<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>I took CS-50 at Harvard this year and got a B+. I am in high school, but took it with all the undergrads and was evaluated in the same way. Is this a good grade, and should I send it to colleges?</p>
<p>First off, as a rising junior in high school, you are a year away from having to think about sending your grades to any college. Secondly, getting a B+ as a sophomore in HS with CS-50 is a great grade AND you should send it when the time comes. Meanwhile, what you need to do is bring your high school GPA up, as that is considered the most important part of an admissions file at all selective colleges.</p>
<p>Having taken CS-50 in the fall and considering being a CS50 TF next semester, from what I’ve heard the class was curved around a A-. But a B+ is a fantastic grade, don’t get me wrong: I’ve had friends who aced AP Computer Science and still struggled to finish the problem sets on time (problem sets 5-7 were pretty tedious). You should definitely send it to colleges, and consider taking more college-level computer science classes :)</p>
<p>By curved around an A-, does that mean an A- is the highest grade?</p>
<p>Not quite, that generally means that the median was an A-.</p>
<p>So I never really understood the concept of a median. Does that mean that a B+ is below average because the middle of the range is an A-?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.diffen.com/difference/Mean_vs_Median[/url]”>Mean vs Median - Difference and Comparison | Diffen;
<p>So that would mean a B+ is in the bottom 50 percent of the class. I find that very hard to believe in a course like CS50</p>
<p>Yes, it would mean the bottom half is where your percentile lies. I would recommend making sure you know what a median is, especially since you’re a rising junior in high school.</p>
<p>I don’t really agree with that, and I’m not just trying to make an excuse. I do not believe that 50% of people taking CS-50 got an A- or above.</p>
<p>The A- median came from WongTong who may or may not be a Harvard student/alum. I have yet to take the course myself, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the median were an A-, honestly. Regardless, a B+ is still good.</p>
<p>I don’t know the median grade for CS-50, but in 2007, the Boston Globe published an article entitled “Doesn’t Anybody Get a C Anymore?”: <a href=“http://learn2do.org/resources/Primack+get+a+C.pdf[/url]”>http://learn2do.org/resources/Primack+get+a+C.pdf</a></p>
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<p>So . . . in theory, half of CS50’s grades could be an A- or above.</p>
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<p>I was simply explaining what “curved” meant. I am in no way affiliated with Harvard nor have ever taken CS 50. That information came from icedcoffee:</p>
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<p>I have a friend who was a programming prodigy taking it–he got an A. I did well on the tests and problem sets, but do not think that 50% could have done that well.</p>
<p>My apologies, WongTong, I did not read carefully.</p>
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<p>You’d be surprised - there are a lot of smart and driven students taking CS50.</p>
<p>Well in that case, a B+ would be pretty bad. Should I even bother sending that to colleges?</p>
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<p>^^ Yes. Most high school students could NOT get a B+ in a college-level course. It’s not only commendable that you received a B+, you should be trying to get your TF to write you a recommendation letter attesting to the fact that, as a high school student, you did better than half of the Harvard students enrolled in the class. Better yet, you should be trying to get the TF to get David Malan to write you the letter.</p>
<p>Very true.</p>
<p>@ConfHighSchooler</p>
<p>I think you have to realize that a B+ at Harvard is not a bad grade, and even if you’re a potential CS concentrator, a non-A in an incredibly large intro class is not the end of the world.</p>
<p>A little anecdote: Being a pre-med at Harvard, I thought that it was absolutely crucial to get all A’s in biology/chem classes. I took MCB54 last semester and failed to get an A. But guess what? That’s not stopping me from pursuing a degree in MCB and applying to med school. I talked to my MCB professor and he told me that the tricky part of being an instructor for “large” undergraduate classes (to clarify, MCB54 has about 1/10 the enrollment of CS50) is that the professors rarely get the opportunity to evaluate students’ work; all of the problem sets, labs, and exams are graded by TF’s who follow a strict rubric. If you fail to mention key words in an explanation or fail to elucidate a step in your logic, for example, you’ll lose points, even if you completely understand the concept.</p>
<p>Going back to CS50, last year’s CS50 course was perhaps one of the most difficult in terms of the exams, and I felt like the pacing was extremely fast. The median scores on the 2 midterm “quizzes” were 67/80 and 78/121.</p>