<p>Thanks parent. S aced his first semester and was given a freshman research grant for spring. We will read up on the Stanford program. It sounds like an unbelievable opportunity.</p>
<p>^^^^Impressive! Stanford is very research oriented, so they would love that if he decides to transfer. Congrats to your son!</p>
<p>Stanford does have very high grade inflation, so a GPA of 3.5 or lower there (for undergraduates) is “below average”.</p>
<p>[National</a> Trends in Grade Inflation, American Colleges and Universities](<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com%5DNational”>http://www.gradeinflation.com)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Failing three quarters or half the students per class and forcing them to repeat the courses is fabulously profitable… Especially if you pay by the credit hour and have no all-you-can-eat fixed tuition per semester…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Many of those who fail just drop out of the majors requiring those courses, so there is no “repeat” revenue. Also, public schools (which the great majority of college students attend) are not making money on their (mainly in-state) students – each repeated course, or extra semester taken to graduate, is more in-state tuition subsidy that needs to be spent on the student.</p>
<p>The revenue comes from more people taking more courses… Remember that it’s all about enrollment figures for the department in question and showing you have LOTS of students taking courses. Most people won’t drop out of engineering after a single bad Calc or Phys course. They’ll take it again and only when they realize, probably by 2nd year, that it’s hopeless, they’ll change. Or, like some of my compatriot roommates, do the 6 year program :-)</p>
<p>I do not know about premed, but if it’s anything like my friend’s kid who took 5 years incl. summers to finish a BS Chem for premed, repeating courses he received a B in to boost his GPA, then they have grade issues to worry about too. </p>
<p>At Cajun State, in addition to the profit center math/phys/chem engine, foreign students had to deal with the language profit center as well. While they would admit grad students who could not order a Burger King meal and NOT require them to take English or a placement test as long as they passed the GRE, for undergrads, one slip of the tongue (pun not intended) in the mandatory English placement test meant that one could not take real courses for a year, taking intensive English instead (things like requiring TOEFL AND a placement test once the student is in Cajun land - ditto with math).</p>
<p>Likewise, I tested out of freshman English and was told by the English department that I still had to take English 101 and 102 since I had not taken any English in college in the US… So, what’s the point of taking the placement test if you can’t skip classes via it?</p>
<p>Cajun State had even more interesting policies if one was not from the US… Going to year 3 in engineering required a GPA of 3.0 for international students, and either none or 2.5 for non-internationals… </p>
<p>The above were in place in the early to mid 1980’s, so things may have smoothed out by then… And it’s not like we were a top 200 or 20 or 2 school or anything…</p>
<p>Colleges are a lot more sinister than we give them credit for (pun?) :-)</p>
<p>"Stanford does have very high grade inflation, so a GPA of 3.5 or lower there (for undergraduates) is “below average”.</p>
<p>National Trends in Grade Inflation, American Colleges and Universities"#163ucbalumnus</p>
<p>It is interesting your frequent and oft incorrect comments. Nothing better to do? A Berkeley grad dissing Stanford. What a surprise!</p>
<p>Shrinkrap,</p>
<p>Getting into a Calculus II course in the Sacramento area could be difficult. My two sons go to Sacramento State University where the oldest is a Geology major in his third year and the youngest just finished his first semester of freshman year as a Physics major. They will probably need five years to graduate and one of the reasons for that is that CSU Sacramento does not offer any substantative courses in Math, Physics or Chemistry during the Summer session. Calculus II is Math 31 at Sacramento State and is only offered during the Fall and Spring semesters. </p>
<p>As far as Community Colleges go, I know that last summer Cosumnes River College only offered Math 400 which is Calculus I. They did not offer Math 401 which is Calculus II. I am not sure if this was also the case at other Los Rios CC district CCs such as ARC and SCC as well. Even if one were to offer a section in Math 401 it would be very unlikely that anyone not a full time Los Rios student would be able to get into the class. I do not know if UC Davis offers any Math classes during the Summer but even if they did, UC Davis is on the quarter system and it would be very difficult to transfer any credits earned there to a school on the semester system.</p>
<p>One possibility, would be taking Math X1b, which is Calculus II, online from the UC Berkeley Extension which is accepted by all other UCs, CSUs and probably most private colleges. The major problem is that they are slow at grading assignments and it would be nearly impossible to finish the course in less than four months.</p>
<p>Getting lower division courses in California public universities is a challenge these days. It took my Geologist five semesters to finish Calculus I, II and III and a semester of Differential Equations. My younger son is having better luck, testing into and getting Calculus I his first semester of Freshman year and is already registered for Calculus II and his first Physics course, Mechanics, in the coming Spring semester. He has ADHD, mild Asberger’s syndrome which can make coping with a tough major like Physics difficult but the one time he took the SAT in March of his junior year in hs he received a 720 in Math, 1380 for M +CR, which gives me some hope that he can actually earn a BS in Physics.</p>
