4.0 Undergrad

Other suggestions are pretty lame just do the work and take it seriously? Think I needed to drop one class my entire career. There’s no secret sauce to being good at school you just have to put the effort in.

Oh and contrary to above, take classes you’re actually interested in as those will be your easiest classes since you’ll actually want to do the work (as opposed to slogging through basketweaving)

While I agree with the sentiment about taking easier classes (imo professor matters way more than class), I think spending 75% of your time preparing for IB is overkill. I think balance is critical - make sure you do purely social things that make college fun. For me, being in a fraternity and playing club sports gives me time to relax and do things I enjoy, which in turn keeps me motivated and prepared to grind when I have to, Also, being as organized as possible (put all of your assignments for the week in a calendar, know when exams are in advance, etc) certainly helps. Lastly, I’d say try to be healthy by eating well and exercising regularly - being fit really does help you get the best out of yourself both academically and professionally.

Agree with all the professors - always take the easiest one and ask your friends for recs. I would also take more quantitative over qualitative classes if you can. Essays, projects, presentations can all be graded differently if the prof likes you or not. Hard to suck up to every prof successfully, but if you take more quantitative exam-focused classes then grading is opaque and objective.

I might ruffle some feathers here, but I’m very much against the “easy class” sentiment above. While I think it’s great to strive for excellence, you shouldn’t allow you’re pursuit of a 4.0 to steer your academic path. Take classes that interest you or that might be outside of your comfort zone. Actively target classes that you think will challenge you intellectually instead of searching for the easy A. I think that being focused on engineering your academic schedule to be as easy as possible can leave you intellectually stunted. In my opinion, a 4.0 isn’t worth much if you didn’t have to push yourself academically to achieve it.

TBH you don't need a 4.0 in undergrad regardless of where you come from.

I think once you get up to 3.7+ your grades matter less than you think. You can have significantly better college experiences, leadership positions, and valuable research/internships that will help you out more than having a 4.0. In fact getting that 4.0 will probably prevent you in these other areas unless you are just a natural genius.

I have a few friends that were significantly less successful during OCR than I thought who had 4.0 GPAs.

Don’t take STUPID classes that won’t do anything for you. I was majoring in pre-med for a while because I wanted to explore my options —> got a 3.3 and a 3.5 for 2 semesters. I’ve had a 4.0 ever since but average out at about a 3.75. My major GPA is high 3.9 now that I’m back in the business side of things, but my cGPA isn’t anything to call home about.

I calculated it out, and I also took some classes because I thought they sounded cool, but both covered the same general so I didn’t get anything from it. Worse, in each of these generals, I took it once and got an A, then in the other class (which covered the same general) I got a B+ at best. If I started school over, knowing what I wanted from the start, taking only the classes I needed to graduate, I’d have a 3.95 cumulative GPA. I’d probably have more internships too because I would’ve made up my mind sooner about IB.

Class isn’t hard when you have a gift for it and the passion to study. If you love finance/econ, and you’re willing to put in the work, only take those classes. Don’t take the bowling theory class even if you’ve always thought it would be cool to learn how to spin the ball to perfectly hit a pin. Also, if you try something like anthropology but find it stupid, then you’ll get burned every freaking time.

TLDR; don’t take “easy” classes necessarily, but definitely take the classes you’ll work hard in so they will seem easy. Don’t take stupid classes that you don’t need to graduate, be better at planning your schedule.

I have three simple but helpful tips for maintaining a 4.0. be VERY picky with professors. scour rate my professors, ask friends, upperclassmen, etc. generally know who is good and who is not. and by that, I don't mean pick the easy professors who hand out As like candy, because you won't learn much in their classes. I mean choose the professors who are rated as "fair," "dedicated," or generally a good teacher. having someone who can clearly explain material and then gives exams based off that material (not random stuff they pulled out of the footnotes of the textbook) is life-changing. given that you're striving for a 4.0 you are likely a person who actually studies before tests, so combine that with a fair professor and you will be fine.

my second tip is all about mindset. before I start any class I never think "I'm going to fail," I actually tell myself anything is possible with studying. it's very basic and even cheesy, but I know so many students who literally put out into the universe before every test that they're gonna do horribly or joke about getting a D, when you could channel that energy into positive thoughts about yourself.

third tip is to memorize the grade distribution in a class. if homework in total is 10% but each exam is worth 20-30%, then don't waste all your energy on one homework assignment when you could save it for studying for exams. this is especially helpful when you approach the end of the semester and have significantly high grades where it counts. for example, despite not acing every little assignment this semester, I only needed a 73 on the final to get an A in one class and about a 78 in the other. work smarter, not harder.

good luck!

Taking easy classes or easy professors is certainly one way to boost your gpa. Given how expensive higher education is, there's certainly a valid argument to just take whatever classes give you a gpa that's attractive to employers. This will make me sound like a nerd, but I enjoy learning, and I like the challenge of taking classes I'm interested in, even if they aren't easy.

My approach up to this point has honestly just been putting the work in. If I ever don't understand something, I'm immediately in office hours or TA hours. It's not fun, and sometimes I have to sacrifice social events for the sake of studying or finishing a project. I justify the occasional late nights by telling myself that I'm putting in the work that other people may not be so that I can achieve my goals. Different people have different priorities, but this works for me.

I'm currently around a 3.97 as a junior, and maybe could have had the perfect 4.0 if I skipped more parties, but it's important to figure out where you can strike a balance. Getting good grades and a prestigious internship is a great feeling, but what's the point if you can't share that experience or happiness with friends.

