College GPA

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Ski Hawk

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To get right to the point,, my full tuition scholarship from the state of North Dakota requires that I maintain a 3.5 GPA in college. I achieved a 4.0 GPA in high school, but it didn't feel like I tried that hard. I didn't study a ton because I memorized things easily, I did all the homework, and I started bigger assignments ahead of time so I wasn't rushed at the last moment. I'm worried that high school was simply an easier system and that my GPA won't translate as well. I'm recognizing this now so it doesn't become an issue later. I hope I have the work ethic to study more for tests, since I feel like that will be the biggest issue, since I already have good essay writing skills. I would hate to lose thousands of dollars due to a poor GPA.

How about you guys, how well did your high school GPA hold up in college?
 
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I had a 4.0 throughout high school, but it fell off my first semester of college. I had pretty crappy study habits in high school because, like you, I memorized things easily and really didn't have to study very hard. Obviously, you're intelligent, so just find a study routine that works for you, and I'm sure you'll do great.
 
You can do 3.5. Any higher than that and I'd suggest to start caring.

I didn't care in high school and got a 3.8. I care even less in college and I have a 3.3. But it really does depend on what school you go to. For my freshmen year, my college imposed a B- average grade for classes in my major, so if you wind up with something like that, be prepared to kiss a lot of professor's asses.
 
I graduated with a bare minimum GPA for high school because I hated it. I have a 3.7 GPA at USF right now. A tip would be to ask around for professors you should take and check ratemyprofessors.com to try and seek out easy classes/professors for electives. Regardless though better to realize this now it's going to harder than high school.
 
It really depends on what college you're going to. I had a 4.0 in high school, but then went to a college where just about everyone got 4.0's in high school. When I graduated during the summer, there were maybe 10-20% of the people in my major that got above a 3.15 (the "with honors" cutoff), I being one of them.

Once you get into college, what you did in High School is inconsequential. Your GPA then will have no bearing on what your GPA will be. Best advice I can offer - turn off your phone before class, don't take your laptop to class, print out slides before class, and study in the library instead of in your room. Don't burn yourself out studying though...sometimes relaxing before a test will benefit you more than cramming some last minute details.
 
College is a different beast than HS for sure. Obviously it's going to be a little harder, but like you, I coasted through HS and the first 2-3 years of college without knowing how to study to be honest. For me, I went for a business degree (Accounting) and the first 2 years were mostly electives and GenEd courses where the most important thing was to learn and memorize the terms for exams. It was the later courses where exams were 50% terms and 50% application of knowledge and that's when it began being tough for me.

I say it's a different beast because often your grade for the course is based on just a few exams, maybe a project or two, and not that many quizzes, so the window for error is smaller because one blown exam could take you out of A range. I took an elective course (World Religions) online at my school and the grade was literally three exams we could take at our leisure, but I've also had courses with weekly assignments, exams, quizzes as well. What's nice is that the professor will lay out exactly what they expect in the syllabus and unless they're real pricks, they will work with you as long as you take the time to approach them.

My last bit of advice: Most degree outlines front load electives in the first two years but it's still up to you when you take them (check with your counselor) so I'd save a couple easy courses for later on in your college career when you're bogged down with the really tough classes.
 
Yeah it really just depends. I didn't do so well in high school. Managed to get a 4.0 my senior year to bring my gpa to 2.9. But I just graduated from college with a 3.7 so it really just depends.
 
With grade inflation being rampant in college, a GPA of 3.5, especially if you choose a non-science major, should be a piece of cake for you. You'll be fine. For me, college was much, much easier than high school.
 
I don't know what kind of high school you went to, but doing the same amount of work in college and high school for me, I got a 3.2 in high school and a 2.4 in College. Trust me, I'm learning it now, college is no walk in the park. HS was complete bull shit compared to this environment. It used to be that just showing up and doing homework was an automatic A. Now, you have to show up at lectures, discussions, do the homework, review it and study your ass off. (At least for me, because I'm perusing a difficult major.) And even then, I'm not guaranteed anything, because exams can range from "holy shit that was easy" to "I just got fucked by that exam".

Like I said, I'm going after a difficult major, but I don't expect college to be that drastically different for you. Just make sure you stay on the ball, go to class and do your homework. You might find that college is a snap, which it could be depending on your college and major. But I would treat your first semester like it's the hardest thing ever. If it turns out to be easy, good for you. But if it turns out to be difficult, you'll be well prepared for it.

