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<p>Absolutely. What’s more, it’s possible to not to go to college at all and still be successful in life.</p>
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<p>The graduation rate says nothing about the rigor or difficulty of a school. You have to take into account the composition of the student body in your analysis. Maybe not at a small liberal arts school, but at a top research school, as I’ve found out, professors really don’t hold hand all that much either.</p>
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<p>On the contrary, many top schools want their graduation rates to be higher in order to attract more students. You’ll rarely hear of someone failing out of Harvard, but hearing about someone failing out of GA Tech? It’s so commonplace it’s not even noteworthy. In fact, even MIT has instituted a pass/no record policy for their first years in order to help with the transition from HS to college, a level of attention and care that simply isn’t very common in most engineering schools (or in fact, in most schools period, especially state schools).</p>
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<p>georgia tech is known to be one of the hardest schools GPA wise. Harvard on the other hand is known to have pretty extreme grade inflation, haven’t you ever heard of the gentleman’s B?</p>
<p>Don’t forget that the ones accepted into Harvard are more likely so succeed. I know this is a very general and subjective statement. But, obviously Harvard thinks they are up to the challenge with a 4.0 GPA, 2300+ SAT, and a ridiculous resume. The one who goes to a state school is still smart, but won’t have a research project by the time they graduate HS.</p>
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<p>Ouch :(. I can say so much right now to refute this statement, but since that will probably take me half an hour to write it all out, I think I’ll leave the argument where it is instead.</p>
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<p>Actually, if you knew the slightest thing about the student body, you’d bite your tongue before uttering this completely foolish statement. </p>
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<p>Honey, the historically correct term is the gentleman’s C.</p>
<p>That point aside, there is no “extreme grade inflation.” Please put your head back up your ass.</p>
<p>kthxbi</p>
<p>I’ve decided where I want to go to college too!</p>
<p>Oh wait, no, I’ve changed my mind again. ;)</p>
<p>Yeah, GaTech is probably one of the toughest schools in the nation (for many reasons). Here are a few:</p>
<p>1) It is not quite as selective as MIT or Caltech, but just as hard, so the kids who are not naturally bright and don’t put in the work fail out fast.
2) Most students are engineers, so pretty much 75% of students are *****ing about the workload, not just the 15% of students at other state flagships who major in engineering.
3) The professors don’t mind seeing you fail (as discussed above).</p>
<p>I think it is good wherever you want to go as long as you feel comfortable and sure with your decision. Good Luck!</p>
<p>Eh, I’m pretty sure GA tech would still be easier than harvard</p>
<p>Right now im a sophomore, and my dream is NYU but i know it wont happen. maybe one of the UC’s or U of Arizona</p>
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<p>Parental unwillingness to pay isn’t usually factored into what’s considered “need”.</p>
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<p>How old is this phrase? The average GPA at Harvard has climbed by about a point in the last 100 years, so maybe it’s a little anachronistic.</p>
<p>It gets a little old hearing how “generous” the Ivies are. Sure. If your parents make less than 150K a year. But many professional families with multiple children who aren’t the recipients of inheritances look at full tuition with shock and horror. My kids chose the big scholarships and honors programs at other high quality state schools as well. Judging on the increasing scores at the State flagships, the proliferation of honors programs, and the increasing affluence at the prominent state schools, it’s a common phenomenon.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t agree with the statement that you’d be overqualified for an Honors College.</p>
<p>I’m planning on going to my state university (I got my letter today!). But the Honors college has pretty high standards…</p>
<p>“The mid-range of scores–between 25% and 75% of all scores–for the 2009 Freshman class was between 1350 and 1440 (SAT critical reading and math) and between 31 and 33 on the ACT. The average weighted GPA was 4.55. Higher SAT or ACT scores can offset lower grades vice versa.”</p>
