<p>Not sure why you need a 4.0 As the others said you are in college now and competing with kids with high stats in your range. High achievers in HS are always surprised at any college when they find out that an A in a HS might take twice as much effort in college. No one expects students to pull a 4.0 in college. If you look at GPA averages at THE most competetive Law Schools like Yale, Penn, Harvard, now you are talking the best of their classes at these schools, and still a 3.6 is about average.</p>
<p>Freshman year is often the hardest for grades because kids are adjusting to college and putting effort into creating a new social life. Try and ease up, do your best. If GPA is really important to you then go on ratemyprofessor.com and figure out which classes to take based on the grading described on that site. You really should study what you love though. My S got a B in writing Freshman year and I think it says more about US students writing abilities and lack of preparation then about him. BU insisting on those writing classes ensures that students get that piece early on so their later courses, which always require writing, will be easier to manage.
By the end of his Soph. year S has a 3.7 and that includes taking a few courses that were not near his major, like Spanish, where his grades were not nearly as high as they are for classes that interest him like Reason & Augument.</p>
<p>Why do you want a 4.0 anyway?</p>