Something else I've found useful is to rigorously keep track of my grades in a spreadsheet and calculate how each assignment contributes to the final grade. Doing so lets me figure out which classes I can afford to relax a little bit in and which classes need additional effort. If I've been doing well in a class and think I only need an 80% on the final to secure an A, I won't bother memorizing every last detail, and instead I'll redirect that energy to a class in which I have less of a buffer.

tl;dr unless you're on probation, don't make academics your only focus; figure out which classes need the most effort; above all, put in the work

caffeine and adderall baby

You might have trouble getting classes with the best and easy profs. Remember, everyone will be doing this in this day and age. However, if you join a sports team you'll get priority registration.

I regret not doing sports in college. I could have used a coach that would have kicked my ass and mentored me.

Environment was also important for me. I did a ton of studying in the library, but in my home I would procrastinate like crazy. Find the environment you'll be productive in.

Anki was a huge life saver. It's a flashcard app; it uses a cloud so you can access your cards from your pc on your phone. Best APP ever. if you take notes and write them down in the form of questions on this app, it'll ensure success one exams.

Don’t have a 4.0 myself but know someone who did. Essentially treat every assignment like your life depends on it/never slack off. Be the kid who turns down going out to do that one hw assignment... Would say 3.8+ shows your smart and allows breathing room for the A-s. There are some classes where the difference between an A and an A- is not worth it. Go have some extracurriculars instead. Never had an interviewer ask or comment about my GPA. As long as you have a solid GPA, behavioral questions are all about your varying experiences in college. You can only use studying in the library until midnight/ all nighter for exam So many times...

I had around a 3.5 semester GPA for first and second semester freshman year. I had a 4.0 semester GPA for first and second semester sophomore year. My classes sophomore year were harder. On top of that, I spent time networking/interviewing. My work ethic did not change. What changed? I used my school's ratemyprofessor system and would spend hours on end optimizing the easiest professors.

saved

Probably depends on the uni system / course (especially how much group assignments you have) but I got a 4.0 gpa at a German target uni through mainly learning a lot, i.e. memorising / learning stuff by heart.

I’ll share a bit about how I got a 3.9 and hopefully you find my methods to be helpful. I think the key is in time management. As a freshmen, when I wasn’t in class during the day, I was studying in the library. If I didn’t have an assignment due/test the next day, I was getting ahead. Most evenings I studied maybe an hour or two. I would proceed to spend time with friends/ drinking, etc. Usually never studied past 10pm. I would get my work done during the day/evening then flip the switch to relax/drink/time with friends in the evenings/nights. This has worked very well for me. I like to think I have a strong separation between work during the day and social life/other on the evenings. I realise some people can pull of the cramming study style very well, but I rarely have to cram if I maintain these steady habits. I’ve found my time management style to be conducive to a relatively stress free college experience. Give it a shot my friend

big thing is optimizing your schedule. There can be massive differences in professors that could be huge and have a huge impact on your GPA based on how the professor grades, the curve, material taught, etc. Also, depending on what person you are, if you don’t like morning classes, DONT TAKE 8 AM classes, unless there is literally no other way. Same things go if you don’t like evening classes, etc

The difference between a 3.5 and a 3.9 is likely discipline and study habits. The difference between a 3.9 and a 4.0 is dick sucking. The 4.0ers know how to get As on subjectively graded assignments (papers/presentations).

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I consider my high undergrad GPA to be a mark of shame. I was too focused on my GPA and stuck within my lane in my major. WTF was I thinking? Do you think anyone cares that much? I should have used the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that is college to explore far and wide. I didn't take CS classes, language classes, or life sciences, or really explored. There were topics I was genuinely interested in that I didn't explore at all. I should have been more 'lazy' and de-prioritized my non-essential classes rather than try to complete every assignment, and I should have packed in more classes. I fucked up my undergrad for the sake of a strong GPA. In b-school I did the opposite. I packed a ton of classes into my schedule, and got a lot of breadth, and was on academic probation twice for taking risks like that. If I see an applicant coming in with a 4.0 they'd either be a genius or I know they have their priorities and risk tolerances all backwards.

In terms of study habits, I would always 1) go through lecture slides, textbook, & whatever additional resources I needed to understand the material 2) compiled this in a study guide (key here is to write out the information in a way that if you came back to it 1 month later, you could read what you wrote and understand it perfectly again—write in your own words in the way that helps YOU understand it) and 3) then made online flash cards using this study guide on Quizlet (screenshot part of study guide that has the definition/explanation/graph) and use the Learn function to memorize. for exams, I would alternate the flash cards & practice exams/past problems. Key here is to make sure you don’t fall into habit of just memorizing, but memorizing while also understanding and being able to apply it.

I’m not going to lie, this process takes a LONG time and while it may not be the “smartest” or most efficient way to work, it was the best way for me to consistently get good grades in all my classes and maintain my 4.0.

3.6 and below: repeat high school dude 3.7: fucking dumbass 3.8: dumbass 3.9: scholarly, profound, a modern-day Galileo; a true intellectual if you will 4.0: fucking nerd

Aim wisely.

Jokes aside just do the best you can. Leave the parties and drinking until after you finish homework, study, etc. and you should be set. Find ways to game the system any way you can, college is hardly as meritocratic as it should be. Sitting in the front of the class and actually participating goes a long way

did someone say 3.0 @ Rutgers

UK gang punching the air rn

what do you mean by "choosing your classes"??

Context: all of our curriculum is set from the start :(

Lots of good comments here. Also, stay in close touch with your professors and voice that you will do anything possible for an A in the class. If they know you will do anything for the grade, they might let you know if you’re close and give you the benefit of the doubt or help to assign extra projects to make up the grade.

Perfect marks usually help to gain the interview, but after that it’s up to you to close for the position. Good grades help to get in the door, but after that business prowess largely takes over after that.