<p>I just got my acceptance letter this week! :D</p>
<p>Anyway, how hard is it to make straight As?
I know this sounds stupid but I heard that it is really hard to get good grades in wisconsin compared to other schools....like only top 10 ~15% in class makes As or something..
Is this true? I heard this from current students.. They told me its really hard to study and get good grades in wisconsin..Should I take this into consideration for college selection?
Help me pleas e</p>
<p>It depends on your mental caliber. Some people are able to get A’s without trying, simply because they have good retention of information. Others have to study for hours to get that A.</p>
<p>I was an A Average student in high school in all AP Classes, and my GPA at Madison is in the 3.0-3.1 range. I wouldn’t say that the work here is “harder” than what you get in high school, but there’s a LOT more of it and you need the self discipline to actually do it.
For example, CHEM 103 (you’ll probably take it as a freshman) required extensive self discipline to sit down and do practice problems for long periods of time, and to read extremely long weekly readings. You could get by without doing these things, but if you wanted the A you NEED the motivation to do it.
I’ve heard that if you figure out how many credit hours you’re taking and study that many hours per week you’ll be successful, but as far as I know nobody studies that much and a lot of people I know have gotten by with all or almost all A’s.</p>
<p>If you coast or slack, I don’t advise coming here. In my experience, it’s just a LOT of work that’s not necessarily “extremely hard”, but it’s hard enough to be tedious.</p>
<p><a href=“http://registrar.wisc.edu/documents/Stats_distribs_2009-2010Fall.pdf[/url]”>http://registrar.wisc.edu/documents/Stats_distribs_2009-2010Fall.pdf</a></p>
<p>This is a very large pdf file, 403 pages. It contains grade distribution by major, courses, average GPA, percentage of grades earned, and the very last page contains a broad overview of percentages obtained by all freshman, sophomores, etc from Fall 2009. Found through the Office of the Registrar where you can view more than just last semester.</p>
<p>As you can see, it varies greatly by the classes you’re taking, and it also depends on your course load, but eventually you will get to classes where you cannot slack, and if that’s all you’ve been doing before, you aren’t going to be prepared for it.</p>
<p>If you look at the last page of that file, 36% of all grades earned by undergraduates last semester were A’s. Take from that what you will, but just because 36% did, that doesn’t mean you will if you aren’t willing to work and are looking for easy classes.</p>
<p>A’s always requires work. I think…that if you’re taking in course difficulty into consideration for where you’re going, then you probably aren’t sufficiently prepared for UW Madison or plenty of other schools. Your goal shouldn’t be to get straight A’s. Getting straight A’s is very hard, and you probably aren’t going to do it. And like I said, just because 36% of grades earned were A’s, that doesn’t mean you’ll be getting five or four of those. Depends on your work ethic, and how prepared you are.</p>
<p>So no, you shouldn’t take it in to consideration, and yes it’s “hard” in that it will require you to spend time studying and working outside of class.</p>
<p>thank u for replying 
I know that i need to work hard to get good grades but what I wanted to know is if wisconsin is harder compared to other schools . for example, if I can get an A in a comparable school say UIUC, then can I stll make an A in wiscnsin with that much of effort? My friends in wisconsin have told me that it is extremely hard to get good grades nomatter how much they try because only top few percent people get As in class.</p>
<p>so my point is, comparing to other big state schools like UIUC, is wisconsin harder??</p>
<p>TomJeff–</p>
<p>It’s a specious argument. Who can tell whether x amount of work at UIUC equals an A in Madison?</p>
<p>LuckyStarBoy pretty much has it nailed, and my freshman D concurs. Yes, to a certain extent it’s a matter of sheer brain power, but good grades at UW-Madison are MORE a function of keeping up with the volumes of work thrown at you, and having the control to ‘hermitize’ yourself enough to concentrate on the multiple tasks at hand & not fall behind. </p>
<p>What seems to make it harder on this campus comparatively with other Big 10 schools are the siren songs of ALL the great extracurricular activities available–many NOT alcohol-fueled BTW–that appear (OK, are!) a lot more fun than the prospect of 4 straight hours of tackling Chem 103 problems.</p>
<p>It can be done though. D came out of HS with straight A’s, but has a nasty streak of procrastination issues. She found out mid-fall semester that if she didn’t break that habit, there would be a couple of glaring C’s on her grade report. She recovered enough to realize how great a B feels in those classes. Sometimes a B is good!</p>
<p>If you’re asking whether the curve is such that straight A’s are unattainable, I don’t think that’s the case. It just takes work over & above the norm, unless you bite off more than you can chew hours-wise & become overburdened–that’s happened a LOT up in Madison, and that’s what dropping classes are for. Be realistic & live to fight another day. If you’re the type (like my D) that assumed A’s were easy like HS…welcome to real-life college!</p>
<p>Bottom line–keep up with the work, and if you fall behind, seek help. Let the rest take care of itself.</p>
<p>These are big ifs, but if the data is correct that 36% of grades are As at Madison and if all schools give out 36% As, then it will generally be easier to get an A at Madison than Harvard and harder to get an A at Madison than at UW-Stout because of the strength of the competition.</p>
<p>Now all schools don’t give out the same percentage of As, there is grade inflation and deflation at various colleges just like high schools. All things being equal, you would think a school with a stronger student body should give out more As because there are more students capable of and disciplined enough to do A work. You can compare gpa, class rank, ACT/SAT scores between schools to get an idea of the strength of the student body but that isn’t infallible.</p>
<p>The difficulty of college work can be a shock for those who eased through high school. I think your friends may be over-stating things at least a bit. The main thing is getting a good education and gaining knowledge. A few tenths of a percent difference in GPA shouldn’t influence your decision.</p>
<p>I think that a reasonably intelligent hard-worker can pull a 3.8-3.9 at Madison. Just like high school - if you’re willing to devote the effort, it will pay off.</p>