EDIT: Also, I should mention that my shitty GPA last semester that brought my cumulative down to 2.4 was purely due to lack of motivation, aka laziness. It was the same work ethic I had in HS, but it was much more devastating in college. Make sure you pay attention in ALL of your classes, not just the ones you find interesting, like I did. :/
 
I'm improved on my high school GPA. Had a 3.2 in high school, 3.6 in college. I had a couple years of high school where I slacked off and got a few C's and a D or two. College I took a lot more seriously, and studies a lot harder. Grad school even more so. Don't recall my grad school GPA off hand, but it was even higher as I only got a couple of B's.
 
Yah, it sounds like you're a good student. I never was because I found the course work boring as hell, then in other classes (mainly math and accounting) for whatever reason I couldn't get my brain wrapped around them. I was essentially a 3.2 student with disinterest and poor studying habits in HS, about a 2.9 college GPA. I think you'll be just fine as long as you approach your college courses with the same level of responsibility you did in highschool.
 
4.0 through both. College definitely required more effort for A's in a lot of classes. Just stay on top of the material, studying and don't load yourself up too much any one semester. You'll be fine.
 
What's your major? It should be easy to do 3.5+ if you aren't science/engineering. If you are, it's still very doable with some extra work.

I went from a 3.6 in high school (didn't care the first two years of high school and had A & Bs, then started caring junior year and ended up with some of the highest grades in my grade those two years) to a 3.95 in college. My major was accounting and I didn't find it too difficult, but I did make sure to study when I needed to.
 
Totally depends on your major and the college itself, and even what professors you get. My advice: take advantage of prof and TA office hours. So many people don't bother, and it can end up being like free tutoring if you need it. I did my e-mag (Electromagnetism, an engineering class) homework during my TA office hours, where I could just ask him a question if I had one. I was the only person there 95% of the time. I got one of the only A's in the class.
 
[quote name='Backlash']My advice: take advantage of prof and TA office hours. [/QUOTE]

Very good advice. Hardly anyone has came to my office hours over the past few years--not when TAing in grad school or as a prof for the past year+. Shame, as you say it amounts (within reason) to free tutoring as it's one on one access to the instructor to get things clarified etc.
 
I had a 4.0 in high school until senior year when I was already guaranteed a full-ride scholarship thanks in part to high standardized test scores. I stopped giving a shit and became lazier so my GPA in senior year was a 1.9 or something absurd like that.

Then I continued my slacking throughout college until I had lost my scholarship and had to start paying for my tuition out of pocket. 4.0 ever since.

Keep the work hard mindset and you'll be fine.
 
Graduated with a 4.1 in HS and maintained a 3.95 in my first year of college taking mostly a mix of 200 level general education classes and a lot of 400 and 500 level histories.

Much tougher, yet much more rewarding.
 
I'm currently a science major, and it all depends on what you study.

With all the electives and stuff, my GPA is well over 3.5.

You just need to study. Some classes have average test grades of about 75%. Sometimes I fell into the category, and sometimes I wondered how the hell people could get so low on such an easy test. It all depends on the classes and teachers.

Most classes you should be able to get by studying consistently throughout the week and taking the weekend off. But some classes (especially the higher level chemistry courses, IMO) sometimes required an insane amount of effort, including spending all Sunday re-listening to recorded lectures and doing old homework over.

In my experience, Psychology and Philosophy classes tend to be the easiest, with higher level Chemistry and Biology classes being the hardest.

On top of taking advantage of the TA office hours, some classes have extra study sessions. Don't be afraid to attend these. I also suggest making friends in your classes, because sometimes working together can save your ass from a stupid mistake you never even knew you were making.
 
[quote name='DrMunkee']I'm currently a science major, and it all depends on what you study.
[/QUOTE]

I'd say its more "how" you study than "what" you study.

Yeah, some courses and majors are "harder" than others. But that really just means you have to put more time into studying rather than being more difficult objectively. Now subjectively difficulty varies as some suck at math but excel at writing or vice versa etc. of course.

But at the end of the day, it's proper study habits that have the biggest impact. Go to class, engage in the material, put in the hours required for you to master the material and your GPA will take care of itself.

Mainly, just treat it seriously. Treat it like a job, and do what it takes to do the best you can. Otherwise you're just wasting your time and your (or your parents') money.
 
If you took any AP exams, those are usually much harder to score well on than a corresponding college class, imho. If you got 4's/5's on some AP's, the corresponding college classes/one level up should be pretty easy to do well on, with a few notable exceptions (ie Organic Chemistry right after AP Chemistry). If you took AP exams and got 3's, you may have some trouble getting an A in a class depending on difficulty, but it's still perfectly doable.

