<p>Is it hard to get an A compared to other ivies (Harvard, Yale, Princeton)? Is the workload more or less than them?</p>
<p>I think I read something about a T-shirt: “If I wanted an A, I would’ve gone to Harvard.”</p>
<p>Though I’m not a student, so I wouldn’t know XD.</p>
<p>The University of Chicago is compared to the Ivies in terms of academic excellence and is often associated with the Ivies for almost anything.</p>
<p>i appreciate your screenname, geil!</p>
<p>A’s aren’t impossible to get, you just have to work for them. That’s been my [very short] experience as well as what others have said, so it makes sense. Compared to ives? Well, someone told me Harvard hands out A’s like candy, so there you go. ;)</p>
<p>Getting a good GPA is quite within reach, but getting a 4.0 really is not. There are apparently a few people who graduate with a 4.0 after four years here, but I don’t think there is one every year. The really good students get a 3.7, while the brilliant students get a 3.8. The people who get above a 3.8 are generally the ones who go on to win things like the Goldwater prize and Rhodes scholarships.</p>
<p>^ Does anyone know specifics about the GPA distribution? Like would a 3.8 be top 5% of the class?</p>
<p>It’s actually not that hard to get a 3.8, granted you take certain courses. If you stick with certain courses you know you excel in, it’s very feasible. For instance, I know someone who is really nothing special in terms of academic ability, but she took easy Core courses coupled with lots of upper-level language courses, which hand out many As. As a result, her GPA was very close to a 3.8.</p>
<p>However, getting a 3.8 by taking an appropriately difficult course load is… very very difficult, in my opinion. In this case, yes, I would say that only the top 5% could attain such a GPA, and probably does.</p>
<p>So if you had a mid 3.9 in a rigorous high school and maintained a similar work ethic - would you be in the 3.5-3.7 range? I know this isn’t the best question but I was just wondering.</p>
<p>For some more concrete info on this:</p>
<p>[Welcome</a> to the University of Chicago College Report Online](<a href=“http://magazine.uchicago.edu/9810/CollegeReport/seal.htm]Welcome”>Welcome to the University of Chicago College Report Online)</p>
<p>If you scroll down toward the end, you’ll see the following quote: “… the fact that Chicago itself is up to a 3.3 (B+) average GPA and a 50 percent honors rate among graduates.”</p>
<p>This article was written in the late 90s. It’s safe to say that Chicago’s average GPA has risen since then, so I’d think it’s around a 3.4 now, with, as per usual, around 50% of the graduates receiving honors. </p>
<p>Also keep in mind, there is significant disparity within the ivy-range schools in terms of grade inflation. For information on specific schools and their average gpas, go here:</p>
<p><a href=“http://gradeinflation.com/[/url]”>http://gradeinflation.com/</a></p>
<p>Here’s the info on a few of these schools from gradeinflation.com:</p>
<p>Princeton: Currently around a 3.3</p>
<p><a href=“http://gradeinflation.com/Princeton.html[/url]”>http://gradeinflation.com/Princeton.html</a> - the stats were very detailed for P’ton.</p>
<p>Brown: Currently around a 3.61 (which is insane - Brown grade inflates and Brown students benefit from having a grading system with no + or - grades)</p>
<p><a href=“http://gradeinflation.com/Brown.html[/url]”>http://gradeinflation.com/Brown.html</a></p>
<p>Dartmouth: around a 3.4</p>
<p><a href=“http://gradeinflation.com/Dartmouth.html[/url]”>http://gradeinflation.com/Dartmouth.html</a></p>
<p>Duke: around a 3.4</p>
<p><a href=“http://gradeinflation.com/Duke.html[/url]”>http://gradeinflation.com/Duke.html</a></p>
<p>Columbia: around a 3.4</p>
<p><a href=“http://gradeinflation.com/Columbia.html[/url]”>http://gradeinflation.com/Columbia.html</a></p>
<p>so this is to say that Uchicago’s level of difficulty (if we can relate average gpa to level of difficulty of school) is approximately that of princeton’s columbia’s, etc…?</p>
<p>on second thought, i don’t think a correlation like that can be made… because you also have to take into account the TYPE of students attending… among other extraneous factors.</p>
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<p>Yes, but if anything, Chicago students care LESS about grades than Princeton, Columbia, et al. Chicago students tend to be more academically-minded, but many of the students at the upper Ivies tend to care more about GPA. Overall, in terms of getting grades, Chicago’s difficulty is probably approximately equal to that of the upper Ivies. However, as I have said before, I think that Chicago’s courses (esp. in math and East Asian languages, in which I have the most experience) tend to be considerably faster-paced and deeper.</p>
<p>From my experience after a quarter, workload is probably similar to other colleges and A’s are easy to get in math/science classes but really hard in humanities. Humanities classes are usually considered easy at other colleges based on what I’ve heard.</p>
<p>How hard is it?
Very</p>