Low Engineering GPAs

[dyspareunia]

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Contrary to conventional wisdom, engineering departments tend to grade significantly higher than science departments for the schools in our database.

"[engineering] schools in our database" includes:
College of New Jersey, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Ohio, Princeton, Stanford, Wisconsin-Madison and Wisconsin-Milwaukee.


umad engineering majors?

http://www.gradeinflation.com/tcr2010grading.pdf

 

[Microglia]

"[engineering] schools in our database" includes:
College of New Jersey, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Ohio, Princeton, Stanford, Wisconsin-Madison and Wisconsin-Milwaukee.


umad engineering majors?

http://www.gradeinflation.com/tcr2010grading.pdf

Lol. What? I've always thought of engineering as much more difficult to get a good GPA in. And I am not an engineer. Not sure how much I trust this, would need to take the time to look through their methods and stats (haven't clicked link yet).

Edit: quick glance also shows private schools having a significantly more inflated GPA than public schools. Interesting.

 

[dyspareunia]

Lol. What? I've always thought of engineering as much more difficult to get a good GPA in. And I am not an engineer. Not sure how much I trust this, would need to take the time to look through their methods and stats (haven't clicked link yet).

Edit: quick glance also shows private schools having a significantly more inflated GPA than public schools. Interesting.

I think most people do.

 

[nOchemallday]

Engineers have a lot of classes that "even out" the later GPA breakers: Intro to engineering design and the associated lab (basically engineering 101 and 102). Ethics for Engineers. Non-major math requirements like Diff Eq (for engineers) or Linear algebra (for engineers). Bio (for engineers). Introductory programming/CS (for engineers).

Not saying that overall engineering majors are easier, but these types of classes probably contribute to the GPA boost. (Although they don't necissarily apply to pre-md Engineers)

 

[NoDakDok]

Lol. What? I've always thought of engineering as much more difficult to get a good GPA in. And I am not an engineer. Not sure how much I trust this, would need to take the time to look through their methods and stats (haven't clicked link yet).

In admissions the boost 'difficult' majors get is minimal at best anyways.

Edit: quick glance also shows private schools having a significantly more inflated GPA than public schools. Interesting.

This is pretty common knowledge with a few exceptions to the rule (e.g. I believe Princeton is one)

 

[Aerus]

At my school there are a few grade inflated engineer classes, but they are upper division, so one must still survive the grade deflated weeder intro classes.

 

[Microglia]

In admissions the boost 'difficult' majors get is minimal at best anyways.



This is pretty common knowledge with a few exceptions to the rule (e.g. I believe Princeton is one)

I would be interested in seeing how this varies by engineering sub specialty. I know from my engineering friends that MechE, BioE, and fire safety E are substantially less difficult than ChemE and AeroE, so I wonder if the difference between common perception and data could be explained by the varying difficulties of the different engineer programs.

 

[dechristine]

The point of the article you linked was a historical analysis on grade inflation in private vs. public schools, not that engineering GPAs are on average higher than science GPAs. I would agree that it depends on the engineering major as well as the science major — I know that the chemE and EE majors at my school do take classes similar in difficulty to me (I'm in physics). Their classes tend to be more application based than theory based (which makes sense) and may be easier in the sense that they're expected to be able to apply an equation to a problem vs. be able to derive the equation and then apply it. Anyway, my point is that instead of continually attacking each other for which major is this and which major is that, we should all be able to draw from our experiences and equally commiserate about how difficult some of our classes have been but how awesome it was to finish those classes and get on with our lives.

 

[xnfs93hy]

I'm a BME major and my engineering classes were graded way more harshly than were my medical school pre-req classes. If you can get through engineering, then the pre-reqs should be a breeze.

 

[NoDakDok]

Moral of the story is your mileage may vary, and that's exactly why no one cares what you major in. Frankly, your GPA and MCAT is what matters in this case, not your courses. And never, ever expect someone to give you the 'benefit of the doubt' because you took something 'difficult.'