Most Difficult Schools to Graduate From?

[waznangelc]

<p>Most Engineering schools are really tough. I don’t know about dropping out but it’s hard to graduate in just 4 years. Its mostly because the workload is enormous and the courses are hard.</p>

[kyledavid80]

<p>I’m not so sure, though. I know many students in Berkeley EECS are able to finish in 3 years but stay for the 4th year just to take more classes.</p>

[tomslawsky]

<p>[National</a> Trends in Grade Inflation, American Colleges and Universities](<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com%5DNational”>http://www.gradeinflation.com)</p>

[middsmith]

<p>

I’m not so sure, though. I know many students in Berkeley EECS are able to finish in 3 years but stay for the 4th year just to take more classes.

That’s because you only need 5 upper division classes to graduate. Most people finished all the lower div + breadth requirement after 2 years.<br>
Graduating in 3 years is no problem for a lot of people, but it’s harder to find a job simply because you don’t know as much as the guy who takes 10 classes.</p>

[calicartel]

<p>

Some anecdote, my sister has a friend who transferred from UCLA to Berkeley after 2 years. She had 3.9+ from UCLA, and couldn’t break 3.3 at Berkeley for her final two years. She said the competition is just at another level. People aren’t as laid back. They fight for every single extra credit point, be it projects, tests, homework. I don’t think the competitiveness at UCLA is at the same level.

I suppose we can trade anecdotes then: A friend of mine transferred from Cal to UCLA for his junior year and saw his GPA drop from 3.4-ish to around 3.1. The following year, he transferred back to Berkeley.</p>

<p>

It’s also rather funny that UCLA supporters will call Berkeley “competitive and cutthroat” and UCLA “laid-back,” yet when Berkeley is called “rigorous,” they’re quick to make sure that UCLA is considered just as difficult.

Eh… I’d debate that a more “laid-back” (relative to Cal, at least) student culture and academic rigor are necessarily mutually exclusive…</p>

[UCBChemEGrad]

<p>

I suppose we can trade anecdotes then: A friend of mine transferred from Cal to UCLA for his junior year and saw his GPA drop from 3.4-ish to around 3.1. The following year, he transferred back to Berkeley.

You bRuins are too funny…</p>

[xjis]

<p>

I suppose we can trade anecdotes then: A friend of mine transferred from Cal to UCLA for his junior year and saw his GPA drop from 3.4-ish to around 3.1. The following year, he transferred back to Berkeley.

You bRuins are too funny…

</p>

<p>how stupid of him to transfer from Cal to UCLA in the first place . good thing he transferred back.</p>

[calicartel]

<p>

You bRuins are too funny…

Maybe. Too bad it’s still true. ;)</p>

<p>

how stupid of him to transfer from Cal to UCLA in the first place . good thing he transferred back.

And why would it be stupid of him to transfer from Cal to UCLA?</p>

[xjis]

<p>

how stupid of him to transfer from Cal to UCLA in the first place . good thing he transferred back.

And why would it be stupid of him to transfer from Cal to UCLA?

</p>

<p>so he basically went to a less-renowned school only to get worse grades. how stupid of him.</p>

<p>if you’re doing good at your current college, you either stay there or transfer to some better school; UCLA is clearly not a better school than Cal to justify such unnecessary transfer.</p>

[middsmith]

<p>The real question is, can he actually do that? transfer to UCLA and then transfer back to Cal?
Even switching major back and forth at Cal is hard enough. This is really the first time I hear being done.</p>

[calicartel]

<p>

so he basically went to a less-renowned school only to get worse grades. how stupid of him.</p>

<p>if you’re doing good at your current college, you either stay there or transfer to some better school; UCLA is clearly not a better school than Cal to justify such unnecessary transfer.

Yikes. Do you ever get dizzy, seeing as your head is stuck in the clouds like that? For the record, he did in fact transfer for a stupid reason – it was to be closer to his then-gf (which obviously didn’t help the relationship since they broke up anyway, prompting his move back north.) While UCLA isn’t better than Cal, it’s certainly not demonstrably worse enough to classify someone as “stupid” because they transferred from the former to the latter.</p>

<p>

The real question is, can he actually do that? transfer to UCLA and then transfer back to Cal?
Even switching major back and forth at Cal is hard enough. This is really the first time I hear being done.

Well, apparently it can be (and has been) done.</p>

[kyledavid80]

<p>

Quote:
It’s also rather funny that UCLA supporters will call Berkeley “competitive and cutthroat” and UCLA “laid-back,” yet when Berkeley is called “rigorous,” they’re quick to make sure that UCLA is considered just as difficult.
Eh… I’d debate that a more “laid-back” (relative to Cal, at least) student culture and academic rigor are necessarily mutually exclusive…

</p>

<p>No, they aren’t, but the way that UCLA and Berkeley are portrayed, they are.</p>

<p>Seriously, if UCLA is “laid-back,” then so is Berkeley. If Berkeley is “cutthroat,” then so is UCLA. You (impersonal) can’t pick and choose only the best adjectives to describe UCLA (or Berkeley).</p>

[xybciba]

<p>Would anyone say Carnegie Mellon is also really tough?</p>