<p>Im a rising Senior in HS and wondering how hard it is to maintain a 4.0 in college in comparison to HS
I'll probably be going to UCSD and majoring in Neuroscience/Biology
Another question...how hard is it to get into that major</p>
<p>THanks a lot</p>
<p>If you love to learn and really interested in your major like me, then you'll probably get all A's. If not then close to it. I've had a 4.0 for the 4 semesters I've been in college so far.</p>
<p>It varies from college to college - some places have massive grade inflation while others are known for consistantly low GPA's (ie no inflation or even grade deflation)</p>
<p>Thanks
any UCSD students have input</p>
<p>dont count on it, something will come up</p>
<p>who’s the ETS?</p>
<p>^ The people that bring you standardized testing.</p>
<p>I think in general, it is a lot harder to maintain a 4.0 in college, but of course that depends on the grading system/inflation of a school.</p>
<p>Obviously not from personal experience, but most people will have at least one class where they don't do as well as they wanted to. I agree with "something will come up".</p>
<p>adconard: do you have a alife? Have you been able to acheive that delicate balance between academics and social life or are you just a roach that studies all day? Just interested.</p>
<p>I kept my 4.0 'til my Junior year... lost it to an A- (3.7). Probably the most liberating thing that ever happened to me. I worked HARD for my 4.0... and I gave up a lot of things that I now regret. I don't mean parties, but life experiences. You miss a lot when you're shut in your room trying to get that 92% up to a 93%. The one thing I wish I could tell incoming students is to get out of the mindset that your GPA is the all-important thing that you think it is in high school. That's not to say it isn't important, but so are the things you do outside of school. If you're thinking about grad school, research, research, research. You'd be better off with a 3.5 and research experience than a 4.0 with none. Same goes for interning. </p>
<p>Then there is the problem of the mindset you get into when you're concerned about keeping your 4.0. So many people start thinking about that number instead of what they're learning. I started to several times, but I was (am) fortunate enough to have a mentor who always brought me back to reality, sometimes quite harshly. You will see that if you are very good at analysis-under-pressure, you can get an A on a test without really learning anything, but that's the easy way out. I just can't even tell you how easy it is to start caring only about that stupid number instead of learning, and that's not the point of higher education. Instead of focusing on a 4.0, concentrate on learning to the best of your ability. You'll be a lot happier.</p>
<p>theres a lot high achievers at ucsd with the same high school credentials as you... and you have to score above all of them on exams and stuff to maintain your 4.0 if you score the same as them like on the curve your gonna average a b-/c+ gpa</p>
<p>
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adconard: do you have a alife? Have you been able to acheive that delicate balance between academics and social life or are you just a roach that studies all day? Just interested.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Somewhat of a life. I try and get out once or twice a week. I'm going to work on getting out more next year though. I've been through a lot of personal issues in the last few years that makes it real hard for me to socialize with other people but I think I'm starting to get to the point where I can be a little more comfortable around other people. In high school I rarely went out because I had severe depression and even ran away from home, etc all of that crap etc. Anyway I hate to go on about my personal life on here but that's one reason why I've become this way. But there's always the ability to change.</p>
<p>Seriously though, if you have a passion for learning and your major then you will be fine even if you aren't inside studying as much.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, and it can be argued that a 'roach' as you 'nicely' put it could be someone that's the complete opposite too: goes off and parties every night and never does anything constructive with their life at all. And then they wonder why they feel so empty and incomplete inside afterwards.</p>
<p>what school do you go? or at least how good is it...</p>
<p>Yeah I'd rather be a study roach than a party roach</p>
<p>SSV: Thanks for the advice I think I would really come in handy.
