What school do you think has the hardest undergrad?

[alex8712]

First of all, in my neurobio class, we were using the same book as the Duke med students and were going faster than they were. We finished the ENTIRE book half way through the semester (and covered every page mind you)

Umm... if you mean Purves et al, Duke med students finish "every page" of it in two and a half weeks. Odds are, no matter where you went to undergrad, med school will be harder.

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[constructor]

You're not in med school, are you. I was talking about MED SCHOOL not some English class in college. When I'm talking 4-6 chapters a day I'm talking biochem/anatomy/endocrinology. You liken that to some humanities reading? Man, the first month of school we started and FINISHED medical-level biochemistry! That is 2 semesters of undergraduate biochemistry in ONE MONTH! Do you fathom what that means and how much reading that is?

BTW there are a ton of engineering students in my class, including masters and Ph.D's so you're comment about liking to see "how many med students could handle engineering" is just strange to say the least, not to mention that the human body is probably the most highly advanced engineered system on the planet, and that's what you have to learn "as much as you can in 2 years."

You are in for a surprise, my friend, if you think med school is "easier" than undergrad engineering.

i don't know where you or those other engineers you know went to school, so you're in no position to comment on the acedemics at my undergraduate institution, either. trust me, i know what i'm getting into. i have taken classes at the medical school and i'm not implying that it's easy. but the difficulty with medicine is primarily due to the sheer amount of information, not due to the level of abstraction or difficulty of the concepts. every physician i've spoken to says that medicine is about hard work, not about intelligence. they also agree that engineering is a lot more challenging than medicine. if you haven't had the opportunity to ask these questions of doctors you know, i would encourage you to do so for your own sake. you don't seem to be ready to give anything away to people who aren't med students.

 

[Shredder]

I agree with most of what constructor said. As for the hardest undergrad, I've heard bad things about MIT. Although the obvious conclusion is UT Austin of course.

 

[Daichi Katase]

Arizona State....You should look at my GPA

Nah...it definately depends on the major.

 

[constructor]

I agree with most of what constructor said. As for the hardest undergrad, I've heard bad things about MIT. Although the obvious conclusion is UT Austin of course.

haha, i tried to resist the obvious conclusion in my case as well. i don't go to MIT, but let's be honest here...

 

[Shredder]

Arizona State....You should look at my GPA

Nah...it definately depends on the major.

Everything depends on something, but when you're trying to make generalizations like this you have to be willing to set aside exceptions here and there. You could categorize hardest schools by major, but even then it would depend on something else.

 

[BeatArmy]

haha, i tried to resist the obvious conclusion in my case as well. i don't go to MIT, but let's be honest here...

I think we all realize the stupidity of this thread, and yet we can't quite resist.
So here's my totaly unbiased input...

How about some love for the Service Academies??

Tough academically. No grade inflation. Even english majors have to take about half engineering classes. Heavy demands on your time from the military and physical training.
About one in three people from each class doesn't make it to graduation. A 3.0 puts you in the top third of your class (roughly) at graduation.

In a purely academic analysis, I'm sure it's not the toughest in the country (although it is up there), but I'd say there is absolutely no tougher freshman year in the country. Carrying the heavy academic load, learning a ton of professional information, and getting yelled at all day in the dorms. Just being able to focus on your academic classes is an accomplishment.

Of course, I'm really only talking about the Naval Academy.
Air Force and West Point are easy. Like being in a country club.

 

[Ross434]

hell, add UGA then. In the cell/molecular program.. out of 100 students about 12 get as, 25 B's and 30 c's while the other 50 get Ds and Fs.

And that's with 80, 65, 50 cutoffs.

Scott

In my ****hole school - out of 50 students, about 2 get A's , 5 get B's, 15 Get C's and the other 28 get D's and F's

but that may reflect on the quality of the students, not the difficulty of the coursework

 

[constructor]

In my ****hole school - out of 50 students, about 2 get A's , 5 get B's, 15 Get C's and the other 28 get D's and F's

but that may reflect on the quality of the students, not the difficulty of the coursework

i give you props for saying something a lot of people could have said (or at least realized) about their schools instead of complaining about harvard's grade inflation.

 

[mdsadler]

Yes, def MIT as well. I forgot about them. All of the ones i mentioned have the good ol B- centered structure as well. Pretty harsh

That sounds a lot like my school. B- is the average until third year (junior) when it becomes a B.

