<p>Hey guys, I'm thinking about attending Cal with a T14 law school in mind in the long run. I'm aware the Berkeley is intense in competition and it's hard to get a high GPA, but I'm wondering how bad it is for social science majors specifically, especially polisci. Would Cal be ok for someone going on to law school?</p>
<p>Well there are no curves in poli sci classes (or if there are, I haven’t heard of it), so A work is A work. And sometimes B work is A work (or vice versa), depending on the class, haha.</p>
<p>^^ Basically. In most social science/humanities majors there is no explicit curve. If you’re good, you’re good. To my understanding this is the case in political science, though it is possible there is an “implicit” curve. In philosophy, the GSI’s I’ve talked to say they are instructed to give grades that roughly follow something like top 10% receive A’s, next 15% A-'s, next 25% B+'s, the rest B’s (or worse).</p>
<p>What would be the average GPA among polisci majors? Do professors often deflate?</p>
<p>This is a first. Never heard of anyone freaking out about poli sci being hard. Berkeley must have a scary rep amongst high schoolers…</p>
<p>Anyway, in terms of the curve, none of the social sciences have hard caps on GPA (unless you count Haas, which curves to a 3.3.) Sociology would be pretty lenient. So is history. Usually you’ll get your highest grades in the classes you find most interesting. So if you like poli sci, go for it. You’ll get good grades. The professors aren’t actively trying to fail you.</p>
<p>If you’re thinking just poli sci because it’s a “pre-law” major or something, though, that’s the wrong idea. Law schools really, really don’t care what your undergraduate degree is in. Law is a unique subject. Everyone starts at the beginning. There are Dance majors at Harvard Law. Just pick what you like, and what you think you can do well in.</p>
<p>Berkeley definitely has a scary rep amongst high schoolers. Haha
The reason I was asking was because people advise against doing pre-med at Cal, since it’s so hard to get a high enough GPA for med school… I was wondering if it’s the same way for kids who plan to go onto law.</p>
<p>Anyway, thanks for the advice! And on a side note, I love politics, so I’d enjoy polisci… but honestly, at the same time, I’m really interested in other subjects as well (especially rhetoric and IR). So idk, I still have time to figure out which major I want to ultimately declare.</p>
<p>Sorry but what do you mean by majors having hard caps on curves? As in they have lenient curves?</p>
<p>No, I think hard caps make the curve harder because they basically limit the amount of A’s being given (ie, 20% of the class gets As, 30% Bs, etc.) Or at least, that’s what I’ve gathered…</p>