<p>Hi All, I have just gotten my grades back, and I’ve been told by some that you need at least 98% in all your major courses to make it into Harvard, MIT etc. Do you agree with this statement? I’m slightly concerned because of a first year course that I took, and I have been stupid and underestimated it and ended up with a 94% when I should have done much better. Would that hurt my chances? Do they look at first year courses at all?</p>
<p>Are you kidding? A 98% average? I’m not sure where you heard that, but above a 3.5 or so and you won’t really be hurt by your GPA.</p>
<p>They look at first-year courses. But one not-totally-perfect grade is not going to cause them to throw out your file, especially not one in your freshman year.</p>
<p>I had a C freshman year and still got into all the grad schools to which I applied.</p>
<p>What major are you talking about? For engineering, Harvard is pretty mediocre. It’s like going to MIT to major in Greek mythology. Nobody gives a crap so you can get into harvard engineering w/ average grades.</p>
<p>I’m in pure math. I think the grad schools get pretty competitive in my field, because that’s the only thing you can do after a Bachelor’s degree in pure math. Strange, because a few of my friends are worried about their admissions with 95% major average. Does anyone know anything about pure math admissions?</p>
<p>It’s hard?</p>
<p>like, really, really hard?</p>
<p>Doesn’t it depend on field though? Pure math seems difficult and more GPA oriented than other field (see emengee for previous posts on that). On the other hand, people do get into PhD progs with GPAs of less than 3.0 in other fields.</p>