GPA Bumping – Is it so bad?

EDIT: NOTE TO EVERYONE..just remembered this, the average for Chem 233 in the summer was 70! 70!!!  First years out there, if you can take chem 233 in the summer with Jackie Stewart.  *sighh*

University is an experience you remember for life.  You learn in the classroom, and out.  You study hard with hopes of reaching your dream career.  And sometimes your dream career, like mine, requires stellar grades.  These stellar grades are easier to get at different schools.  UBC is definitely not one of those inflation crazy schools.  Stanford for example, is known for having a lot of grade inflation.  UBC doesn’t necessary have too much grade deflation, and it’s not difficult to do well at UBC, it is however hard to do great.  And those people doing great, I applaud, and I think a lot of future entrepeneurs, surgeons, and top lawyers are going to come out of UBC.  Now sometimes if you want your GPA to be a little better, people like to throw in some easy electives in there, and hope that it bumps their GPA.  This does backfire sometimes, your so comfortable with your easy elective, that you forget about it, and it ends up screwing up your GPA.  Chem 123 was this for me.  After my amazing first midterm, I thought it’d be my GPA bump course, but it ended up being my lowest grade 🙁

What is the first thing I usually get from people when I say I want a couple easy electives?  University is for learning, and taking courses that interest you, and enjoying them.  I completely agree, studying at a world class university is a great opportunity, but I personally think, if I enjoy the class AND it’s a gpa bumper then its perfect.  Bio121 was one of my favorite courses last year, the teacher was funny, and I was genuinely interested by all the things I learned.  I learned so much, that I never knew before, but it was my lowest grade.  The whole, ‘you do well in what interests you’ doesnt always work.  Bio 112 on the other hand, far less interesting, but I did far better in the course.

I want to go to med school.  And many people have asked me why I chose UBC if I wanted this.  Apparently, medical schools don’t consider the difficulty of your school when considering grades.  Hypothetically a A at Langara and an A at UBC are of equal value.  Langara is a good school, but UBC is more competitive.  So sometimes I wonder if I chose UBC based on pride like, ‘yeah I go to UBC :)’ But I also chose UBC because it’s a beautiful school, lots of resources, and it’s in a great city.  When I hear that I’m hurting my chances by going to a more difficult school, it annoys me.  So why not HELP myself and take some GPA bumping courses??

University is about the experience, but everyone has different life goals.  I want to be a doctor.  And I chose a difficult school to do great in.  After attending UCLA, I can honestly say I worked 10 times harder at UBC, and my grades were worse.  Whether that’s fair or not is not the point.  The fact is to get into med school, you need to be amazing.  So why not take courses you enjoy and also try and make them easy electives?  Especially when you have the core science courses already dragging you down.

About binta

UBC First year student. :)

3 responses to “GPA Bumping – Is it so bad?

  1. Tomy

    UBC fucking sucks. I go there and then went on exchange, there is a serious deflation problem at UBC. And in addition, it is a bureaucratic piece of bullshit institution that disguises itself as a place for higher learning. Good fucking luck getting into med school, hope you’ll go somewhere better where they will treat you like a real human being.

  2. Erika

    Hey there! I am a reader of your blog and am a first year science student at ubc. I am currently choosing courses to take this summer. As I have not yet taken english, I am planning to take ENG 112 and ENG 110, however, most of the classes are full. Do you think it would be a better idea to take one of the english courses during second year? And to make up for that, is there a science course that is worth taking during summer school instead of second year? I have not chosen a major yet as I am still unsure.

    Thanks!

  3. Dee

    Hello Binta,

    Just read your post about wanting to get into med and choosing UBC vs. Langara. Now that I’ve finished my BSc. UBC, I’m still thinking about it. I’m wondering where you are at now, if you don’t mind me asking? Also, do you know if UBC or international med schools even look at Langara grades since it’s not really a university? Looking forward to your reply 🙂

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