<p>I got admitted into the Honors' Program. In order to stay in it, you need a 3.4 GPA... or else you get booted out or, for Freshman, you go on academic probation. (By the way, my major is Behavioral Neuroscience.)</p>
<p>For all of you current NEU students out there: </p>
<p>How difficult is it to maintain a 3.4 GPA, in general?</p>
<p>How about while in the Honors' Program? ... And with a science major, like mine?</p>
<p>(It's a silly question, but it has to be brought up.)</p>
<p>ooohhh I’m thinking of majoring in Behavioral Neuroscience if I get in! How is it? xD</p>
<p>I just got admitted EA this year… How would I know? :)</p>
<p>Personally I’ve never had a problem with it, but it depends on the person. I’ve been chemistry to economics/math, and the only times my gpa has slipped was in humanities courses, not science. I know plenty of science kids that are doing fine with keeping the 3.4.</p>
<p>Here, a 3.4 means (sort of) a half of your grades need to be As or A-s (we don’t have A+). Obviously if you get Ds, you’ll need more As. It can be a little daunting in some classes where you know there is absolutely no way you’ll get above a B+ because the prof doesn’t curve, but fortunately you also take classes where almost everyone in the class somehow gets an A. If you put the effort in, you can keep a 3.4, even if you run into a few hard classes that make it slip.</p>
<p>However just want to point out that magna cum laude is 3.5 here, and cum laude is 3.25. So 3.4 isn’t something everyone ends up getting, since we have latin honors at graduation for around that amount. But again, if you were good enough to get into honors, chances are that unless you act stupid and blow off everything, you’ll be okay. Personally I think the key is to start off well- a few of my friends blew off everything first semester of college (even when its not like they had something else to do… they just didn’t ever do anything for class). Even though they paid more attention later, it was a lot harder to bring up their gpas, so a few had to leave honors. It’s a lot easier (in my opinion) to keep a 3.4 than to get one after bombing.</p>
<p>Thanks for replying. </p>
<p>I’m planning on going on a Pre-med track, so getting a GPA below a 3.5 would be devastating, let alone a 3.4. :</p>
<p>If you’re in honors I don’t think you’ll have any problem maintaining a 3.4, even in science.</p>
<p>I’m a behavioral neuroscience major… ps., good major, lots of flexibility, a handful of hard classes like organic/molecular cell/biochem/comparative neurobiology, but also a lot of really easy classes (mostly the psych courses). Sets you up nicely for a lot of different post-grad options like med school, psych/neuro/bio phd, public health… so, basically, sets you up nicely for more school!</p>
<p>Tons and tons of pre-meds get weeded out… some after Chem II and even more after Organic. I knew dozens of pre-meds as a freshman. I know about 5 people who actually made it to senior year and still expect to go to medical school/are attending med school. The good news, though, is that if you hack it at NU as a pre-med (get above a 3.5 gpa), do well enough on the MCAT (at least a 30), and use your 5 years/3 co-ops wisely, you probably won’t have much trouble getting into medical school.</p>
<p>That’s getting way sidetracked. Anyway. The science honors students I know all managed good grades. Wasn’t always easy… even my smartest friends lived in the library before organic or biochem exams (ever spent 30 hours studying the week before an exam only to get an 82%? Because that will happen, and if you actually pull an 82 you’ll be one of the highest grades in class), but with hard work and generous curves they all did fine. You’re an honors student. You did well in high school. You did well on the SAT. If you’re willing to put in the work, you’re not going to fall below a 3.4.</p>
<p>God I’m so in love with that major :)</p>
<p>are the hard classes mentioned considered harder than at other schools, or are these just the classes some students generally have more trouble with?</p>
<p>Well it’s like organic chemistry… Does an easy class of organic chemistry exist in the world? Whether or not a class is “harder” will depend on the professor, book, etc. But you won’t get out of taking some of the tough classes no matter where you go.</p>
<p>I’ve always found my organic chemistry classes pretty easy… but maybe that’s just me :)</p>
<p>ditto neuchimie, hard classes will be hard anywhere you go, but it does depend on book/grading/tests etc. I don’t think NEU’s “hard” classes are going to be more work than at any school. </p>
<p>I actually loved the first semester of organic. I had to really put in a lot of work, but yeah, ultimately it made a lot of sense to me, which made the last two exams “easy”–I just knew the material well. But, then second semester came around and something just didn’t click… no amount of studying was able to get me to understand the logic and the little details of the mechanisms. Blech, glad that’s over!</p>
<p>I third the liking of orgo 1. I got a B+ because I didn’t bother to do any of the extra credit (which he gave instead of curving), but it wasn’t actually that hard of a class.</p>