stonecold23

are intro classes hard and graded to a tough curve?

current students, what would u say are the hardest and easiest intro classes (i know alot of its personal preference, but often thers a definite black white answer about which is easier)

ticklemepink

I'm not kidding about this one:

THERE ARE NO EASY INTRO CLASSES!

Colgate doesn't have a "fluff" class. More people talk about what are the hardest classes to take (so we can avoid them if possible). The only "easy" classes I've heard are Oceanography and Intro to Sociology.

Be prepare to work hard. B's are well-deserved here. Not too many A's but it's possible... somehow.

There are no curves though B is a standard.

cutennisgumbi23

There are no “fluff” classes here. In my two years at Colgate, the only relatively easy class that I've had was my First Year Seminar. However, most of my friends said that their FSEMs were fairly challenging.

In general, if you put in a good amount of work, you’ll probably pull off a B or even an A- in a class. If you put the same amount of effort in a science course though, you may not get a B. I’m not really sure why that is—my political science class is just as hard (if not harder) than my chemistry class.

We don’t have any “curves”. However, if the class average is very low (the average in one of my classes is a 61, for instance), the professor will adjust the scores at the end of the semester (don’t expect professors to give you a huge grade boost though). This is usually only done in a few introductory science courses such as chemistry 101/102 or biology 212.

Don’t let the challenging courses scare you away from Colgate. The classes are really interesting, so you won’t mind putting in a little effort. Also, once you develop good study habits, you’ll have plenty of time to do other stuff. I don’t know of anyone here that just studies all day. =-)

Colgate13

There can be curves in some classes. I know that the econ department's grading policy could cause a class to be curved. I've never heard of a class gradings being lowered through. Most professors try to keep the average within the department range during the semester.

gellino

I know in my Chem 101/102 classes the average score on a test was set to a C+, in Calc III, it was set to a B-/C+ and in Intro to Econ was set to a B-. This was a few years back, so possibly the grade inflation that has swept the country has changed Colgate at least a little bit too. I know at my five year reunion, they showed a graph displaying how the avg GPA from our class to five years later had changed from 2.9 to 3.1.

waker1000

I completely agree with all that was said above. The intro classes here (especially in the most popular majors and in the sciences) are ment to weed people out. People take them to get the distributions they require...but the idea is that after that unless you are concentrating or crazy you probably won't take much higher than an intro class. I have heard of teh grades being deflated (in intro to econ...The class normally comes out a bit higher than the department can have so b+ will sometimes magically become Bs on teh transcript...) I would just give a reminder that the majority of students that come into Colgate (myself included) see mostly As in HS and the average GPA here is a 3.1...which means most students see a C or all Bs while they are here. It is tough...As are very hard to get...but it makes the classes more challenging...