So on average, how well do people do their first year?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Los Angeles
1

<p>I guess this is a bit tough to answer since you know Engineers will probably have lower GPAs than a Psychology major, though not necessarily meaning the Engineer didn't do as well. I'm just curious how people usually do their first year I guess. Plus I'm just a bit disappointed at my grades >.<</p>

<p>My first quarter I took classes like Math, Chem, Cluster, and I ended up with a 2.68 overall (2 C+, 1 B+).</p>

<p>Second quarter I took 1 Poli Sci and 2 History classes and ended up with an overall of 3.1 (2 B+, 1 A)</p>

<p>Third Quarter I took 1 Poli Sci and 2 History classes again and ended up with an overall of 3.35 (1 B+, 2 A)</p>

<p>I thought it was decent considering I started off as Psychobiology and then switched to double majoring in Poli Sci and History my Winter Quarter (I know, I got "weeded" out from Chem, haha). It's improvement...but still disappointing to see when practically all of my friends have like 3.7-3.9 (except Engineers) and it makes me think "Man...is 3.3 really bad? =("</p>

<p>Or is it at least average? And yeah yeah I know there are people doing worse than me and stuff and I should be thankful that I have a 3.3, but hey I just want to do the best I can possibly do right?</p>

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<p>bump10char</p>

3

<p>I think that’s a pretty decent gpa. I wouldn’t be too hard on myself. Just try harder next year. Just out of curiosity, did you take the engineering math and chem classes or the premed?</p>

4

<p>I took the premed series, like Chem14A with Lavelle and stuff.</p>

5

<p>I’m sorry, but why are some kids at UCLA pulling such low GPA’s?</p>

<p>Aren’t these the kids that got in with GPA’s around 4.5 and had near perfect SAT scores? Oh, and don’t forget about how they played varisty basketball/volleyball, volunteered 300 hours, and were president of their class. </p>

<p>By no means am I trying to be mean or offensive, but seriously, I didn’t think UCLA was going to be THAT much harder, to where once perfect students seem below average at this university. </p>

<p>Maybe it has to do with your major, and how kids aren’t as motivated anymore once they’re in college.</p>

6

<p>Well if you want MY opinion, here it is.</p>

<p>High school was honestly a breeze for me. Out of 400 kids in my class, only about 15 were competitive for wanting to be in the Top 10 and stuff. In truth, there wasn’t much competition, it was easier simply for the fact that most people didn’t try and didn’t care. For me anyways, I guess you can it was a lot more laid back. At the UCLA, the environment is different whereas everybody in your class, almost all 4000 or 5000 or whatever of your classmates were in the Top 10 of their high school class.</p>

<p>Another thing is that…well in my opinion, I think UCLA is just that much harder. I don’t know what high school you came from, but the coursework in mine was nothing. I was able to do my homework and study for exams the night before and still bust out A’s. Simply enough, high school wasn’t really school for me until I hit my senior year and took 5 AP classes. I guess you can I just wasn’t expecting UCLA to be all that intense.</p>

<p>I can also say the study habits I had in high school were very different from the ones I now have in college. For one, high school you don’t have to memorize as much! So like for math classes, we’d usually go over 1 chapter and then have a “test” on it after we cover it, which was usually after 2-3 weeks. At UCLA, it was more like we cover 4 chapters and then have one mega test on it within 3 weeks (midterms). Simply college puts in more work and offers less time.</p>

<p>Lastly, but not least, I’m going to say simply I had bad time management. Back in high school, after class I would usually have tennis practice or stay after school for an hour or two to hang out with friends, and then go home and watch some TV. I’d usually start on homework around 6 or 7 and finish within a couple of hours. Oh and weekends, yeah I never did any homework on the weekends unless I actually had something due Monday. Even then I worked on it Sunday night. That same habit passed on to college. Yeah well, unlike high school, college didn’t have the same results. Those weekends where I did nothing usually ended up in disastrous homework, paper, and midterm scores as I could have utilized that weekend to study more or work more. Plus, during that first quarter of college, I was more enthusiastic about going out to clubs/organizations, going to football games, integrating with the LA social life, and exploring LA more than anything. Having so much independence and seemingly free time (come on, you’re in class for 2-4 hours a day and you’re done) you’re tempted to just have fun!</p>

<p>I don’t know, those were the issues I’ll say I had dealing with first quarter when I transitioned from high school. I guess you can even say I kinda didn’t give that much of a crap about academics until the first quarter grades came in and I finally decided to try and step it up a notch. I have an upward trend, so you can see how scared I get and how that affects me haha.</p>

<p>Snypajy, did you just graduate from high school? Cause I think it’s usually very obvious that college is nothing like high school.</p>

<p>Oh and also, yeah the majors do matter. Let’s face it, Engineers take hard crazy classes that have ridiculous grading scales while History majors like myself…well…HAHAHA!!</p>