<p>Oh wow…we are in Solano county, but I can’t imagine anything is better here. I will look in Napa too.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Incorrect? Hardly.</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/Stanford.html]Stanford[/url”>Stanford]Stanford[/url</a>] indicates that Stanford’s average GPA was 3.55 in 2005.</p>
<p>Some CC choices in Solano County:</p>
<p>Solano CC: Math 21, Physics 6
Napa Valley: Math 121, Physics 140
Diablo Valley: Math 193, Physics 130
Los Medanos: Math 60, Physics 40
Contra Costa: Math 191, Physics 130
Berkeley City: Math 3B, Physics 4A</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>Similar to what akck mentioned in post 141 we were told that the average engineering GPA at one school was a 2.8. The school also bragged about the strong employment statistics of their students. I questioned the 2.8 on the school’s CC forum and the general consensus was that this was accurate. BTW the engineering program I’m referring to is at a state U with a general engineering ranking in the top 20. I wonder if the difference between this information and Parent 1986’s is regional. I would guess that states like California with so many top schools have a tougher job market than other regions. I hope that is the case.</p>
<p>"Incorrect? Hardly.</p>
<p>Stanford indicates that Stanford’s average GPA was 3.55 in 2005. #170 UCBalumnus’"</p>
<p>So what? It is a school of SMART PEOPLE. Of course their grades are inflated - however, I am sure they grade on a curve in the engineering classes, and the IHUM and Writing requirements. You would have to examine their grading method in more detail to determine why. I am guessing that electives can raise your GPA</p>
<p>You are also quoting figures from 2005. So yes, it is incorrect. And this isn’t the only incorrect statement I have detected - I am not singling you out for kicks. It helps to be truthful. </p>
<p>Anyway, all this information is available on each schools common data set which they publish yearly.</p>
<p>Spectrum 2, I believe the Ivy’s have the reputation of grade inflation, so I don’t believe it is regional. Many parents of engineering students who have trained all over the country report their kids getting jobs in Silicon Valley. </p>
<p>Also, a below 3 ave first semester can be raised. It just becomes more difficult than most people think to raise a low GPA, so it is best to avoid it from the beginning.</p>
<p>And, if you child has worked hard all year, I think summer school in hard math and sciences is a VERY BAD IDEA.</p>
<p>They need down time to recharge for the following year, and to do internships. Going to different schools to make up major courses is also a bad idea (IMP) because individiual
programs have a cohesiveness that gets lost with classes from other schools.</p>
<p>I haven’t read thru the whole thread, but this strikes me: “We are not so worried about the money, as we are about knowing if this is the right path for him.”</p>
<p>“and was original admitted in a very different major.” What was his original major and why did he switch to engineering? </p>
<p>I could be totally wrong, but my feeling is that your gut is telling you that engineering is not the right path for your son. But if he is adamant about giving it a go, I would set him up with three required courses in engineering and two courses outside of the major where he might explore other interests. You don’t want to be thinking woulda / coulda / shoulda two years down the road. Who cares if he is behind or trying to catch up or whatever. I wouldn’t even be thinking beyond next semester.</p>
<p>
I wouldn’t worry about the down time, but I certainly would not do both physics and calculus simultaneously as summer courses. Back-to-back possibly, but not at the same time. Summer courses tend to cram everything into a super short time and it is a full-time effort just to get through one hard subject.</p>
<p>At a semester system school, a summer session is typically 8 weeks, or about half the length of a normal 15 week semester. So a course goes twice as fast – but the student would typically take only half as many courses or credits. So a summer session with two courses would be about the same amount of work as a full course load during a regular semester.</p>
<p>I’ve always felt that the math and science courses were better absorbed with more time. I took a few accounting courses at Boston College a long time ago - the courses were three weeks each - I never tried that again - it’s not worth it to essentially lose your summer.</p>
<p>There are some schools in the Boston area with 12-week summer semesters. I think that’s a better way to do summer school but most schools do 6 or 8 weeks.</p>
<p>I am still following; thank you all. With regard to the original major, it was television and film production. He applied to about 15 schools for engineering, and in the last few months before applications where due, about being a " television actor". He had no experience in television orating, but I read about the school here, and told him about it, admittedly with a great deal of ambivalence. Getting into that school, and that program, seemed a spectacular, reach, but got in. We visited the school once, really didn’t have enough time to learn about the major, which was DEFINITELY not acting, so we asked if he could be admitted to the school of engineering, and they said yes. </p>
<p>I have gotten feedback about this before, but I would be pretty ambivalent about him going to this school for television production. But that’s for another thread.
With regard to summer school, I remember taking science classes in summer at least all summer, for two summers. I don’t remember what happened the third semester, but I’m sure I never “recharged”. But I know the students and the times are different. </p>
<p>Is it common to get internships between freshman and sophmore year.</p>