<p>Is it easy to get a 4.0 or even a 3.5 at the very least at UC Riverside?
For freshmen year and sophomore year?</p>
<p>It is difficult to achieve an overall 3.5-4.0 with minimum or no effort even at UC Riverside, unless you are a GENIUS with a high learning aptitude. Please keep in mind that this is a UC after all, and that the retention rate at UC Riverside is about 60-something percent. From experience, I can tell you that most freshman and sophomore students fare poorly in the social science courses; most of them score below 60-69% on econ and posc exams. And I’m not even going to mention their performance in the physical sciences.</p>
<p>DarkPrince is telling the truth! Just because it’s not up there on the rankings doesn’t mean this school is easy. It’s a UC and it’s still top 100 in the nation. It’s just not easy and I’m just finishing up my freshmen year. I had the misconception that it was an easy school just because it’s a lower ranking UC. Definitely a wrong thought. It took a lot of work to keep up my grade. I love this school very much.</p>
<p>@Ohhlif3: Do you like the classes? Are you getting attention you need? is it challenging enough? Btw what’s your major?</p>
<p>class difficulties are based on different factors, such as do u like the class, how much u know previously, how much u study, how smart r u, etc. But overall, it is very difficult to be in the 3.5 GPA range unless u put in the effort for it. idk about other majors so i can’t say about them, but as a cnas student (more specifically a biochem major), our orientation and my chem professor said that the average grade for most science class will be C, and that only about 1 out of 3 of every cnas student will end up with a degree in cnas</p>
<p>UCR is a top ranking school, so don’t underestimate it.</p>
<p>however…i got a 3.713 in fall while pledging, a 3.859 in winter, my cumulative is 3.791, and according to my calculations based on my current grades in classes and how confident i feel about my finals, i should get around a 3.6 this quarter. and i definitely feel like i could be trying harder. there are some classes that i rarely go to, i dont do all the reading i should, and i dont study enough.</p>
<p>From someone who’s attended both UCR and UCLA, maintaining > 3.5 at UCR is relatively very easy. The curves are usually insane. At my point of transferring, I had a 3.96 in the engineering college. I’m not bragging…my study habits were pretty crappy to be honest. The same amount of effort that earned me a 3.96 at UCR could very well earn me a 3.2-3.4 at UCLA, for example.</p>
<p>3.5 isnt just a stroll in the park. Some classes will use only three exams (2 midterms and 1 final) to determine your grade while others split the grade with many different criteria like hw, quizzes, labs, midterms, etc) It depends on the class, professor and students. Historically, Engineering majors have the lowest GPA’s, then science and humanities has the highest GPA. </p>
<p>@arcadefire1027 - Your logic might be misleading. The first two years are historically easier than the last two years. First two years you are fulfilling university requirements and the last 2 should be major requirements. A lower div class should not be treated on the same caliber of difficulty as an upper div</p>
<p>So basically, difficulty depends on major, effort and a boat of other things. HOWEVER, like people have stated, UCR IS still a UC and shouldnt be taken lightly. You dont want to be place on AP or STD in your first year.</p>
<p>3.5 can be easily doable, but it all depends on what classes you take and what your major is, as well are your inherent ability towards those classes, and also the professors you take.</p>
<p>arcadefire1027, you must’ve been a genius when you were at UCR. I didn’t really have a good study habit either but I only got a 3.4 gpa even though I studied almost 24/7 during spring quarter. i’m a computer engineering major and I was taking CS14, PHYS 40B, MATH 9C, and PHIL 001… and CS 14 is the class that screwed me over 
Anyways, 3.96 as an engineering major is really rare :O</p>
<p>synatribe: Nah my logic is fine. I’ve taken lower division courses and upper division courses at both schools. The difference in a typical class average between the two schools is huge. </p>
<p>I’m not saying it’s EASY (it’s not easy anywhere). Compared to the only other school I’ve been to though, it’s RELATIVELY very easy. I’m not saying I just strolled through all my classes at UCR. It might be equally difficult as a bunch of other schools, but not UCLA and other such schools.</p>
<p>Everything is relative. In this situation, it is relative to an individual’s capacity to learn, relative to an individual’s previous experiences, and so on. </p>
<p>arcadefire1027, I think synatribe wanted to illustrate the fact that you cannot conduct a fair comparison of the two considering the fact that you are comparing different courses, at different times, and so on. It may be the case–and reasonable to believe–that the curve at UCLA and other institutions is not as steep as UCR because of the caliber of students that are recruited. However, what about courses that do not offer curves?</p>
<p>Generally speaking, when people ask a question like this, they are not geniuses and want to know if they can attain their goal with minimum effort. And based on these two assumptions, we can respond with a simple “no”.</p>
<p>Well, in absolute terms, it’s far from “easy” to get above a 3.5. I will concede this. But I have to admit that after going to another school, I really miss the curves at UCR. And sometimes it makes me feel bitter haha</p>
<p>Hahaha… It is too bad. You are competing with a larger pool of high caliber students. But is that not what you wanted when you decided to transfer to UCLA? One of my professors who graduated from Harvard once said to us that “it is better to be a big fish in a small pond, than to be a small fish in a big pond.” Despite that advice, at times I wished that I had better competition at UCR, because I believe that stronger competition pushes you to become better.</p>
<p>I don’t regret my choice at all…except during finals week. At UCR, I walked into half my tests “feeling” unprepared (not being truly unprepared, but you know) and still came out with A’s. If I feel like that here, I’m screwed.</p>
<p>arcadefire1027, aren’t you a CS major? I believe CS classes don’t have curves… how were you able to achieve such high GPA? Are the CS classes easy compared to the CS classes at UCLA?</p>
<p>The intro CS courses don’t have curves, but most of the classes I took during my first two years weren’t straight CS classes. A lot of physics, math, etc.</p>
<p>How was I able to? I dunno…doing what I had to do pretty much. The CS courses are easy compared to the CS courses at UCLA, but there are exceptions. I found CS 61 at UCR incredibly difficult, for example.</p>
<p>Oh my… I can understand why CS 61 at UCR is incredibly difficult. I’ve heard a lot of stories about that class.</p>
<p>And Dark Prince: Would you know anything about Phi Beta Kappa and how they calculate transfer student GPA’s as well?</p>
<p>linoch: Yeah…I’d say avoid it, but if you’re CS you can’t!</p>