I went to a really competitive public high school and got around a 3.7 when converted to a 4.0 scale. Our valedictorian had a 4.15 or so, but A+'s were almost never given in high school outside of math and science classes. I got around a 3.5 in college, but I had some very bad health issues, including severe insomnia from a damaged nerve, which made memorizing much harder for me and really wore me out. In terms of difficulty, college was MUCH, MUCH, easier imo. But then, I met some people who had near 4.0's from their HS who found it very difficult. Again, it's all relative. If I had to go through HS the way I went through college, I probably would've struggled to have a 3.0 at my high school.

One of my closest friends from HS, for example, had a 3.85 in high school. He graduated with a 3.97 from Duke with a double major in math and economics and said it was easy. Granted, my friend was always insanely smart, but still...I would imagine that most people would find this to be incredibly difficult at that particular school.

However, most people think college is harder than HS. A lot is dependent on major, study habits, and where you went to high school/where you went to college. Work hard and you can find success anywhere you go.
 
Ditto on the fact that this really depends on the major and school.

I won't bother with my HS GPA bs, as it was not strictly based off a 4.0 system (AP classes were out of 6.6!!??) As for college I worked my ass off and managed a 3.95 GPA in engineering. My senior year I was just about ready to call it quits if the graduation hadn't been only a few weeks away.

I don't think HS GPA matters at all in life, but what does carry over to college (and beyond) is the work ethic and desire to succeed. Keep these things sharp.
 
As someone currently in college (going to be a senior), I'll try to give you some applicable advice. I would suggest getting organized / looking into organization methods that work for you now before school starts. Even if it's just a desk calendar where you can write your assignments in manageable portions per diem (like, if you have to read a 100 pages from a book over the week, parse it out so you're only reading 20 pages a night). Personally, I use the mac application Things to organize myself almost to an anal-retentive level, but it works for me. School's a lot less stressful and easier now that I've found this method to structure my studies.

I pretty much used to do what you're doing now (I had similar study habits in high school), but I managed to increase my studying for my first couple years. That being said, my semester abroad in Rome really kicked my ass into "realizing" what I needed to do (it wasn't a walk in the park abroad experience, it was more like graduate-level classics bootcamp). Through sheer luck and gumption, I still did well in college despite some computer science / high level math courses I took for "funsies." I like to intentionally bomb my GPA for some reason :lol:


Also, I'm jealous for anyone in a grade-inflating school. BU likes to deflate grades as much as possible, even providing pay incentives to the professors to curve grades down ;| (learned that after taking a formal logic course when my professor brought my 96% exam down to a B-).
 
I had a 3.85 in HS but dipped down to 2.8 in college (engineering curriculm and heavy partying don't mix - I still don't know how I managed to pass Differential Equations and I still have no idea what a surface integral is good for). I did bounce back nicely in law school though.
 
[quote name='Machine']I had a 3.85 in HS but dipped down to 2.8 in college (engineering curriculm and heavy partying don't mix - I still don't know how I managed to pass Differential Equations and I still have no idea what a surface integral is good for). I did bounce back nicely in law school though.[/QUOTE]

How are you finding law school? It's interesting how you're bouncing back considering the doom-and-gloom stories that seemingly everyone has about the damn thing.
 
I went to a bottom tier law school (Cooley). Since I don't plan on joining a big firm, all I needed was a JD and the ability to pass the bar (which I did last year). Also, I rocked the LSAT and got a full scholarship, so I couldn't pass it up. If you're going to be a solo practitioner, the majority of clients don't care what school you went to. Law school is really not bad. It was a lot of reading and memorizing but it's all pretty straight-forward and logical.
 
[quote name='dannyox718']

I don't think HS GPA matters at all in life, but what does carry over to college (and beyond) is the work ethic and desire to succeed. Keep these things sharp.[/QUOTE]

This is golden advice. Nail down those two qualities and you won't have to worry about GPA, because the A's will naturally come.
 
Mine went up. I had like a 3.3 or something in high school thanks to honors inflating it. Got a 4.0 in undergrad. Depends on the school and program and a gajillion things.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']Holy shit @ going to law school with a 2.8 AND getting a full scholarship with that shit. God damn.[/QUOTE]

He was blessed by the Patron Saint of Trolls. Much in the same way Micheal Patcher was blessed. Or the writers of Kotaku.
 
mine was flat in hs and college, a hair under 4.0 in both. right now i'm hovering in the 3.6-3.7 range in grad school, and that's mostly because i'm working a full time, 50+ hour a week job while going part time, so i haven't had time to study much.
 
