<p>How rigorous is the engineering program aat Northwestern compared to WashU and Vanderbilt engineering. (mechanical engineering)</p>
<p>I plan on going to law school after engineering undergrad, and I've realized that I need a high GPA throughout engineering undergrad.</p>
<p>I've made the assumption that WashU engineering would be easier to maintain a higher GPA in because the E-School is not as highly ranked. Is this a safe assumption?</p>
<p>I've heard about grade deflation at Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>I have not heard anything about grading polies at Northwestern.</p>
<p>Can someone please shed light on grading in McCormick at NU. </p>
<p>I just want to know if the school has a general grade inflation of deflation trend. I'm not asking for blanket statements, but I want to know if the engineering school tries to weed kids out or makes a concerted effort to make sure their kids succeed.</p>
<p>You would probably need to be in the top 10-15% to get a 3.8+ GPA in Engineering anywhere, which is no small feat considering many students drop out of the major.</p>
<p>it can be done, but i would recommend to not have such high expectations going into mccormick. you are competing against geniuses and you will have to spend many hours in the library. from my experience there is no need for deflation because tests are usually too hard and are curved up to a B.</p>
<p>Don't choose a major based off of what you can possibly get the highest grade in. Choose an engineering major based of what you truly love, then you will succeed.</p>
<p>When I was there, envE was way more grade-inflated than chemE. It was also significantly less demanding. Interestingly, chemE undergrad at Northwestern was also more rigorous than my master in envE at Stanford. ChemEs also have to take 1 quarter of bio and 2 quarters of orgo these days, if I am not mistaken. </p>
<p>aqumarinee,
I second what Majman said. That said, I didn't hear much complain from IEMS students. Most of the whinning I heard came from chemE or EE.</p>
<p>My roommate is one of the top students at Northwestern coming in (he's one of the 12 '11ers in the Murphy Scholars program), but his GPA has been in the low 3.0's. Not good for someone shooting for a top law school.</p>
<p>My daughter is a rising junior ChE major at Vandy. She scraped by, barely passing, her 2 orgo classes. Her overall GPA is 2.7 but her GPA in her major is 3.25. If you are worried about grades that much find a different major than engineering. If it's easy you aren't learning what you need to know. This is the first time in her life she has almost failed and had to ask for help. So far that's the best education she has received.</p>
<p>Upper-level major courses are usually more grade-inflated; at least that's the case for Northwestern engineering. If Vandy operates similarly, your daughter's GPA should improve from now on.</p>
<p>I'm not overly concerned with her gpa. I want her to do as well as she can. My biggest concern is that she passes and graduates. She works hard and is stretching her limits. I can't complain about that.</p>
Engineering schools everywhere experience grade deflation compared to, for instance, a liberal arts student at the same university. That being said, most postgrad/law schools will evaluate you within the context of your school, so if you do well compared to your peers anywhere, it’ll reflect well on you as a student.