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<p>I think it’s more than just a case of just ‘some people’ thinking it would be hard. According to the data, the people who typically get into Economics have a 3.4 GPA in prereq courses, and we have established that the prereq courses are clearly not the easiest classes you can find at Berkeley. Hence, I agree with you that these people probably have an even higher overall GPA, when you count their “cheesepuff” classes. The overall GPA of these admitted people is probably more like a 3.5 or 3.6.</p>
<p>Yet the average GPA of Berkeley is around a 3.25 or so. </p>
<p>“In the late 1950’s, the average cumulative GPA for Berkeley undergraduates was 2.50 and has increased to approximately 3.25.”</p>
<p><a href=“http://ls.berkeley.edu/undergrad/colloquia/04-11.html[/url]”>http://ls.berkeley.edu/undergrad/colloquia/04-11.html</a></p>
<p>So these people who are getting into economics with their 3.5-3.6 overall GPA’s are clearly doing FAR better than the average student at Berkeley. </p>
<p>Hence, I wouldn’t say that it is a case that ‘some’ students at Berkeley would think it is hard to get into economics. The GPA information alone seems to indicate that it is actually not just ‘some’ students, but rather MOST Berkeley students who would find it to be hard. </p>
<p>Let’s face it, vicissitudes. There are a lot of Berkeley students who, frankly, aren’t doing that well - certainly not to the level of getting a 3.4 in Econ prereq courses (when that 3.4 itself is above average for all of Berkeley). You and I might think that Berkeley calculus (i.e. Math 16AB) is easy, but trust me, there are a lot of students at Berkeley who don’t do well there.</p>