Is CGS A Good GPA Booster?

<p>I hear earning an A is much easier in CGS especially if you have been an honors/ap student throughout highschool. I’m not saying I heard it was extremely easy but much easier compared to the other colleges in BU. Is this true? Also is there a grade deflation problem in CGS aswell? or is that only in the main colleges at BU?</p>

<p>If you can get into your first choice school why would you choose to go through CGS?</p>

<p>What? haha. I haven’t applied yet I’m considering CAS or CGS. I might just do CGS since I haven’t decided on a major and I would like to start my freshman and sophomore years with a good GPA. Although I’m curious as to how easy CGS Courses are.</p>

<p>Well I cannot attest to “how easy” CGS courses are as I attended CAS, although many of my friends said CGS courses were shockingly hard (years ago, I am an alum) and noted that some CGS classes were harder than CAS classes. My guess is that this reflects a difference in age, I struggled in 100 level classes as a freshman and breezed through some 400 levels as a senior. </p>

<p>The real thing is, who decides to go to a school just to pad their GPA? That just seems silly. And furthermore CGS can be very restrictive (which is usually the biggest complaint I heard from my CGS alum peers). They are limited in their elective choices and often complained that when as juniors they entered their major, they were behind their peers. Business and engineering students had it the worse due to the large number of in major classes they needed to take (and couldn’t as CGS students). They often needed summer classes or overloaded just to finish on time.</p>

<p>My advice, don’t apply to CGS because you want to pad your GPA. Actually check out the school’s program and see if it interests you. It has a very cool history and interesting philosophy. For some students, who want a broad liberal arts foundation before focusing on a major, the school is perfect. But if you want to figure out your major by taking more specific classes (german philosophy verse a broader “western thought” type class) CGS will limit that.</p>

<p>To me, college is not about the numbers, nor about easy classes. Look we all take an easy class here and there, especially when the other courses in a semester are brutal (I’ll admit that I took “rocks for jocks” to fill my lab requirement, I am not a “science person”), but you shouldn’t base two years of education based on “easiness of classes”.</p>

<p>Well, OP, you said you were an honors student. So I didn’t know why you would consider applying to CGS when you’d have a good shot of getting into CAS.</p>

<p>Yeah well I’m not taking it for an easy GPA. Sadly the numbers do matter though considering I may go into medicine meaning I need a very high GPA. I am not the brightest person around either even though I plan on working hard. I have researched CGS quite a bit and I am hearing mixed opinions on the difficulty of the program.</p>

<p>Three words: Crayons, Glue, Scissors.</p>

<p>Getting a high GPA won’t mean anything you know if you don’t know the material as well as everyone else. In CGS, from what I hear, you get little leeway in what you can take. Wouldn’t that put you behind people that took tons more advanced science classes? Will you still have room later for all the classes you need?</p>

<p>Yeah I should be able to still graduate in four years. I’m not sure if I’m going into pre-med or majoring in Biology so CGS should help me figure out what I would like to do.</p>

<p>Also I’m pretty sure I will know the material very well. People that have posted on these boards saying they went to CGS found transfering to other colleges in BU after saying that they were well prepared.</p>

<p>How will CGS help you decide? You won’t be taking the pre-med courses in CGS so you won’t be able to decide until you get out of CGS.</p>

<p>The CGS “core” is now 3 courses per semester so you can actually take one elective each semester.</p>

<p>Wait OP, you said you are trying to decide between pre-med and biology?</p>

<p>Well that is an easy decision, because at BU pre-med is not a major. One must have another major to graduate. This is why pre-meds at BU take so many classes “in major,” they are taking the 12 or so classes needed to graduate plus extra courses for pre-med (the amount of overlap depends on the student’s major)</p>

<p>You definitely want to go to CAS if you can over CGS. Especially if you’re pre-med. Because you would have to redo the science/math classes most people do their freshman and sophomore years during your junior and senior years. You will also DIE cramming all your science classes in your junior and senior years. Really bad idea. And having CGS courses for your 1st 2 years, even if you get a good GPA, will not look as great on your transcript as having regular CAS classes.</p>

<p>And yeah you don’t have to choose between pre-med and biology. A LOT of biology majors ARE pre-med. Its probably the most popular major there is for pre-meds.</p>