<p>Hi everyone, I applied to a lot of good engineering schools this year and will be attending one in the fall 2013. I really wanted to go to Cornell and applied to the CALS school in the field of Biological Engineering. I was denied entry for the upcoming year but then received an email about a transfer opportunity to come in as a sophomore the next year, granted I follow the requirements. So I was basically wondering how difficult these would be to achieve:</p>
<p>Have a B or better in each course
Have at least a 3.0 GPA in first semester
and a 3.0 at mid-semester during 2nd term</p>
<p>In high school I had a weighted GPA of 98.81 (our school doesn't do the 4 point system) and took various challenging and AP math and science courses (nothing crazy though). But honestly I did not try my hardest during high school and I know I could have received higher grades if I pushed myself more. </p>
<p>(If it helps I got into schools like RIT, Clarkson, Villanova, Syracuse, Binghamton, etc. for engineering)</p>
<p>I know engineering courses are usually tougher than most, so I was wondering how difficult it would be to maintain this sort of GPA? Thanks!</p>
<p>I don’t have any idea how to interpret your HS GPA. Generally, I’d say if you work hard, a B minimum isn’t too hard, but you could have a class that trips you up. Once bad test could screw it up. I had a grade below B first semester, but none since. You’re not going to have to kill yourself studying to achieve it, but it’s not as trivial as in high school and you will have to work for it in some classes.</p>
<p>What classes are they suggesting you take your first two years? That will impact your GPA and also the liklihood of taking more than 4 years to graduate if they are not engineering courses or the courses you need for engineering. </p>
<p>If you do not meet criteria, would you have to transfer to another school for engineering? Stay at Cornell and chose another major. There is a gamble here. </p>
<p>I suggets you find out the courses they want you to take and post on Cornell’s thread. </p>
<p>In my experience, median engineering GPA’s seem to be about 0.1-0.2 less than the university average, in the 2.9-3.1 range. The distribution is not normal (as in Gaussian), and a 3.5 is often only around the 25th percentile while a 3.8 might be the top 10th percentile.</p>
<p>So a 3.0 GPA at any given point should be reasonably attainable, since about half the students will manage it.</p>