<p>A friend of mine graduated with a 4.0 in chemical engineering at Berkeley this past year, I graduated with a 3.99 (1 A- total), and another friend graduated with a 3.97 (2 A-'s total). It is not easy, but it is doable. People always point to the fact that most of our classes are curved to a B- or B in order to say that getting a 4.0 is impossible, but the reality is that 10-20% of the people in every class end up with an A. If you are in the top 10% of your class you will end up with mostly (if not all) A’s. There are a decent number of people with a GPA around 3.9 and several of us with higher.</p>
<p>Another thing to keep in mind is that the University Medal is way way way more difficult to achieve than getting a high GPA. You do not need to be the smartest or most talented student at the university to do well in your classes. University medalists (and finalists) need to have a high GPA (3.96), but they also have to do things with a broad societal impact. For example, Sho Takatori helped “draft state regulatory policies for green chemistry and nanotechnology products.” </p>
<p>And since you’re interested in graduate school, let me tell you that Berkeley chemical engineers do extremely well in PhD admissions. Four of us were admitted to MIT this year, three to Caltech, etc. When I went to the admitted student visit weekends at the top schools, Berkeley was almost always the best-represented undergraduate school. To have a chance at the very best graduate schools (MIT, Caltech, Stanford) you need a GPA of 3.9+, but if you’re willing to consider top 20 schools then a GPA of 3.7 is actually sufficient. All of my friends that applied to graduate schools got into at least one decent choice.</p>