<p>I have to say, 3.8 in ChemE isn’t going to be easy. I have friends who marvel at a 3.5. ChemE classes are curved to a B- until your junior year–then it’s a B average. Make sure you buffer accordingly with courses in other departments; don’t take too many technicals in a single semester. </p>
<p>If maintaining a certain average is your concern, why worry about A+'s–don’t bother trying to get them (to be honest, you probably won’t if you’re taking CoC classes, unless you are one of the few students who can score legit 90%'s on his exams). Just do enough to get A’s in your classes then, right? </p>
<p>True, it’s not fair that other universities award more GPA to A+'s while UC Berkeley doesn’t. But there was some reasoning of yours that led you to chose UC Berkeley knowing that it would be more difficult compared to those other schools, regardless of whether an A+ is worth more than an A. </p>
<p>If you ever do get A+'s, maybe you can talk to your scholarship people about factoring in the + if necessary. </p>
<p>Good luck. Welcome to CoC Chemical Engineering. If you stop by an AIChE meeting (AIChE = the ChemE student group), maybe I’ll meet you then.</p>