Alectricity

Hi everyone just had a few quick questions.

Does anyone know how the grade scale here at BU works? For example, would an A be 4.0 then A- would be slightly lower? or would it be based on percentages? For example, 95+ is 4.0, 94 is 3.8, 93 is 3.6 and etc? I would really appreciate it if someone could type out or tell me where the full scale is. (from A to F)

Thanks a bunch!
-Alectricity

AliAngel

4.0=A, 3.7=A-, 3.3=B+, 3.0=B, 2.7=B-, 2.3=C+, 2.0=C, 1.7=C-, and I'm pretty sure the trend continues though I don't know anyone that got below a C- in anything. your grades then get averaged out through the 4 classes per semester, so your semester gpa may be an average of 4.0, 3.3, 3.3, and 3.7 which would be 3.575 (3.6).

Alectricity

wow thats such a big drop from an A- to a B+! I'm just concerned I won't be that great in grades. To be honest I'm probably somewhere around a B to a B- student. Do employers put a huge emphasis on gpa? Thanks for the scale!

AliAngel

yea the drop from an A- -->B+ always killed me as an undergrad, especially when I'd be like .3 points from an A-. As per employers, it depends on what you want to go into. It definitely matters for grad school.

Alectricity

Well I'm a business major hopefully going to go into something related to accounting or information systems. Do you happen to know anything about that? I don't plan to go into grad school soon after i graduate UG and if I do it wont be anywhere super impressive. I dont really want an MBA if I don't have to but realize i probably will just because its so competitive these days. thanks for all the help aliangel!

AliAngel

sure! wish i could help more though, i was a human phys major undergrad and am now a med student so im not much help in the business aspect. hopefully someone else on the thread can give u some tips!

BUBailey

interestingly a B plus still counts as excellent...
Boston University - Office of the University Registrar - Grades and Transcripts - Explanation of Grades

Coolbrezze

Thats odd for universities to grade on a different scale, I'll definately read their explanation.

Alectricity

interesting. thanks for the link BUBailey! getting a 3.3 just doesnt feel that good even though they say its "excellent" haha

BUBailey

haha I know...that's how I feel. but I guess if other schools use this as a scale for how BU grades...it works in your benefit for grad schools

Lergnom

Colleges have to report their gpa averages and the grad schools know them. So for example, the idea that you go to easy grading school A gives you an automatic advantage over harder grading school B is silly; you'd have to believe grad schools are stupid.

precocious

Grades are definitely very important in SMG for job and internship recruitment. A lot of my friends can't even APPLY to interview for specific companies because of their GPA, since many of the cutoffs are 3.0+. Aim for at the very least a 3.0-3.3 if you want to try for the more competitive firms at the bare minimum, although many companies want higher for you to have a chance compared to the other students.

And also the grading scale varies for different SMG courses - I got a 95% in my SM221 class but I only got an A- because he graded on a bell curve lol - only the top 5% of students got an A and apparently that was a 95.5 or above... -_- For the most part though, a 92.5+ is an A in most courses here at BU. :P

sak09

Grading here is weird. I mean the GPA stuff makes sense but getting an actual grade in the class is just...different from what I'm used to. For my chem class, I'm getting 40s and 50s on my exams, but because of the ridiculous scaling, I'll probably end up with a grade in the B range. A lot of classes are scaled here (sometimes for better and other times for worse). I've never met anyone who actually had a 95 average in a class and ended up with an A. But then again, I'm a science major...haha.