Finished up my freshman first quarter of college with a 3.74 GPA. Is this good?

My experience was more specifically with MBA stuff where the schools specifically told me the GMAT was a better assessment of what my abilities would be at the school and in the future because school GPAs are highly variable based on the specific school (while the test is standardized).

For general masters business programs with the GRE maybe it is different. I didn't mean GPA wasn't important but more of the threshold thing as in if you have a GPA above 3.3, most business employers made no mention of a GPA that was higher, if I mentioned it they didn't seem to care.

I agree "research/getting a mention in a publication" is the most important and is something I think many undergrads should focus on.

Harvard curves to an A-....so I disagree.

northeastrunner wrote:

Harvard curves to an A-....so I disagree.

Yeah it's easier getting As at Harvard than most state schools, seriously.

Try Cornell (notorious for grade deflation) vs. state school.

I'm sure that's true for business majors, but he's a science major of some sort so I assume he won't be looking to get an MBA.

I just took the GRE and did fairly well, so was disappointed when I did research and every school's website basically said "we don't give a f*** about the GRE, just get above this score". The schools I was looking at generally stated a minimum GPA of 3.1-3.2.

The problem is that the math section is absurdly easy for science types and the verbal's not too bad, so there're a lot of high scores.

If you just want grad schools, probably not a big deal. But if you want to get into a top professional school of some sort 3.74 won't generally cut it.

Pretty much precludes you from Yale, Harvard, and Stanford for law school regardless of your LSAT score (might get lucky at Harvard if you get a 178-180). It will also raise the LSAT score you need to get into the next tier of schools (Chicago, Columbia, NYU, Berkeley). Below the median at pretty much anywhere in the top 14.

3.74 also might be a bit low for medical schools in general, though certainly it wouldn't preclude you from them if your MCAT went well.

For grad schools though, it matters as much that your research interests match with the professors as your GPA is high.

Law dude wrote:

If you just want grad schools, probably not a big deal. But if you want to get into a top professional school of some sort 3.74 won't generally cut it.

Pretty much precludes you from Yale, Harvard, and Stanford for law school regardless of your LSAT score (might get lucky at Harvard if you get a 178-180). It will also raise the LSAT score you need to get into the next tier of schools (Chicago, Columbia, NYU, Berkeley). Below the median at pretty much anywhere in the top 14.

3.74 also might be a bit low for medical schools in general, though certainly it wouldn't preclude you from them if your MCAT went well.

For grad schools though, it matters as much that your research interests match with the professors as your GPA is high.

False: Law school:

Medical school:

Bottom line, kid: you did well and should be proud of yourself, but you have room for improvement. Don't be complacent. Study harder and do better - you can probably get straight As if you really work at it. If extracurricular activities are important for what you want to do after college do those. And don't neglect having a good social life.

Good luck!

An Historian wrote:

False: Law school:

http://www.ilrg.com/rankings/law/index.php/1/desc/GPALow

Medical school:

http://www.washington.edu/uaa/gateway/advising/downloads/gpamcat.pdf

Bottom line, kid: you did well and should be proud of yourself, but you have room for improvement. Don't be complacent. Study harder and do better - you can probably get straight As if you really work at it. If extracurricular activities are important for what you want to do after college do those. And don't neglect having a good social life.

Good luck!

What did I say that was false? A 3.74 is below the median almost everywhere in the top-14 for law school. Period. GPA low is not the same as a GPA median. Also, attending one of those schools, I can tell you that the people who get in with below median GPAs or LSAT scores have done absurd, amazing things with their lives.

I guess i'll take the liberty of answering this question seriously, although you should know better than to post this at letsrun. a 3.74 in and of itself is not THAT great... however it is very solid. Nonetheless that is very impressive for your first semester. I got a 3.66 my first quarter, and now i have a 3.90 cumulative... most likely you will get better. However, im a social sciences major, which is far easier than math/science... so that makes your gpa even more impressive. I'd say, overall, you're doing fine

3.74 with a good LSAT would be competitive at several "T-14" law schools (though it is a little low for HYS). Also, that is not a low GPA for medical school. Of course that is all if maintained through 4 years.

Look, bro, I didn't mean to bust balls, I just thought that assessment was a little negative. I certainly agree that the OP needs to do better if (s)he plans to get into a top graduate school, unless (s)he plans on getting a high score on whatever standardized test is applicable (or course, if you can do really well on the LSAT/MCAT/GRE you can probably do well in undergrad).