<p>Is Stern really hard? If I get into Stern, I intend to major in Finance and International Business. Will I have to work really hard my junior and senior year? How is the work load? Is it really difficult to maintain a 3.5 or above gpa. Any other info about the professors and about stern in general will be helpful. Thank you.</p>
<p>You would be real lucky to break a 3.3</p>
<p>I have to respectfully disagree quakerman. I made a quick Excel spreadsheet, went off what I got my first year, and how hard I know most of the intro classes to be from friends (and that is...not hard). Put mostly A's, A-'s, and B+'s depending on the class. A's are mainly for the liberal arts electives and MAP courses, which, with the exception of WtE and ConWest, are basically gimmes. The rest are spread according to the difficulty of the class. Now, if you are a finance major (the hardest one) and get nothing but straight B's in finance courses (around average on the curve), I averaged a cum. GPA of 3.77. Obviously this isn't for everyone and sure there are plenty of problems with my model. But the point is, it CAN be done and it's not nearly as hard to get a good GPA at Stern as people think. The trick is do REALLY well in your liberal arts classes, and then you have a cushion for those curved classes.</p>
<p>even if you get all Bs in the financ classes you still have tough classes like financial and managerial accounting, that are just as bad. good luck though.</p>
<p>Okay, say Bs in those too. 6 credits isn't going to swing you down past a 3.3 if you're keeping up with everything else. Also, for anyone interested in actually seeing where the Stern curve came from, here is the memo (let Office Space quotes commence):</p>
<p>This is actually only for the Finance department, but since most Sternies become finance majors, it has become known as the Stern curve. There are some other classes that also follow this curve, i.e. Statistics.</p>
<p>Right...stats too is another tough one. If you can, try to take the CAS version if you are allowed-it is considerably easier than the Stern version. The thing is these classes are not that difficult themselves (like any college course), it is when you take 3-4 stern classes at the same time that it kills you. Freshman year is a breeze, soph year is pretty easy too (lots of liberal arts easy classes), but junior and senior years are where it gets hard.</p>