seriously, what's a bad GPA?? Forum

[OperaAttorney]

philosophy of mind is pretty interesting.

I know, I know. But a Nazi prof is teaching it. LOL

[kn6542]

I have my mind set on other electives, such as Phil of Language, Phil of Law, Phil of Psychology, Bioethics, Phil of Agency, Phil of Religion, and Justice.

You're gonna need some understanding of epistemology for those classes. But if it's not a prereq already, they will probably cover some of it in class.

[OperaAttorney]

LOL @ Kn6452. I may end up taking it, but I'm not sure yet. It also has to fit into my schedule. But thanks for the tip.

[kn6542]

But a Nazi prof is teaching it

Are you at UT?

[OperaAttorney]

No, Kn6452. I'm at a UC in Southern California.

UT Austin's a great law school, but I don't like Austin. LOL

[larikay]

One of the reasons why science majors are difficult is that the American secondary school system is very weak in the hard core sciences. Kids graduate highschool with little background in the sciences.

I have a friend who was an engineering major, and she used to take 24 credits per semester and end up with a 4.0.

[ShibaDan]

Ok so major is one thing, but what about number of credits. For example, I'm doing a double major in Poli-Sci (a great program, not a joke for the record) and also Spanish Literature and Language. Because I just started learning Spanish in college and they require an additional language besides Spanish (I did Japanese) I ended up taking 17-21 credits a semester. I will graduate with 25+ extra credits, more than 2 full-time semesters. Does this make my 3.6 a little more impressive?

[Formerbruin]

It can't hurt... but semesters with less than 20 units aren't particularly impressive.

[OperaAttorney]

Ok so major is one thing, but what about number of credits. For example, I'm doing a double major in Poli-Sci (a great program, not a joke for the record) and also Spanish Literature and Language. Because I just started learning Spanish in college and they require an additional language besides Spanish (I did Japanese) I ended up taking 17-21 credits a semester. I will graduate with 25+ extra credits, more than 2 full-time semesters. Does this make my 3.6 a little more impressive.

I'm impressed.

[thisabyssisbliss]

17-21 credits a semester doesn't mean anything without knowing how many credits a normal semester entails at your school, although you said 25 is more than 2 semesters so I am guessing it is 12? This makes it more impressive if it was 16 like it is at my school.

[turendil]

this entire debate and no one has mentioned that not all liberal arts majors are created equal. As a History/classical studies major I find that I put in more work for Ancient Greek than a lot of pre-med majors do for organic chemistry.

[M20009]

I find that I put in more work for Ancient Greek than a lot of pre-med majors do for organic chemistry.

That's only because you're the hardest working SOB on the face of the planet.

[turendil]

^^^^^^^^^right. More like the laziest.

[vvv4]

I'm a double major at a top 25 university, one in a hard science and the other in a social science. From my experiences, and from talking to my peers from each of my majors, I've pretty much concluded that most social sciences (sociology, etc) are a joke, and hard science is significantly tougher. Overall, it seems obvious enough that students who succeed well in a hard science could do equally well or better in regular social science, whereas the opposite isn't true. It's pretty naive to say otherwise.

I think other majors though aren't necessarily easier. I can see how languages, music, classics, and such could all come with their own ways of being difficult. But let's not pretend that politics is remotely comparable to physics and continue to make foolish statements that liken the two in difficulty.

[Da Stain]

Just curious if this is one of the original threads in which Ken created an alt to ask himself questions and then answer them?

[Oklahoma Mike]

it would be a good one for that

I think people arguing over what majors are harder and how much they are weighed shows that there are various opinions, and it seems from interviews with adcoms there are differing opinions by them.
I don't think Ken was saying a 3.3 in Most Science degrees would be better than a 3.7 in liberal arts.

I think the short answer is that anything below a 3.4 in any major will make getting into a top5 school extremely unlikely, even with a good lsat- but the lsat is weighed heavily and if your lsat is high enough even a horrible gpa won't keep you from getting into a good school.

[joonbug]

Northwestern is the least of T14 schools who cares about your GPA, as long as you have good LSAT score and WE factors. Berkeley represents the other side of that spectrum. So there is no really "bad" GPA unless you are riding on a 2.5 GPA.

[babs22pa]

Like beauty, which is equally hard to define, it is impossible to precisely pinpoint what a good and bad GPA is.

I miss Ken.

[joonbug]

Well, aside from the flowery idealism here, I'm sure that 2.0 is a bad GPA and 135 is a bad LSAT score.

[ghenderson]

For the OP and all the others, I went to a top 10 UG (should be obvious which from my name), started as a physics major and eventually switched to a BS in econ, finishing the physics minor. I applied to LS with a 3.40 (3.0 after freshman year) and a 164 in Sept. I retook and got a 176 in Dec and was still able to get into CLS with all those negatives (pretty weak softs also).
I personally do look down on most liberal arts majors (not the people just the difficulty/grading of the courses of study) and I'm sure that my harder courses helped me get in to some top LSs (as noted by one dean on an acceptance letter). I really feel the analytical reasoning required is directly applicable to LS, more directly than a poli sci/ english major.

So have faith fellow science-minded people, and to you liberal arts lovers I expect and understand any resentment you may have to this post, but so be it.

[Oklahoma Mike]

There may be some resentment- but I don't think your case really shows that harder majors are valued that much more.
A 3.4 176 (even with a lower score previously) would be a decent shot at CLS regardless of the major. The harder major is a very good soft factor- but I don't think it's the .5 bump some people have claimed. Maybe a hard major at a top school would give you a .2 bump- but your numbers seem like they'd be a crapshoot at the t14. In at most of the bottom half, out at HYS, and 50/50 on places like CLS, NYU, Chicago

[jscreep]

To all you difficult major graduates....

I earned my degree in fashion design. All of you chemistry, biology, blah blah blah students who think their major was more difficult then everyone else, tell me, how have you used your degree?

Are you a scientist now? Did you solve any major issues?

Look it does not matter what you studied in undergrad as long as YOU are happy with it.

All of you might think fashion design is not difficult at all.

Try and design an entire collection, create the patters, source out resources (in my case, it involved traveling through Europe looking for fabrics), manufacture it yourself, and present it to a professional panel.

The point is, not one major is harder than the other, AS LONG AS IT IS WHAT YOU LIKE! THAT'S WHAT MAKES IT EASY.

I then went on to study finance and risk management. Was it difficult, YES! Did I enjoy it YES! So therefore, my interest in finance made it easier to bare the formulas and all other crap.

Now I trade equities and derivatives.

Edit: I have 176 undergraduate credits. Went from Pre-Med to Fashion Design!

[LoseItToMe]

i love old threads like this. there's so much TLS history in them.






this thread is following that same route and will, in a few years, be bumped by a new poster asking questions about TLS myths and legends. vote "yes".

[jscreep]

"Just because someone likes their major does NOT make it easy. You may enjoy it but it is still grueling and requires more work (harder) than other majors."

Whatever...you chose the major now deal with it. Don't expect sympathy from me.

I still smell bullsh*t.

I am doing finance and risk management while others are doing management and marketing. Do I think finance is hard....hell yeah. Can I do marketing....hell no!

So unless you have cured cancer or aids, YOUR MAJOR IS EQUAL TO THE REST.

So deal with it!

[TheGreatNorthwest]

I know a girl with a 2.4 UGPA English major that was on academic probation, small private school out West. Got a 169 LSAT and a free ride to Mercer. Probably saved her $100,000.