I was also thinking of getting a mentor , but not sure.</p>
<p>oh adconard, i had no idea. Sorry if I offended you, it just seemed weird that someone did have a 4.0 (it shouldn't have, really, cuz this IS CC...). </p>
<p>SSV: I think i will need that mentor too. How can I concentrate on learning when med school/graduate schools emphasize the GPA. I've read posts saying that GPA matters more in college than in high school, and that E.C.s are less important in college. I would think u want to maximize your point that med schools look at, no?</p>
<p>THE ETS IS EVIL (haha, can't just quote you without saying that =))- have you checked out the UCSD lvejournal? </p>
<p><a href="http://www.livejournal.com/community/ucsd/%5B/url%5D">http://www.livejournal.com/community/ucsd/</a></p>
<p>Might give you more specific info since it's oriented directly for UCSD.</p>
<p>cJgrl05, Eclipsed, definitely get a mentor. I can't imagine what my life would have been like without mine. </p>
<p>I understand where you're coming from Eclipsed. I should say that I didn't mean slack off and get bad grades. Learning for learning's sake should translate out to good grades most of the time. I just think there needs to be a shift in perspective. </p>
<p>Because my parents had me when they were teenagers, I was a teenager myself when my father went to med school and got to see the process for myself. My father earned a perfect 4.0 in college and did very well on the MCAT, but he only got accepted into two med schools, and they weren't the ones he wanted. The reason was that all he had were his grades and his MCAT. He didn't have anything that showed a passion for becoming a doctor. He didn't have awesome recommendation letters and he only had the minimum amount of volunteer hours. There was absolutely nothing to set him apart from the rest. I once met someone from the school my dad really wanted to go to, and while he wouldn't have been in my dad's class, he was really close. I think he was the year after. Anyway, both his GPA and his MCAT were lower than my dad's, but he had spent his five years of college (yeah, it takes that long now) volunteering in low income medical clinics. He was devoted to bringing medical care to the poor and planned to do that after his residency. He had letters, he had experience, he had it all. And in the end, he got in and someone with a 4.0 didn't. Grades are important, but they aren't everything. Looking at a long list of A's in everything from English Lit to O-Chem isn't going to tell an adcom committee anything about you. If one is planning on practicing medicine, one should volunteer in a hospital or clinic. If one is planning on researching, he or she should volunteer as research assistant. That says something.</p>
<p>Another problem with focusing solely on GPA is what happens when you lose that 4.0. I can guarantee you, you're not going to get perfect grades in med school, or law school, or wherever. There's maybe one person in a decade who does, and chances are you or I or anyone here are not that person. My dad had a hard time with this in med school, and ended up on anti-depressants. A lot of people washed out of his program. It was weird for me to see his friends start disappearing one by one. If you have no other reason to do what you do besides your grade, you don't have anything to keep you there when you lose your perfection and have to keep going. </p>
<p>A bunch of my friends graduated last June. Shortly before graduation, a bunch of us got together for what turned out to be a really emotional evening. Those who were graduating were moving on to some very good law schools and grad schools, internships, and one even got a real job. We made several toasts that evening, and the very last one was, "to our naivety, when we thought our GPAs actually mattered!" </p>
<p>Don't slack off: do your best. But stop thinking in terms of getting a 4.0, and start thinking in terms of learning. 4.0s go away, and so does their importance. Employers don't ask for your GPA. Grad schools look at your test scores, writing samples (if applicable), recommendation letters, and relevant experience in addition to your GPA -- they're not going to not accept people for the crime of not having a 4.0. Knowledge, however, does not go away, nor does its importance. I mentioned earlier that there were times when I had trouble focusing on learning instead of the A. I am good at cramming, writing a brilliant analysis on a test, and then forgetting it all. I look at my tests from those times when I slipped and cared only about the A, and it's like a stranger wrote them. I certainly don't remember any of it, and what good does that do me? What purpose does the A I got on those tests serve me? I've had to go back and study that material, and I wish I would have done it right the first time. </p>
<p>And I have to say, learning for learning's sake still gets me damn good grades. ;-)</p>
<p>I don't bust my tail off that bad to get all A's. It just seems to happen really. I mean I do more work than neccessary but that's just my nature. Always striving to work to my potential in anything in life. I've been looking around lately for internships and things like that to increase my chances of getting a job later on rather than depending on my 4.0. That is indeed silly. I also plan on joining organizations for my field. And absolutely, learning for the sake of learning will pretty much get you straight A's anyway. If not, then mostly all A's and B's.</p>