3.0 GPAs and both of them skip their classes more often than not. Just don’t do it.</p>
<p>You need to sit down and have a heart to heart talk with your parents about college, their expectations and your life. The last thing you need is this kind of pressure as you begin your adult life. At Vandy you will have classes full of smart hard working students who may be more gifted in certain subjects than you. That’s OK. You may have a few setbacks with your grades. What’s important is how you bounce back.<br>
Most of what you learn at college is how to live on your own, away from your parents, manage your time, social skills, how to learn as you move into adulthood. A bad grade or two will come and go. Let your parents know you will work hard and do your best.</p>