<p>dd talked to a grad student today who switched from CHI to Berk, while an undergrad. This person is now a grad student in an area dd has experience in, but made sure to tell dd of her great unhappiness at CHI. She said all her friends were doing better at Ivy's and getting better gpa's.</p>
<p>I am pretty concerned with this...</p>
<p>This may answer few of your questions, bettina. My parents were also worried about the low GPA from students in Chicago. But, as they have told me, "There is no free lunch." More than a degree, more than GPA, the experiences from Chicago will dramatically change one's mind, and prepare them more for the real world. If one works hard and does what he is supposed to do, Chicago will only aid him in finding his passions and fullfilling his dreams. What more can we ask of a university?:)</p>
<p>Below is a segment from <a href="http://www.collegeconfidential.com/discus%5B/url%5D">www.collegeconfidential.com/discus</a></p>
<p>By Mfacusse (Mfacusse) on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 10:17 pm: Edit</p>
<p>what do you think the average gpa for undergraduates is?</p>
<p>By Dudebroman (Dudebroman) on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 10:22 am: Edit</p>
<p>3.18, but 3.33 i think for the football players--only school in the nation where the football team has a higher gpa than the rest of the college</p>
<p>By Mfacusse (Mfacusse) on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 01:07 pm: Edit</p>
<p>3.18 isn't that bad...</p>
<p>By Agnostic (Agnostic) on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 11:30 am: Edit</p>
<p>if you are worried about gpa, it really depends on your classes, you can get away with very high gpa if you take the right amount of classes and the easy classes.</p>
<p>By Theuofcgirl (Theuofcgirl) on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 06:27 pm: Edit</p>
<p>FYI, 3.25 gets you on the Dean's list. Stop worrying.. it will all be okay. That must-have-4.0 mentality will disappear... quickly. :)</p>
<p>By Divingin (Divingin) on Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - 12:54 pm: Edit</p>
<p>yeah GPA is really not that big of a worry, unless i guess you're hard core about getting into a top-5 grad school. REALLY.</p>
<p>By Agnostic (Agnostic) on Saturday, June 12, 2004 - 10:28 am: Edit</p>
<p>I disagree with that GPA is not a big worry. One of the disadvantage of going to Chicago is the risk of low GPA, and that can detriment you a lot. For grad school, a high GPA is very important, especially recently grad schools are very competitive, if you don't have the certain GPA they don't care what school you went for undergrad. If you are looking for jobs in corporate america, GPA is also important, as some top companies won't even consider students below 3.5 (even though they didn't say they had this limit). I understand that some people don't need GPA because they have a lot of research experience (if you are thinking grad school), or they have a lot of work experience, but majority of the undergrads are not in that category, and having a good GPA is the "easiest" way to get started on these career paths. Personally, I don't think GPA is that important either, but when you have so many people competing for very small number of top positions, companies and schools HAVE to look at something quick, unfortunately...</p>
<p>By Stanfordnualum (Stanfordnualum) on Friday, July 09, 2004 - 08:32 pm: Edit</p>
<p>Does UC really have a football team? :-)</p>
<p>By Er222 (Er222) on Friday, July 09, 2004 - 11:33 pm: Edit</p>
<p>Grad schools are aware that Chicago's grades are not inflated. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal about two months ago, Chicago's undergraduates do about as well as any other in terms of getting into the top ranked law, medical, and business schools, and Chicago's undergraduates have one of the highest percentages of PhD's. So I wouldn't worry about the GPA. The grad schools know that GPAs vary from school to school.</p>
<p>By Chicago (Chicago) on Saturday, July 10, 2004 - 04:05 pm: Edit</p>
<p>Agnostic is right. Getting a low GPA can be a real killer. Too many students think "Oh I'm at UChicago so they'll factor in the difficulty and less-grade inflation (there is grade inflation but FAR less than at other schools)." This is a grave mistake.</p>
<p>Anything lower than a 3.0 is a BAD GPA. In fact, I'd say anything lower than a 3.5 is a BAD GPA. Dean's List is really meaningless unless you're in a really tough major like biology or chemistry. Econ, which is a relatively difficult, but not science-difficult, major, will require at least a 3.4 GPA to secure good internships and jobs.</p>
<p>Read: <a href="http://www.prepme.com/articles/business_internships_part_1.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.prepme.com/articles/business_internships_part_1.html</a> for more info on this.</p>
<p>And finally, yes, that "must-have a 4.0" mentality will kill you at UChicago. What might be good is the "Aim for a 4.0 get a 3.8" mentality. That'll get you Phi Beta Kappa.</p>
<p>By The<em>Agnostic (The</em>Agnostic) on Sunday, July 11, 2004 - 01:44 pm: Edit</p>
<p>I think that one big reason our school has a high percentage of grad students is because many people planned to go to grad school when they came here, which is a totally different mentality from other schools. Except for the usual set of banks and financial services type firms that come and hire undergrads, I would say our heavy liberal arts type education does not really prepare us for any specific skills to get a job. this means that you are going to get a fair share of your best students to go to the top law, med, and other graduate programs. This still doesn't say anything for a lot of the students with lower gpa who would like to be considered for these programs, and the people I know from 2001-2003 had a real tough time getting in grad schools without a real good gpa, and I'm pretty sure it will only get harder.</p>
<p>As for jobs, many top companies look for all around good students, that means GPA is the first screener, and after that it's all up to your own interview skills. But GPA definitely still matters because that's the first screen. For Chicago students having both a good GPA and good interview skills are necessary because first our school tend to give lower grades and second our education doesn't provide hands-on real life skills. Companies don't care if we have an awesome fundamental education or breeds teachers of teachers, if you can't give them any immediate benefits, then they look to build long term projects out of you and that is very selective. So this presents an extra challenge for our students to get past that first hurdle, and you really have to make it your priority to do that.</p>
<p>By Ooga (Ooga) on Friday, July 16, 2004 - 12:26 am: Edit</p>
<p>is there a major considered the most difficult at chicago? would it be in the hard sciences?</p>
<p>i want yale law. who got in last year? what were they like?</p>
<p>By The<em>Agnostic (The</em>Agnostic) on Monday, July 19, 2004 - 08:00 pm: Edit</p>
<p>yes, hard science is the most difficult in my opinion. the harder the science, the more difficult, I think Physics is probably the hardest, a physics major can almost have a math degree too with the curriculum, which is why I think physics is harder than math as a major. comp sci is very hard too in my opinion, and not even well known :(</p>