<p>I am attending Washington University in St. Louis next semester, but my family is having a bit of a financial squeeze because we just bought a new house. So, if I don’t get a 3.5 at Wash U, I have to transfer to Georgia Tech. How hard is it to get a 3.5? I assume I will be extremely motivated post senioritis, so I am willing to sacrifice all my spare time for academia if necessary.</p>
<p>you better give up your social life and hit the books from day one, in fact you should go buy some books right now and start reading them</p>
<p>I thought privates were notorious for grade inflation (i.e. Stanford)?</p>
<p>But you should be fine as long as you have good study skills and discipline yourself to study, since there are many distractions in college. Don’t really have to hit the books now… ;)</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure she was joking, unless she meant hit up books on Counter-Strike and Halo.</p>
<p>3.5 is pretty attainable; just do your regular thing and you should be fine. A 3.7 might require some work, but 3.5 is no big deal.</p>
<p>and the fact that you are already concerned now means you’ll study pretty hard, so I wouldn’t be worried at all.</p>
<p>Thanks, that is reassuring. I think I am pretty smart, although sometimes I am not so sure because of my lack of common sense and my propensity for forgetting things.</p>
<p>Just enjoy what you’re doing and the A’s will come.</p>
<p>It depends. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong.</p>
<p>If you’re smart, take things seriously, and put forth the effort, and learn efficiently, you should probably do fine.</p>
<p>Somewhere on the forum is a link for average GPA’s of various schools. I know many kids who could not get 3.5’s at top schools even with a lot of work. (Nephew at Georgia Tech certainly doesn’t have 3.5.) Maybe your mom should lower expectations to 3.25.</p>
<p>I agree with slorg in that it really depends and anyone who says otherwise is wrong. I worked my BUTT off throughout the entire year and barely made out with a 3.2. Granted, I took more classes than recommended (5 rather than 4) and was very active in political campaigns first semester, but I did the recommended double time studying for every hour in class. Some teachers just don’t like giving As. I was in mostly small discussion classes and had several professors who would flat out say that they only give 1 A out- so I got A-s and B+s in the classes. That was nothing to be ashamed of for the course. There was only one course I was too cocky about and slacked off in that I really did bad- the rest were well above average but not As. </p>
<p>In fact, my friends and I were discussing about how most of us did not get a single “A” in our entire freshman year and got a whole lot of Bs or B-s, and those were still above the curve grades.</p>
<p>^^just wondering what school u r talking about? uchicago, mit, state school engineering or wat?</p>
<p>lollybo : Just stay on top of things, and you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>The Truth About Success In College</p>
<p>In college, two kinds of people are successful: the hardworking, and the extremely intelligent. And, while the latter is far more flashy and uses half the effort of the the former, he is far less likely to do as well. Hardwork will almost always pay off. Genius, not so much. </p>
<p>When it comes down to it, doing well in college is not about how smart you are, but how hard you’re willing to work.</p>
<p>If you go to an engineering school, chances are good that a 3.5 would put you well into the top 15%. Here at RPI, a 3.0 is considered Dean’s List status.</p>
<p>GPA doesn’t always mean everything though. I know plenty of people with sub-3.0 GPA’s that got into good grad schools/landed good jobs because of professor recommendations and work/research experience.</p>