What is grading at UNC like?

<p>One of the things that made me hesitant before accepting UNC's offer is its supposed grade deflation. How difficult is it to get a cumulative GPA above 3.8? I transferred from a university with a rather harsh grading system itself, with a median GPA of 2.7. I did not find it difficult to get a high GPA here, but perhaps it is because the students are a little less smart here.</p>

<p>How difficult will it be to get >3.8 in a math/econ double major? I will spend nearly all of my time studying, and I am filling all non major requirements with grade boosting classes that interest me.</p>

<p>The data is a little dated, but, check out this link for reporting on GPA by subject.
[DataMart</a> Statistics | Office of the University Registrar | The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill](<a href=“http://regweb.unc.edu/regweb/gpa_subj]DataMart”>http://regweb.unc.edu/regweb/gpa_subj)</p>

<p>It’s tough, but doable.</p>

<p>If it’s possible to use this as a reference, I did the Bachelor of Science in Psych with minors in Chem and Music, and had a GPA north of 3.8.</p>

<p>That said, I really encourage you to explore UNC and Chapel Hill outside of classes/studying, even if that means your GPA drops to the 3.6 or 3.7 range. My four years at UNC (and 5 in Chapel Hill) were the best of my life…not just because I did well, but because I helped start a club, went to sporting events, drank with my friends, went to bar trivia on Franklin Street, etc.</p>

<p>As a Fall 2012 transfer who made that GPA first semester, I suggest you do as follows: email each of your professors asking which textbooks they’ll be using, order these textbooks from Amazon, and spend time on them for the reminder of the summer. Eschew any summer reading UNC suggests.</p>

<p>This may seem excessive, but it cannot be understated how disadvantaged you most likely are compared to the UNC students who already have 3.8+ GPAs (many of them in honors) and with whom you will be competing in each of your classes for those precious few As. Yes, even in the “grade boosting” classes.</p>

<p>Not to mention that, as a new student here, you will likely get pulled in unforeseen directions. I personally found the non-academics aspects of UNC far more enticing than these aspects in my previous school. It could be an extracurricular activity you become really passionate about or something more social in nature, like phonyreal suggested. Right now you may consider academics your top priority, but there is no guarantee that this school wouldn’t change that. </p>

<p>This particularly pernicious combination of new distractions, more rigorous academics (along with increased competition), and lack of preparation is the reason why transfers typically do so poorly here. Coming in very well-prepared is the only way to make sure you nail next semester.</p>

<p>UNC course difficulty seemed basically bimodal to me. Social sciences/humanities classes are depressingly easy–I made essentially straight As with not a whole lot of effort. </p>

<p>Math and Science classes, OTOH, are very difficult. I only took a couple, but worked my butt of in both and didn’t make As.</p>

<p>Of my “smart” friends (think honors and Morehead/Robertson types), it seemed like all the humanities/social science majors had GPAs at or above 3.75. Most of the math/science majors were well below that.</p>

<p>^I somewhat agree as a physics major. But the explanation I think isn’t that math and science classes give too few As (my.edu seems to suggest something like 15% v.s. 25% As in non-math/science classes). It’s that the amount of work needed to get sufficiently good at the subjects seems to require sacrifice. In a semester in which you’re taking both science/math and other classes, and you’re low on time, you often feel like you can either spend time doing problem sets that having little (if any) direct bearing on your grade in math/science classes OR do the reading and writing for the other classes that determines most of your grade in them. It’s a lose-lose GPA-wise, but most people opt for the latter.</p>

<p>Is physics 116 or mechanics the hardest course in UNC? And also are there any teachers that anyone prefers in that class?</p>

<p>^In the physics sequence, not even remotely.</p>

<p>(By the way, I actually enjoyed studying this summer. Having enough time to really understand the material was a great relief compared to how I usually go about things during the semester. Don’t be afraid to develop some passion for what you do.)</p>

<p>It’s interesting that people are claiming that a 3.8 is tough, but doable. I rarely hear of a person at UNC with a 3.8, most struggle to keep a 3.0…</p>

<p>I think it totally depends on the classes, like the others are saying. Math and science is much, much, much harder than everything else. I don’t know anyone in those majors with anything near that (myself included).</p>