<p>how hard is to maintain a good gpa for pre-med students at vandy? I'm from new jersey and took four ap courses my junior year and am going to take 6 ap courses my senior year. Will it be difficulty for me to maintain a good gpa????</p>
<p>Look up your professors ahead of time and pick the right classes. Not telling you to pick the easiest classes, though. If your professors are good lecturers and fair graders, you’ll be able to maintain a good GPA while taking challenging classes.</p>
<p>thanks for responding! but in general is it easier to get into vanderbilt but harder to maintain a good gpa. I know thats the case in some colleges like emory and cornell.</p>
<p>It is not easy to get into Vanderbilt (or Cornell for that matter, despite w/e their SAT range is) at all. Also, it isn’t particularly hard to maintain a good GPA at Cornell or Emory (I know b/c I go here). Cornell’s average graduating GPA is about the same as ours (in fact, maybe a little higher) and Vandy is a little lower than both. They all range between like 3.32 and 3.4 average graduating GPA. Now since you’re pre-med, it will certainly be harder for you to keep a higher GPA than everyone else except engineering majors: though this is debatable since engineering courses generally have higher grades than natural/hard science and math courses for various reasons. However, the fact that they must take significantly more math courses probably neutralizes such an advantage.</p>
<p>Anyway, if you work hard and use the appropriate method to study along w/any learning resources when you need them, you’ll do well at Vandy just as you would at any top 20 (maybe except really tough places like MIT or Caltech which require enormous effort and perseverance that generally goes beyond the non-engineering counterparts).</p>
<p>Sorry to double post, but to put this in context:
The coursework will be challenging, but you can still do well at any of those schools. What makes you think that the difficulty of similar schools (academically) would vary but so much?
I don’t know about Cornell, but I can compare Vandy and Emory for at least 3 commonly taken pre-med courses. Biology, General chem, and organic chemistry. Biology=Vandy is tougher because less of the professors do purely multiple choice exams. The professors here who do essay/short answer are on par however (or a little harder), but such professors generally consist of 1/6-1/3 of the bio 141/142 sections. General chemistry=tie. General chem. seems to be roughly the same at most similar ranked schools. Organic chem=Emory is probably tougher, but I need to see more than 1 professor as I only saw Rizzo’s material. All I know is that at least 2 professors here are significantly harder, however I’ve heard the other prof. is much tougher than Rizzo, but I have no proof, someone would have to post an exam or P-Set) to prove it.<br>
If anything, I would venture to say that being pre-med at Emory is easier simply because there are more teachers to choose from in those 3 courses. Gen. chem at Emory for example has 3-4 professors depending on semester, normally 142 has 4. Vandy also has 4, but they have 200 people a piece whereas ours has 90-120 a piece(it really only hits 115-120 when one teacher decides to do her experimental section which only has 45-60 students, so they have to open up more seats in other sections. That isn’t happening this year though, 90-100 a piece it is), Biology 141/142 has at least 5 professors (and 7 sections b/c 2 profs teach 2 sections) to choose from with between 40 and 100 people vs. Vandy having 3 sections w/between 145 and 200 (Emory really should not have such disparity, but the easy professor allows an excessive number of people to overload. If you went by number of seats available vs. number of students, it should only be 65-70 a piece).
Organic chem has 5 professors(6 sections because Weinschenk teaches 2) to choose from (and 6 if you count Soria, who teaches freshmen and is 1 of 2 very hard profs. I mention) with between 35 and 90 seats (1 being 35, 3 being 72 and 2 being 90, and Soria being 50) vs. Vandy currently having 1 section of orgo. 1 w/150 (however, they offer classes alternate semesters so orgo. 2 in fall is currently is very small at like 40. Also, my guess is that more profs. will eventually be available so that more than 150 can take orgo.) . This makes the classes smaller, and thus in many instances more supportive and less difficult in someways (despite rigorous content. However, it admittedly often makes for tougher tests because grading is less burdensome b/c of the size). One nice thing about Vandy is the recitation/discussion sessions (we just have SI, which isn’t the same). This probably softens the blow some.<br>
Also, since we don’t have engineering, the math courses are generally easier than they are at similar schools w/engineering (though somehow the pre-med physics class could be very rough on people. However, the calc. based class pales in comparison to schools which have engineering).<br>
Yeah, just don’t past judgement so quickly. Due to the engineering depts. at Vandy and Cornell along w/the structure and size of typical weedout classes at either, they are likely to be harder for students at those places than they are here. Vandy and Cornell are more comparable than either and Emory when it comes to pre-med.
If you want more than these numbers (taken from OPUS course enrollment data at Emory and from Vandy’s “course schedule”, both for fall 2011. Opus is not public, but Vandy’s course schedule is: <a href=“https://webapp.mis.vanderbilt.edu/more/SearchClasses!input.action[/url]”>https://webapp.mis.vanderbilt.edu/more/SearchClasses!input.action</a>, so you can take a look), I can get say, the course material and put it up for you to compare, but it shouldn’t be necessary as my point has surely been made. My point was that all are challenging, but at different points and in different ways. For my learning style, I’m betting that Vandy would be harder on me than Emory if I were pre-med (I’m not, I’m just a science major that has taken all of the pre-med oriented courses, so I have experience). I like to use numbers, research, and evidence. If I didn’t, I would also assume that some schools are dramatically easier/difficult/ or different than others. There are other ways of finding out about such issues aside from hearsay. To look at difficulty, you have to decide what you find difficult. Does class size weigh heavier than content rigor or the other way around. Or does both at moderate levels work, or does it simply not matter as long as the teacher is good (something we indeed cannot research, w/o it being opinion based)? Figure it out and choose courses accordingly when you get to college.</p>
<p>I only did the bare minimum at Vanderbilt and graduated with a 2.7 GPA. Anyone can do better than I did if they put in some time to making the grade.</p>
<p>I have the same question as the OP but I’m an econ major/financial econ minor. Anyone care to elaborate on grade deflation in regards to econ? It seems that most of these threads are geared towards pre-med students.</p>
<p>A lot of it depends on your major…</p>
<p>@ ChicagoBears1</p>
<p>Take the right economics classes with the right professors and it won’t be extremely difficult to maintain a relatively good economics GPA.</p>
<p>Sorry to spoil the party, but a two-cents from a parent: The grade is far less important than what you learn. If you learn, the grades will follow (with the exception of a few profs that every school seems to have, so watch for those!). Med schools are aware of average GPA’s at top schools, and if you are a top student, that will be apparent. If you are worried that you can’t cut it & won’t be competitive for med school if you go to Vandy, you may be being short-sighted … you can get a top GPA somewhere & not be prepared to excel in med school, or you can work your rear off & do well at a place like Vandy and be ready to kick it in med school. Just saying.</p>
<p>Plenty of students on this forum have had great Vandy grades, others have not. It all depends. My D had a GPA > 3.8, but she wasn’t hard sciences. She had to work for it, just the same. Since the average GPA in CAS is 3.2-3.3, I think, there are plenty of students who have GPA’s in the territory they never thought they would be in … but that doesn’t make them any less smart, and they still seem to make it just fine in life.</p>