7

<p>studying on weekends? are you crazy?</p>

8

<p>This. I went from a 4.05 GPA in h.s. to a 2.2 GPA with a likely A, B, and D this quarter.</p>

<p>EDIT: It didn’t quote post 6, but that’s what I was referring to.</p>

9

<p>I’m transferring this Fall from a community college in the LA area. </p>

<p>I was a pretty smart kid in high school, but I didn’t give a rats about my grades. I didn’t even know what “GPA” meant until the end of eleventh grade (seriously). I really didn’t try. I was too busy playing halo all day, everyday.</p>

<p>I bought a purple SAT book that had like 11 practice tests, and I did a couple of questions from two of the tests from random sections, and that was it. I scored in the 1800’s, but I’m sure I would’ve done way better if I studied/prepared the way I do now. </p>

<p>I was and still am an extremely competitive person. But at the time, I didn’t care much about high school. I didn’t know anything about college or how to get in. My parents never talked about it with me, but I don’t blame them. They never had a chance to go to college. </p>

<p>Not until the summer after I completed my junior year did I realize how much time I had wasted throughout high school. I went to a high school in Atlanta, and I had visited my cousins who live in California (one of my cousins at the time went to UCLA). One day I went with him to class, and that’s when it hit me. </p>

<p>That following year, I took every possible AP course that could fit my schedule, and I actually pulled an A+ in every class that year. However, it was too late. Even though my GPA was rising, it made little to no difference overall because of how terrible I had done the past three years. </p>

<p>At the end of my senior year, my classmates started getting acceptances to various schools. Cornell, UMICH, Duke, Yale, Stanford, UGA, UNC, GT, and other known schools. </p>

<p>I had wasted a great opportunity to make something out of myself. Later that week, I did some research, and I realized I had a second chance. I decided to move to the Los Angeles area, where I would hopefully transfer to UCLA (my dream school at the time). </p>

<p>So I ended up going to a random community college in the area, where I finished IGETC (all GE requiremnts), the Honors program, participated in various clubs, volunteered at the hospital, and had completed most of my major requirements to transfer. I ended my two years with a 4.0, and I won the Regents Scholarship for the remaining two years at UCLA.</p>

<p>My community college experience was interesting to say the least. I saved an immense amount of money going to a two year college because I was considered out of state. You are consider an in state resident for tuition purposes after you live in California for one year and one day. Most of my classes were stupid. I was the most competitive student in all of my classes. I had semi good professors (though I had two exceptional ones). I didn’t have the greatest experience, but in any case, the community college system gave me a second chance for which I am forever grateful. </p>

<p>So now you know why I asked you that question. </p>

<p>This time around, I am preparing for the future. I have a mindset of achieving a lot, and I know how important it is to keep good grades. I’m sure I will easily make new friends and fit well with the UCLA crowd, BUT I’m not sure how I will do academically.</p>

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<p>youre a regents. we regents never do poorly.</p>

<p>dont be too afraid of ucla. my first quarter was actually my best one so far even though 100% of people claimed it would be hell. i came here expecting to study all day every day, and even still i just cram before tests. im doing great too. for some classes ive only needed an ~hour to study (arts and architecture, physics 6A, chem 14BL). i have tons of free time, and i enjoy it.</p>

<p>but then again, youre gonna be tackling upper divs, and i dont really know too much about the difficulty of upper divs. might be easy, might be hard…either way, take everything with a grain of salt.</p>

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<p>On average how many (what percentage of ) students receive A’s in the science class?</p>

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<p>depends on how strict the curving is. LS classes tend to follow a bell curve, where 15% get As. otherwise, if you do well, you do well. getting 10 points above average is a good place to start.</p>

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<p>Within the 15% who get A’s, how are the A+, A, and A- distributed.</p>

14

<p>…i know you want to become a doctor, but you’re getting slightly neurotic about them grades now. </p>

<p>A+ not really given out; they’re more of a “feel good” thing, as it does nothing for GPA. Majority of grades are usually As (esp. in LS classes with straight curves), but A- vary depending on what cutoff the professor sets.</p>

15

<p>Haha gotcha. I’m just curious. All these stories on this forum is starting to really scare me.</p>

16

<p>its tempting, but comparing yourself to others can easily be a trap. time management will be key. prepare in advance, don’t fall too far behind on lectures, don’t begin to study the night before…etc. i suppose one of the major reasons why people get all these low grades is that you have a lot of freedoms in college; you just don’t exercise the academic ones very well, like going to office hours, taking advantage of tutoring, setting aside your newfound time for studying, etc. </p>

<p>GPA isn’t everything. ECs, volunteer, community service, MCAT, research, LOR, interviews also matter. GPA and MCAT are only important for primaries; once you get past that, you also have to differentiate yourself from all the other similarly performing applicants. </p>

<p>going back to MCAT studying now,
Jinobi</p>

17

<p>Thanks for the advice.</p>