<p>Hey everyone,
So I'm close to finishing my first year at the University of Chicago. My time here has been wonderful, and I have made many friends and learned a great deal. </p>
<pre><code> However, one aspect does concern me: my low GPA.
</code></pre>
<p>So far, the classes I've taken are (and the grades received):
1st term
Intro to Macroecon: B
Calc I: B
French 201: B+
Humanities: A-</p>
<p>2nd term
Intro to Microecon: A-
Calc II: B
some science for non majors: B+
Humanities: B- </p>
<p>This term I'm in Calc III, linear algebra, and statistics.
I feel very sad about the ridiculous amounts of B's I have. I study so hard, yet have such a lousy GPA. I really want to go to a Ph.D program in economics (I'm talking top places for economics like Harvard, Berkeley, Chicago, Minnesota, NYU etc.) and obviously this is no where near good enough.</p>
<p>Can someone give me some advice and/or console me? Maybe someone who's gone through the pain of low grades first year and bounced up second year and beyond?
If you have improved your academic performance from your first year, can you elaborate on how you did it? </p>
<p>There is always next term. If you can improve your grades from now on, your GPA can quite possibly balance out. Don’t stress yourself over it. What’s done is done, you can’t change the past, you can only change yourself to make sure your past doesn’t repeat in your present and future. Work harder, put more effort into academics and less into everything else. Good luck!</p>
<p>You’re only a freshman right? You have three more years to get your GPA to where you want to be. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Besides, you’re going to a really prestigious school and your classes are likely really difficult.</p>
<p>Chicago’s known to be a very difficult school, particularly for econ majors. A 3.2ish as a freshman could be indicative of your need for more time to adjust, if you’re aiming at 3.5+ by the time you graduate.</p>
<p>Hi, please do not think that there are 3 more years to go and we can manage them in the next sem or something. That my friend is never gonna happen. and you’re grades will be at a constant if not falling, unless you do something very concrete from now on. Spend time with books rather than friends. Take the help of your friends who study well. Im sure they’ll definitely help you out. Or you can try online tutoring, where almost all of your queries will be answered.</p>
<p>I have seen some threads where a parent said that as you progress in your major at Chicago, the GPA keeps improving in later years, closer to 3.5.</p>
<p>^Falling not Failing look before you write. You have three more years to improve…don’t stress about what you can’t change now just look at what you can do to improve.</p>
<p>Your grades are good, and you’re improving. Honestly you could be doing a lot worse at such a great school. You just have to adjust your study habits and ask for help. Don’t beat yourself up because you’re. Not everyone gets straight As all the time</p>
<p>I do not see the relevance or helpfulness of holden888’s post. </p>
<p>I’m trying not to beat myself up over thses, but truth is, my performance has me a little disheartened, so I was wondering what steps to take to try and improve.</p>
<p>Study, study, study. I don’t know what else to suggest. Study smarter and study harder. Manage your time better; this means knowing what readings you can skim, what readings you need to do in order to participate in class discussions, and what readings you should just plain give up on because you’ll be spending too much time going over them when you can use that time to study for your other classes. Go to study sessions and office hours; email your professors, and use the Harper tutors (if applicable). Understand what’s going on in calculus as best you can by doing practice problems and looking up proofs online (which tend to make more sense overall). Be smart, don’t get too down, and don’t be afraid to just find summaries of arguments online for the rest of the reading/writing courses you’ll have to take. I know this is frowned down upon here but when you really don’t have the time, you need to take what you can get. Basically, use whatever resources are available to you.</p>
<p>Your grades will probably go up as you take more and more classes within your major and fewer classes outside of it. (For some people, though, the grades do tank a bit.) Unfortunately, you still have to take SOSC, which is thought to be the “toughest” of the humanities classes you’re required to take at UChicago. (At least, this was my experience and the experience of several friends.) I mean, honestly, it’s just a matter of buckling down and studying. You might have to sacrifice a bit of your social life to get there and/or may get behind on reading for 200 pages in one of your classes, but that’s kind of how it goes. Prioritize, and know what you have to get done and what you can catch up on later.</p>
<p>Also, this doesn’t need to be said but just in case: Know your limits and choose your classes wisely.</p>
<p>Whatever gpa you have with those grades, I would say it’s probably around or higher than the average at UC. People know it’s a tough school and it seems rather ridiculous for you to be panicking as a freshman. You already have an advantage over a lot of people by just being there, let alone also having respectable grades by most standards.</p>
<p>Even if you don’t get into a very top PhD program, you can probably get into a pretty good one if your grades don’t change. Chicago is notoriously tough, and is arguably the best school in the world for economics.</p>
<p>The most important things for admission to econ PhD programs are grades in math classes(especially high level ones), getting an 800 on the math part of the GRE, and great recs from respected professors.</p>
<p>This quarter I am in Calculus III (not multivariable calc), linear algebra, and stat 234.
They are all required for the economics major, and based off my performance and homework and midterms so far, I am expecting something like this:
Calc: A/A-
Lin Alg: A-/B+
Stats: B/B-</p>
<p>I don’t understand…in high school, I had gotten nearly straight A’s (except senior year because I didn’t care that much after college decisions came in). now that I spend wayyy more time studying for each exam, my grades are lower. And it’s not like I went to some average high school-I went to one of the best public college prep high schools in the nation, with a schedule full of IB and AP courses. (4 AP classes, 6 IB classes, and two of the IB classes were for two full years). </p>
<p>It’s so unfair that a college transcript basically affects you for the rest of your life, especially if you want to go into an academic career like I do. Employers will ask for it, graduate schools will ask for it, etc etc.</p>
<p>Your grades are fine. Chicago is hard. If you want to raise your GPA, for non math, stat, or econ classes pick the easiest ones available. A college transcript does not affect you your whole life. Someone may ask for it 10 years from now, but they won’t care what it says as long as you graduate.</p>
<p>Your first year at UChicago will be your toughest. Once you develop the proper study habits and risk assessment skills necessary for navigating your way through the process, your GPA should rise significantly, especially your final two years.</p>
<p>Also, any top college in the country will comprise the top 5-10% of the best students in any given graduating H.S. class. The difference would be like going from high school basketball to the NBA so its not surprising, really, that college requires so much more work. </p>
<p>Just keep in mind that your GPA is pretty solid for a first year and that you are taking classes with some of the brightest, hardest working 18 year old kids on the planet.</p>
<p>As other posters have noted, you will have to come up with a strategy to maximize your effectiveness in your classes. Now that you’ve got a year at Chicago under your belt, you should be able to draw a rough road map of classes for the next three years that will get your GPA where you want it to be.</p>
<p>I’m going to be real with you. Although Chicago is a respected school for economics, after these first few terms, you no longer have a shot at econ phd programs of the caliber you’re aiming at. Sorry, but I have to be honest. Not only is continuing to get B’s not enough to gain entrance into those programs, I doubt anything you can do at this point (despite it being only freshman year) can recover your transcript for those programs. It’s just too tough. Top econ grad programs pretty much want a 4.0 in core econ and math and stat courses, and you’ve gotten many B’s.</p>
<p>Also, don’t bother to stack your transcript with easy classes. This might work for law school, but grad schools will definitely scrutinize class difficulty and what you got in the <em>relevant</em> classes.</p>
Employers will ask for it, graduate schools will ask for it, etc etc.</p>