How you do in high school doesn't necessarily reflect how you'll do in college. I got a 2 in AP Chem in my senior year (not one of my proudest moments), but my prof for Gen Chem I and II in undergrad rocked and I had no problem getting an A in both those classes. I think in undergrad I was lucky finding a lot of good profs for my classes who were not only decent teachers, but also made it clear what they wanted to test.

Of course, one other thing that was great about undergrad is I could start cramming for exams a couple days before and still get through everything. I really can't get away with that anymore unfortunately.
 
The hardest part of my transition to college was the freedom. I didn't have any of that in high school, so studying was just a logical way to pass the time and I graduated third in my class with a 4.2 (though, I still don't understand how getting above a 4.0 is possible).

In college, my GPA started off rocky (about a 2.2 for the few quarters), but I didn't really care because I was having too much fun. Then, for various reasons, I decided to buckle down and try, and I finished with around a 3.4. I can't really say I regret it, because as far as I know, the degree is what really helped me get the job, not the GPA.

Good luck to all new college students in this thread!
 
H.S. I was just above 3.0. My high school was tougher than most because classes which weren't math or physical science (which I did well in regardless) had a different grading scale (where anything below a 70 was failing, and to get a B you had to have at least an 84 or 85 if I remember correctly). Most high schools were easy, but my high school was known as tough. It was good because it made me more prepared for college. I had a 3.833 GPA at my first college, but was only there for a year. Got around a 3.6 GPA in Electrical & Computer Engineering Technology (Bachelors of Science from an accredited program).

Despite how well I did, my job doesn't fully utilize my degree (had problems getting a job).
 
[quote name='dannyox718']I don't think HS GPA matters at all in life, but what does carry over to college (and beyond) is the work ethic and desire to succeed. Keep these things sharp.[/QUOTE]

That is less true today that it was historically. In today's job market, I know of firms that have asked for high school GPAs and SATs (I had to provide that to my current employer when I applied 8 months ago).
 
[quote name='alongx']That is less true today that it was historically. In today's job market, I know of firms that have asked for high school GPAs and SATs (I had to provide that to my current employer when I applied 8 months ago).[/QUOTE]

Oh wow, I had no idea. That's pretty ridiculous.
 
Really depends on the major.

Science and Engineering majors require time and dedication.

There are no easy "homework points" in college. You do homework/practice tests so you don't fail the test. Most teachers could give a shit if you pass or fail. It's all about accountability and being responsible.

If you're pursuing an easier major, congratulations, you get to enjoy college. =)
 
[quote name='ph33r m3']You have bigger problems than maintaining a 3.5 GPA....

You live in North Dakota.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, the fact they have the lowest unemployment rate, one of the lowest crime rates, and state finances that aren't in the red due to entitlement programs is a real drag. :roll:


I know people at my job that have doctorate degrees that are complete idiots. If you have requirements for GPA for college that is fine, but when you graduate it is who you know that matters most. Or in my case, taking a job no one else wanted where you are trying to put out fires that someone else started.
 
[quote name='wwe101']do you have to be a genius to maintain a 3.5+ gpa in a science or engineering major?[/QUOTE]

Again, that's something that is going to be completely dependent on what college you go to. Getting a 3.5+ GPA at MIT is going to require a lot more work and "genius" than a 3.5+ at Cow Tech. However, if you're good enough to get into a school in the first place, you should possess the capabilities to get a 3.5+. Assuming that you picked the "right" major for you, and are actually motivated to do the work needed.
 
I thought college was challenging, but if you studied, the grades would be there. I'd be more interested in class rank than GPA given grade inflation.
 
You don't have to be a genius in any field to get a high GPA. You just have to work harder (i.e. spend more hours studying) in some fields, programs, schools etc. than others.

You have to have the requisite skills of course. Someone that struggles with math will have a hard time with Engineering or Physics etc., while someone that sucks at writing would struggle with English or Journalism etc.

So picking the right major is also key. Need to pick something you're truly interested in so you have the motivation to work hard, as well as picking something that fits your strengths.
 
Don't forget about studying properly as well, as reading material passively will get you nowhere. Annotate the text and quiz yourself on the material.
 
Yep. Part of spending the time is spending it wisely. You have to engage the material, read carefully, highlight and take notes on it etc. so that you can easily study it come exam time.
 
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