<p>I am right now really close into deciding to go a top tier school (#12 undergrad business).</p>
<p>I am wondering how HARD is college compared to high school. Have your GPAS went down or went up. Workload UP or DOWN?</p>
<p>I know this is subjected because some of you went to hard hard high schools and other ones easy easy, but just a general thing. And others take all APS and some take regular courses in high school.</p>
<p>My UW high school GPA is really bad i mean 3.somethinglow (our school Weights).</p>
<p>I am afraid once I go there, my GPA will crumble down :(. Easy, Hard?</p>
<p>BTW I go to a semi- competitive high school (yea i know everyone says this) will have taken around 14 APs by I graduate.</p>
<p>I found that my GPA went up because I was able to study things I enjoyed. But, a lot will depend on a major and how that major's classes are graded.</p>
<p>I bet a lot of engineering major's GPAs went down, while a lot of other major's GPAs went up. In any case, you aren't going to see too many 4.3 GPAs in college. ;)</p>
<p>usually they go down. I had a 4.0 weighted in high school and am now struggling to mainatin a 3.3. it all depends on the college you go to though.</p>
<p>In most cases the workload is much heavier than high school.</p>
<p>I had a 4.0 in high school, i still have a 4.0 in college, and i'm an engineering major, but I have this crazy work ethic, which is a blessing and a curse. A lot of it depends on the school and major, but it also depends on what mindset you have going into college. I thought i'd have to work a lot harder than i did in high school, and it ended up being a pleasant surprise. Others aren't quite so lucky. Just go in prepared to work your butt off.</p>
<p>College is awesome because you are free to take courses you are interested in, and take courses as pass/no pass to test out other disciplines you may be weaker in.</p>
<p>I agree with a lot of what has been said. I like what I'm studying so I find myself doing better and getting better grades. Sadly, not everyone studies what they find interesting, but that is their choice (or not if their isn't free will . . . ). A lot will depend on your major, your department, and your school, as well as you. Can you handle being so close to temptations, such as hanging out, movies, video games, food, friends, TV, books, music, concerts, all easy, easy, easy to get to? </p>
<p>14 APs is a lot. If you find yourself doing well on the tests, it is a good indication that you can do well on some college finals. If you bomb every AP test, you're going to have to prepare for tests way better than you are for the AP tests.</p>
<p>Ivy doesn't necessarily mean hardest college possible, or hardest graded. I'm sure the kids at MIT, CalTech and Swarthmore are having more trouble getting A's than the kids at Harvard or Princeton, and perhaps dealing with more difficult work.</p>
<p>^ I agree. My MIT friend appears to have been pulling quite a few all nighters, but even though it's challenging she doesn't regret choosing MIT because it's a worthwhile experience socially as well.</p>
<p>It's hard...I have to do much more work than I ever had to in high school. I came out of high school with somewhere near a 4.0 and ended up pulling a 3.0 this semester, with just 1 bad class pulling it down.</p>
<p>If you know what you're interested and will do well in right off you'll do fine. For me, I got stuck in a class I hated/was really bad at so it was bit harder right off the bad. BUT once you do find your strengths and interests it will become easier, even if you're at a top tier school.</p>
<p>I was the kind of kid who could go through high school without doing anymore than going to class and doing the homework, no studying, practically no work outside of school (and getting the best grades in the entire school, I got the Governor General's academic medal). Then I got to university in math, realized that calculus was the easy mindless stuff and that sitting in class and listening wasn't sufficient anymore. Learning to study and work was a big pain, but it was necessary to understand the way of thinking involved in mathematics. And that is one of the main difference between high school and university: the way you think changes (though your work ethic, and in a way sometimes the amount of work, might not, unlike in my case). You can't just absorb the material given in class mechanically anymore. It requires a lot more effort on your own to understand the subject.</p>
<p>Ok, I went to an average high school, and am now at a a pretty decent state school. While it's not a top tier school (I'm assuming you're talking Bowdoin/Bates/Colby category), it's not a bad school either. I have more work than I had in my easier years in high school, and only a little more than my tougher years (like when I had 3 AP's in a year...). Actually the workload is comparable to middle school, when I was at one of the best in the state, only now I have more time to do everything.
My gpa is similar to high school right now. This semester though was almost entirely papers, rather than tests, so I'm not really sure how it will be until after next semester, which will be just the opposite. Actually right now my gpa is better than it was when I graduated high school.</p>
<p>Mine actually went up (because I started caring now that this is real world...)
I had about a 3.1 in high school and I am going to the University of Rochester now and I have a 3.7 (This would have been higher if it weren't for my math professor who decided to give us a final on stuff he didn't teach us...)</p>
<p>Most people who enter colleges, especially the top ones, are in for a rude awakening. Consider this: if you're going into one of the best schools in the entire country, your class will be filled with people who also were extremely succesful in high school. Think about how competitive applicant pools to all these schools are. Well these are the people who will end up your classmates. And, well, if everybody (I know not every last person but you get what I am saying) in your class had a 3.8 or 3.9 or 4.0 or whatever in high school, they can't ALL do that well when they are going to the same school together. Not because they are competing head to head and there is a curve, but because the level of difficulty is intended to be that much harder, to get that seperation from the merely very good to the truly outstanding.</p>
<p>I have to say college is much easier for me than HS was. I had roughly a 3.4 in a top HS (ranked as #6 in California on the parents board for whatever that's worth), and in the second from the bottom quintile of my school, and just got my college grades and I have a 3.91 (3 A's and 1 A-) from Bucknell. I really like only having 4 classes and really being able to concentrate on them as opposed to 6. I also feel like there is a lot less work, and more time to do it.</p>
<p>College is all about time management :) The better you allocate and use your time wisely, the more successful you will be and the more fun you will have.</p>
<p>I had a 3.93 for high school, and in three semesters of college I've kept a 4.0. Some classes are harder, some are easier, its just alot more about time management. Every minute of the day I'm not in class or at work or in some activity, I have planned what homework I'm going to be working on. I also spend probably ten hours a day on weekends studying(then go party on the nights to relieve that stress!)...and i sleep alot less than I did in high school as well :(</p>
<p>In my opinion, to get good grades in college, you have to work alot harder, but also have the chance to have more luck on your side--e.g. the professor having a nice curve, extending the due date for a paper, deciding not to include a difficult problem on a test, or giving extra credit points for attendance. These were things that I never got in high school that help out alot now!</p>