<p>I’m a history major with a GPA above 3.5, which I know because you receive a congratulatory card at the end of the year if your GPA is that high. It has been hard work, often miserable and overwhelming, but also incredibly rewarding.</p>
<p>(Two factors that have contributed to my work load are my tendency to procrastinate and the number of classes I have been taking for the last couple of semesters: five, which is technically an overload. It may be easier to maintain a high GPA if you’re only taking three or four classes per semester.)</p>
<p>That being said, high grades are not easily obtainable if you approach them as an end in itself, at least not in history, classics, literature or philosophy, which are the majors I’m most familiar with. High grades are the byproduct of engaging with the course material at a level above the class average–and the class average is usually very high because Reedies read a lot, outside of the curriculum, and often come to class already having read half the syllabus or even in some cases having gone far beyond it–and earning your professors’ respect in the classroom and through your written work.</p>
<p>What I’m trying to say is that I’ve never received an A or an A- in a class by simply following the professor’s instructions, participating twice in every conference, and turning in competent essays. That doesn’t entitle you to anything at Reed. My high grades have always come in classes that interested me deeply, from essays on works I had returned to again and again over the course of the semester. In all of those classes I can point to at least one paper I submitted that made me proud of myself because I considered it the best writing I was capable of at the time, academic or not. They all stretched me to my limits.</p>
<p>Maybe there are people at Reed who can maintain a high GPA without going to all of that effort in every class, but they are very few (and, perhaps contrary to your expectations, they are most likely math or physics majors). For us mere mortals it is pretty hard.</p>
<p>(For the record, I had a much lower GPA than you in high school and a higher SAT score.)</p>