How hard is it to maintain a 4.0 gpa as compared to high school?

<p>It is extremely difficult to get a 4.0 throughout all of college. HS grades are much more objective, while in college its nearly impossible to please every professor, they all have different preferences and styles. </p>

<p>But on the bright side, unlike HS, you don't need a 4.0 to do well after college. A 3.5 or higher at a decent college will generally get you into a pretty good grad school. If your not planning on going to grad school, then just make sure you get a high enough GPA to pass and get your degree. If you have a bachelor's degree, then congratulations your already in the top 25% of the most educated people in America.</p>

<p>high school is very easy compared to college…even if you are straight A student in college you can easily come close to failing classes until you learn the “system” and what professors expect of you…this is coming from someone who didn’t really try in high school and still pulled decent grades and got his act together in college and is pulling near a 4.0…study as hard as you can and pick one day of the week for fun</p>

<p>Medical school like a high GPA, which may seem irrelevant but I am going to U of C and this has confirmed that it will be harder to get it than normal</p>

<p>I guess that’s what you get in college</p>

<p>and to OP my sister goes to a liberal art and after much hard work often only gets an A- or B+</p>

<p>my bro has a 4.0 and is almost a senior (credit wise) and he is an EE major. So its possible. Im aiming for the same, or at least a 3.7 which at my college is an A- average.</p>

<p>I know 3 people from my high school who graduated the year before I did who have a 4.0 in college. They will be college sophomores next year. One girl is a math education major (she was also valedictorian of her class). Another girl is Music Theater major. The only guy I know that has 4.0 is in chemical engineering.</p>

<p>It’s definitely a lot harder but it also depends on your school and/or major. If you’re in engineering, it’s pretty hard to get or maintain a 4.0. If you’re in a major that’s not so heavily concentrated, then it won’t be too bad.</p>

<p>I feel like it really depends on your school. I had a 4.0 for the last two years of high school, but my GPA in college is lower. People who go to easier schools tend to have higher GPAs.</p>

<p>I have a 3.9 after my freshman year. I won’t have a problem sustaining that for the next two semesters (my sophomore year) , I may be even be able to push that up to a 3.95 but I doubt that as soon as I enter the upper division courses for my major.</p>

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<p>That is some username you’ve got there
But considering this thread is old…chances are, you won’t see my post. :(</p>

<p>In most colleges, an A- is a 3.7 so that’s mostly between 89-93%. 94%+ is a 4 (obviously some classes are different). </p>

<p>So basically to have a 4.0 you need a 94% or greater in every single one of your classes. That’s EXTREMELY hard to do unless youre taking easy classes, and even then it’s not hard at all to get a 93 instead of a 94.</p>

<p>For some reason I am not expecting college to be much harder than H.S., I went to the best school in the city and I worked my freakin a$$ off</p>

<p>I’m a senior at a public high school in central NY and number 25 out of my class of 360. My overall GPA is a 94 unweighted (with College Calculus and College Physics) and I have never really applied myself.
High school was a breeze. If you do the homework, show up to class and pay attention you’re guaranteed a B, even if you’re the worst test taker.</p>

<p>I think college will be entirely different. If you want to get a 4.0, or even a 3.5 you’ll have to work for hours on end. I’ve talked to two people who said they had to work for about two-three hours a week (homework and studying) for each class hour.</p>

<p>If you’re like me and you did nothing to get a 4.0 in high school then I’m guessing college will be a wake-up call like I’m expecting it to be for me.</p>

<p>Then again, this post is so old you might already be in college!</p>

<p>I wasn’t a huge effort person in HS so I didn’t have the 4.0 overachiever GPA. Now that I’m in college, I’ve had a pretty good GPA though. I have had a 4.0 once in my two years [although freshman year!] at college (and maintained above a 3.85). It’s fairly possible. You just need to listen to people when they tell you who the better professors are, work when you know it’s tougher, and take enough credits to compensate for anything less than an A. I’m at an average school, so I mean, being smart enough to know when you need to try tends to be enough.</p>

<p>I’m finishing my freshman year, and I haven’t struggled to maintain a 4.0. Then again, my SAT score is over 200 points above my school’s average.</p>

<p>It really really does depend on your school. Some are known for grade deflation/inflation, and if you go to a school that’s on average lower than your stats, then yeah, it won’t be as difficult for you to maintain the 4.0.</p>

<p>I rarely tried in high school (at a great public school) and sailed through with a 4.0. I was happy to get a 3.13 this semester at Vandy.</p>

<p>Every person I know that has a 4.0+ (4.33 for A+) is either a business or communications major. I know one engineering major who is close. It so rarely happens in science majors that I am not worried I have a 3.6.</p>

<p>Wow. It’s no secret we’ve got some overachievers here on CC. It is very, very difficult to maintain a 4.0 in college. A 3.5+ is difficult enough and, at least here at UCSB, a 2.9-3.0 is the average.</p>

<p>College is defintely harder than high school. Don’t get overconfident.</p>

<p>At my high school its real easy to get perfect grades, given you aren’t deceased</p>

<p>I have a 3.6 now as a chem major, and that seems to be quite above average for chem majors here. I’ve only had a 4.0 in two semesters of my college career and both of them were in freshman year. My gpa was brought down a lot by the chemical engineering classes I took before I realized that that path wasn’t right for me. I got a D even with spending 20 hours a week studying for just that class. I hated the subject matter completely and it also brought down my orgo 1 grade to a B- from not being able to study as much for it as I should have. So I had a 2.33 spring semester of sophomore year, but both semesters of junior year I got a 3.6, so I seem to have stabilized now that I’ve done chem classes like the pchem sequence, analytical, and inorganic.</p>

<p>The average gpa at my school is closer to 2.0 than 4.0. It varies a lot by major, though. I’ve worked really hard to maintain a 3.6. I spend about 5 hours everyday except for Friday, when I take a break (still spent about 2 hours today, though).</p>