 

[overrated]

I am a senior at the University of Chicago, and it's hardly lucky that the mean is set at C+ compared to state schools. I think it was a terrible decision to come here as a pre-med, even though I've gotten an awesome education. So what if a bunch of people fail in your OChem class, but you got an A, if your entire class didn't score above a 12 on the bio section of the MCAT. My roommate got a C in OChem and had a 14 on bio. What's truly unfortunate is that some (luckily not many) med schools still use an archaic formula-based system that counts your GPA without paying attention to where you went to school when scheduling interviews. This is ridiculous and ultimately will only hurt that school. Of course, the better schools seem to acknowledge the qualitative aspects. Anyway, it seems obvious that any school that combines a whole group of very bright students in a class and then sets the mean at anything other than an A is going to make it very difficult to earn a grade that you could attain with considerably less effort at a lesser institution. I have to say all of you who cast your votes for UChicago were right on.

 

[whattodowithmys]

I am a senior at the University of Chicago, and it's hardly lucky that the mean is set at C+ compared to state schools. I think it was a terrible decision to come here as a pre-med, even though I've gotten an awesome education. So what if a bunch of people fail in your OChem class, but you got an A, if your entire class didn't score above a 12 on the bio section of the MCAT. My roommate got a C in OChem and had a 14 on bio. What's truly unfortunate is that some (luckily not many) med schools still use an archaic formula-based system that counts your GPA without paying attention to where you went to school when scheduling interviews. This is ridiculous and ultimately will only hurt that school. Of course, the better schools seem to acknowledge the qualitative aspects. Anyway, it seems obvious that any school that combines a whole group of very bright students in a class and then sets the mean at anything other than an A is going to make it very difficult to earn a grade that you could attain with considerably less effort at a lesser institution. I have to say all of you who cast your votes for UChicago were right on.

I agree with this post and the others that say difficulty DOES depend on school, and GPA should be scaled accordingly. Honestly, people that say otherwise are most probably lying to themselves.

Just some food for though...
My step-uncle is on admissions committee at a top 5 engineering school on the east coast (its in atlanta...any guesses...?)...
His exact words to me: Undergrads (engineering) applying to both the Phd and masters programs from the following schools:
MIT, Cornell, Caltech, Cal-Berkeley
have thier GPA multiplied by a factor of 1.11 before it is considered in the regular applicant pool., i.e. a 3.0 from these schools => 3.3 from others and 3.4 => 3.77... need I say more?

 

[tik-tik-clock]

no one voting

UCSD?!?!

 

[VUMD2be]

vandy is rough... every bio class is centered@ a B-. the average for our most recent physics exam was a 52. +20 pt curve = raw score. (c- average.)

 

[Code Brown]

In my ****hole school - out of 50 students, about 2 get A's , 5 get B's, 15 Get C's and the other 28 get D's and F's

Not bad...my O-chem1 class at a lovely state school has a 65% failure rate. I've heard that this semester, it's gonna be around 75%.

but that may reflect on the quality of the students, not the difficulty of the coursework

You could be on to something here

 

[CharlieVN]

Los Angeles Pierce Community College

 

[bjackrian]

no one voting

UCSD?!?!

No.

 

[mr. sparkle]

cornell & mit (but i'm a little biased. and by a little, i mean severely.)

 

[lehavre]

My vote goes for Univ. of Chicago or Johns Hopkins (grade de-flation). And no, i didnt go to either.

That's right! I am officially the hardest undergrad. I mean I try and try with great lines, I try just being myself, I even try scrounging for dollars to try and pay for it, but to no avail: I am still the Hardest Undergrad.

Even when I do get to......The next day I am still "the Hardest Undergrad" I am just insatiable, incorrigible and incapacitated till i can figure out how to deal with this situation.

-The Hardest Undergrad

 

[skiracer90]

At my school the regular classes have averages ranging from 65-75...but I'm pretty sure that reflects the quality of the students more so than the actual difficulty level of the classes. However, honors classes require a B or better for them to count as honors...so I'm thinking the averages are a lot higher in those classes (either due to the more dedicated students or the professors wanting kids to have the classes count). I definitely agree that there is no accurate way to determine which undergrad school is harder...too many confounding variables!!!