<p>Placido: I think it might be intended to give those at Georgia Tech a fighting chance. Some of those calculus and physics sections still have averages that hover only slightly above 2.0 and some are high 1.0 range average gpas. No surprise that 60% used to lose it in the first year (it might have gone down, but I’m sure it’s still a lot) despite how the quality of the student has continue to increase. Compare it to our intro. courses in bio, chem, calc. and physics where the lowest sections will probably be like a 2.5 now-a-days (bio used to be worse, but now it’s on par with chem. and physics). I’m not saying that Tech is grade deflated, but I’ve seen the material from even the easier calc. 1 and 2 classes and their intro physics course and it’s really difficult compared to most sections of our counterparts (we have them in bio and chem, but it won’t show in the gpa). With course sections that difficult in a large school like Tech (huge intro. courses), should one really expect most of the Georgia freshmen to stay 3.0+ in that first year? I suppose if they are smart and choose two courses where they are guaranteed an A, and then 2 science courses as expected, provided that they get at least a C in the science courses. But then the question arises on how to choose a class where one is guaranteed an A if you’re a freshmen that probably doesn’t know that grade distributions are public at Tech. One may assume, “oh you should take some English or Social Science/humanities course”, but I know many/most freshmen here get B-grades in the freshman English requirement and quite a few get C-grades in intro. political science/history courses and Bs in humanities. I had one friend who got As in Calc. 3 and linear algebra at Tech her senior year of HS, and barely held on and got a 3.1 her first semester here because she got a C+ in international politics. Given that, it they get a C-grade in the sciences, they’re screwed. I don’t know if non-science classes are the opposite and are cakewalks at Tech, but if not, I can see how losing a 3.0 at least the first year is probable for many.</p>