<p>Are you a good student? For one thing, your first semester grades don’t go on your transcript. I went out probably 4 nights a week this semester, didn’t start any essays until the right before they were due, and I made deans list. It really depends more on you, how efficiently you can do work and how good a student you are.</p>
<p>HPYS will probably have just as much work but with the same effort you can probably get a better grade. They are notorious for grade inflation. CMU and Cornell are not going to be easier in my opinion, if anything harder. Don’t really know Duke’s work load too well. Graduate schools know that Hopkins is not an easy grading school. Your grades will be looked at in comparison to the average hopkins student, grades are different everywhere.</p>