Career Question- State School vs. Big Private

[surftheiop]

Transferring would help my GPA alot. I have friends at clemson back home who (atleast so far, they are sophmores) say that college has been MUCH easier than high-school (I made almost identical grades to them in high-school). One of them has a 4.0 and another a 3.8. They rarely go to class and i have yet to miss a class. Sure the class content might be similar (im not so sure it is) but the grading is so much easier there.
At the moment the mean grade in most the classes im taking is curved to a B- so you have to be a decent bit about average to make a 3.0. And if there is one thing I have learned since being at Cornell it is that im not above average.

[pig4bill]

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Transferring would help my GPA alot. I have friends at clemson back home who (atleast so far, they are sophmores) say that college has been MUCH easier than high-school (I made almost identical grades to them in high-school). One of them has a 4.0 and another a 3.8. They rarely go to class and i have yet to miss a class. Sure the class content might be similar (im not so sure it is) but the grading is so much easier there.
At the moment the mean grade in most the classes im taking is curved to a B- so you have to be a decent bit about average to make a 3.0. And if there is one thing I have learned since being at Cornell it is that im not above average.

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I would take that with a huge grain of salt. I find it hard to believe that any college engineering program is easier than high school.

[surftheiop]

Im sure the actual engineering classes are hard but its the math/physics/chem core classes that are so much easier there.
I saw questions from the physics midterm and it was literally distance = rate x time problems or F = MA.

Or in some multivariable calculus classes you can use a calculator to solve intergrals while in our class you have to do them by hand, etc.

[J.A.Sucker]

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Im sure the actual engineering classes are hard but its the math/physics/chem core classes that are so much easier there.
I saw questions from the physics midterm and it was literally distance = rate x time problems or F = MA.

Or in some multivariable calculus classes you can use a calculator to solve intergrals while in our class you have to do them by hand, etc.

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Not true in my experience. I helped WRITE the exams in Chem classes and the questions are the same difficulty as the classes that I took. The textbooks are the same, too.

[J.A.Sucker]

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Transferring would help my GPA alot. I have friends at clemson back home who (atleast so far, they are sophmores) say that college has been MUCH easier than high-school (I made almost identical grades to them in high-school). One of them has a 4.0 and another a 3.8. They rarely go to class and i have yet to miss a class. Sure the class content might be similar (im not so sure it is) but the grading is so much easier there.
At the moment the mean grade in most the classes im taking is curved to a B- so you have to be a decent bit about average to make a 3.0. And if there is one thing I have learned since being at Cornell it is that im not above average.

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I would take that with a huge grain of salt. I find it hard to believe that any college engineering program is easier than high school.

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A note about GPA's in college:

At expensive private schools, it's almost impossible to get a D or F. If you show up, you will get a C because the school (correctly) view you as a customer. Mommy and Daddy are paying 40K a year to send junior to this school; you will not fail. A's are really tough, though, because the top of the class works very hard. A 3.0 average should be pretty easy if you care at all.

At a public school, people fail, especially in the first couple of years when classes are too big. A's can still be really tough to get; I remember a bio class I took that was on a true bell curve - 7% A, 2% A-, 9% F's. This was the most competitive and terrible class I ever took.

[prohornblower]

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Transferring would help my GPA alot. I have friends at clemson back home who (atleast so far, they are sophmores) say that college has been MUCH easier than high-school (I made almost identical grades to them in high-school). One of them has a 4.0 and another a 3.8. They rarely go to class

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The accuracy of this is all highly doubtful.

[surftheiop]

Which part of it dont you believe?

[prohornblower]

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Transferring would help my GPA alot. I have friends at clemson back home who (atleast so far, they are sophmores) say that college has been MUCH easier than high-school (I made almost identical grades to them in high-school). One of them has a 4.0 and another a 3.8. They rarely go to class

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These are the parts I find "highly doubtful".

EDIT: I didn't say I don't "believe" it. But the accuracy is highly doubtful. Plus, they are only in their 2nd year for Pete's sake.

[surftheiop]

Thats understandable, i guess this is a pointless arguement anyway.

Thanks for the input though, its good to hear what otehr people think

[J.A.Sucker]

In technical fields, you are better off going to a state school in most instances. This is especially true if you plan on going to some sort of graduate/medical school. Now, for grad school, then it really matters (though some state schools have top programs, such as Berkeley or CU-Boulder in Physics and Chemistry), but they will pay you to go, so whatever. Medical school matters somewhat, but not as much as most people think. The key for anyone in a technical field is to get a job in a research lab doing some independent work. You'll find a prof you like and go do some work for him. Try to publish a paper or two. It's fun, you can get course credit, and may even get paid. This is your ticket to whatever you want to do (including law school, BTW).

I wish I knew this back when I was in high school, but I didn't. Fortunately for me, I ended up going to a state school anyway and was able to get into every grad school in the country for my PhD. My total education cost (excluding room and board) was 6K, and half of that was for books (bachelor's in 2000). I had a lot of fun in college, and after TA'ing the kids at Stanford (where I did my PhD), I'm really glad I didn't go to one of those pressure cookers for undergrad, because it's a very different college experience.