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Tips?
For people who have done this, what did you do?
By ~4.0, I mean from 3.7 to 4.0.

Don't pick a science major.

First year - Astronomy major - 2.9 gpa studying extensively.

2-4 year - Psychology major - 3.8 gpa (for each term, 3.5 overall) studying an average of 4-5 hours per semester per class, about 1 hour per test.

Makes me kinda pissed, if I just started a social science major I could easily be in the 3.8-3.9 range.

Use ratemyprofessors.com to find easy classes. Also, find out which classes, if any, in your school have mandatory curves. For instance, at my undergrad most of the math, science and engineering courses were curved to a 2.8, whereas the liberal arts courses had no standards.

Use ratemyprofessors.com like it's your job, and, speaking of jobs, get an on-campus office job if possible. I work at one 10-15 hours per week and have no real responsibilities to speak of, so I can get all my homework/reading/studying done during office hours. Done with everything by 5!

Edit - seems like Cavalier and I had the same idea about ratemyprofessors. It really is great. I think my average GPA for the classes I've picked because of that website is something like a 4.2. Seriously.

Does your school give out A+'s? If so, that's what you should be striving for.

I got one of my A+'s for a class I was going to get an A in until I explained to the professor that LSDAS scores a 4.33 an A+, and the significant advantage it gives over an A.

Be naturally gifted.

3.76 history major, religion minor. T20 school.

Member of a fraternity, partied a lot. GPA would probably be a little higher if I didn't party so much. Most semesters I was still able to go out/drink 3-4 nights of the week. GPA was lowest my first year in the house.

Just know what's important for the tests and write good papers. Like don't read every book if it's not gonna come in handy for your final paper or a test. I've had classes where I didn't do much work for the actual class, but wrote good papers and got As. Most of my teachers who said they were really into class participation were okay if you said maybe one thing each class.

At my school, to get a really high GPA, one would major in psych or soc. Hard sciences and business (curved classes) were not TCR. History and poli sci were on the harder end of the liberal arts spectrum, but not as hard the the sciences and there was no curve like business.

and

Bildungsroman wrote:Be naturally gifted.

Bildungsroman wrote:Be naturally gifted.

This.

Also, go to an undergrad business school that gives out A+'s and is curved to a 3.3 or higher.

Write good papers. Answer questions correctly.

Major in Finance, Marketing, or Management. Go to class.

mallard wrote:Write good papers. Answer questions correctly.

Credited.

Why the insistence on a "healthy social life"? Do you want a 4.0 or not?

It's not the material that's challenging, it's the discipline.

Treat school like a job and you can get A's and have plenty of time for fun.

Thirteen wrote:Major in Finance, Marketing, or Management. Go to class.

FTFY. Finance is not an easy major at most universities.

No science, no engineering. And I don't know why someone would recommend finance other than that they never looked at the curriculum. That's math intensive. Anything in the hard sciences is going to be curved, generally result in raw scores that are F's, and (at large research universities in particular) put you up against savants and pre-meds. Avoid anything populated by pre-meds. They make the worst law school gunning look tame.

Take an easy liberal arts major and don't assume that "finals" means "drink like fish until two weeks before." There's a difference between not being a cloistered nerd and never leaving frat row. Being highly intelligent never hurt anyone, either.

Be really bright compared to everyone at your school and work harder / smarter than them all 4 years of school. Chances are you're going to either have below a 4.0 or have a bad social life.

Non-punitive withdrawals.

Liberal arts major + ratemyprofessors.com + office hours + discipline.

work hard/play hard. Limit your social life during weekdays.

No video games

No TV

shutterbug wrote:Why the insistence on a "healthy social life"? Do you want a 4.0 or not?

They are not mutually exclusive.

It really ain't that hard, people. Limit your social life to the weekends? No video games or TV?

Hell, my video game to studying ratio was like 5:1 and I pulled a 3.8 in undergrad. Throw in all the drinking and TV and surfing the web, and it is a modern miracle that I even graduated.

For me it was largely a matter of being organized. I was a math major and had nearly a 4.0 (one B in a non math class). I did my homework and readings the day they were assigned in class. I spent about 30 minutes a day for each class just reviewing old material and practicing. Longer assignments I made sure I started really early. This let me have one night during the week mostly free and not work at all during the weekends.

romothesavior wrote:It really ain't that hard, people. Limit your social life to the weekends? No video games or TV?

Hell, my video game to studying ratio was like 5:1 and I pulled a 3.8 in undergrad. Throw in all the drinking and TV and surfing the web, and it is a modern miracle that I even graduated.

This. We used to all sit in a room and play Call of Duty online on the Xbox, like 3-4 of us. We'd rotate the controller and the people not playing would study/watch/hang out.

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