<p>@ahuynh91: I majored in Political Science with a minor in Philosophy. The university as a whole contributed to my development as a well-rounded individual. However, I have accumulated quite a bit of debt over the years at UC Riverside. I will have to work for a year or two to pay down my debt before I apply for graduate school.</p>
<p>@x8equalsDtilde: Thank you for the flattering comment. My GPA was 3.99.</p>
<p>@himself: There are countless students from both CNAS and BCOE who achieve the distinction of Summa Cum Laude, but unsurprisingly there are many more CHASS students who achieve that distinction compared to the other colleges (my estimation is 2-3x more). Despite you feeling it is more difficult it does not mean that it is unachievable. I did not take an easy route to my degree, please do not assume that all CHASS students take easy classes like dance or whatever to bump their GPAs up. In fact, I know a couple of CHASS students who are taking an unconventional route to medical school. As for myself, I tried to challenge myself with a wide range of courses in physical sciences, social sciences, computer science, and humanities, as well as attempting a honors thesis. Please do not tell me that I do not understand how difficult the courses are in the physical sciences because I have completed the chem series up to ochem, and managed to earn an A- in all my physical science classes. I chose CHASS over CNAS and BCOE because I was more intrigued by the social sciences (ie. economics, political science, psychology) and it offered me the exposure to a wide array of disciplines. If there are any BCOE or CNAS students on CC who think they can excel at any course in CHASS since the courses are easy–or so they assume–then please demonstrate it to me, because from my experience they have not shown that to be true (I have taken CHASS courses, such as philosophy of science, with CNAS and BCOE undergraduate and graduate students, and BCOE and CNAS undergraduate students did not fare too well and dropped left and right). It is difficult to achieve the highest distinction even in CHASS. But, to be honest, if I had majored in the physical sciences I probably would have ended up graduating with Magna Cum Laude distinction instead. </p>
<p>All that aside… I was never concerned about achieving honors distinction, in fact, I was unaware of the distinctions until this quarter. As an intellectual, GPA should not be your end, rather you should challenge yourself and expose yourself to a variety of perspectives. Furthermore, outside of the academia GPA will not matter as much, as long as you have marketable skills and have connections.</p>