<p>Considering that you can’t really get a GPA much beyond a 4.5, due to the weighting of arts/non-AP classes, that’s pretty high.</p>
<p>I have friends applying to ivy-league schools and they said that they were pretty sure that the USC Honors App was one of the hardest apps out there and that it’s a competitive program.</p>
<p>Any Honors College for a decent school can be pretty prestigious.</p>
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<p>I just got the idea of grade inflation from this thread:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-2013/808808-how-difficult-succeed-harvard.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-2013/808808-how-difficult-succeed-harvard.html</a></p>
<p>where a harvard student said that “it is hard to get As, but even harder to not get a B.”</p>
<p>Then I read this article:</p>
<p>[A</a> Gentleman’s ‘B+’ | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1993/3/15/a-gentlemans-b-pbwbere-smart-were/]A”>A Gentleman's 'B+' | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson)</p>
<p>and it said that the grade inflation is due to the student body being so smart that any deviation in grading would be hard to justify</p>
<p>I personally don’t get the fascination with Ivies. Haven’t things like the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, etc done studies that found that employers generally prefer students at state colleges compared to the Harvards?</p>
<p>ppl who get into ivies are geniuses with 2250+ SAT and perfect grades as well as being well rounded with exceptional ECs.</p>
<p>So why would an employer not want to hire a hardworking well-rounded genius?</p>
<p>And you can say that ppl at ivies are not always hardworking well-rounded geniuses, but the admissions committee is very good at determining who is worthy of the school so it ends up at least 85%+ of the people at ivies are truly exceptional.</p>
<p>State schools obviously have exceptional students too but the percentage goes down to like 5-15% depending on the school.</p>
<p>Unless you are talking about Berkeley or Michigan or a top public, I do not have the slightest idea why an employer would hire someone from a average state school vs. an Ivy/stanford/mit</p>
<p><<<i guess=“” the=“” degree=“” would=“” get=“” people=“” to=“” think=“” i’m=“” smart=“” but,=“” i=“” don’t=“” care=“” whether=“” they=“” am=“” or=“” not=“” so,=“” can=“” just=“” prove=“” it=“” when=“” med=“” school.=“”>>></i></p><i guess=“” the=“” degree=“” would=“” get=“” people=“” to=“” think=“” i’m=“” smart=“” but,=“” i=“” don’t=“” care=“” whether=“” they=“” am=“” or=“” not=“” so,=“” can=“” just=“” prove=“” it=“” when=“” med=“” school.=“”>
<p>I don’t think you need to prove anything to anyone. You can get to medical school, from any undergraduate school or permutation of undergrad. school. It is a complete and total myth that you have to be launched from a top-ten ranked school to get into one of the higher-ranked medical schools, frankly. I attended a top-tier medical school, and there were students from Ivy-league schools as well as state schools as well as a combination of junior college/four year university. The common denominator (mostly)? We had high GPAs and high MCAT scores; a few of us had been first author on scientic papers.</p>
<p>You might also want to balance potential undergrad-med. school tuition indebtiture with steadily declining reimbursement for doctors. Recently, a private medical school published in their alum magazine that the mean debt burden for one of their graduating medical students was 190k. Something to think about when a nurse anaesthetist now makes more than a pediatrician, a gynecologist gets 300 hundred dollars for a hysterectomy, and an ophthalmologist gets 600 dollars for sight-restoring cataract surgery. And the managed care cutbacks (Medicare, etc.) are going to get worse.</p>
<p>I am not discouraging you from a career in medicine but from taking on unnecessary indebtiture if finances are, at all, a concern.</p>
<p>Good luck to you.</p>
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<p>I have had the misfortune of reading that article as well, and though I don’t entirely agree with the author, I do have to say that the output of work here is such that downgrading folks with Cs would be hard to justify, though it could certainly be done.</p>
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<p>That really depends on the class, to be honest, and the same applies at a good deal of other schools. I am taking some classes where there is no mercy, and I am taking others where there is a good deal of leeway. </p>
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<p>Perhaps it is - that’s why I used the term historically.</p>
<p>NYU or Columbia would be my dreams but itll never happen</p>