What Are the Average First-Year Engineering GPAs at Canadian Universities?

[derek181]

I am a first year engineering student and was wondering what average GPA's are compared to other universities. I attend a university in Canada which uses a percent based system and the college of engineering sets the average first year at a low 60%.

 

[Fusiontron]

No clue how to translates to the US system but in the US the average engineering undergrad GPA is targeted to be 2.8-3.2. Tests usually have an average of ~70% at my school.

 

[derek181]

Interesting. At the university I attend they make the first year the most difficult. They let in 200 more people than they have seats for in the second year so they make it as difficult to maintain a low 60 percent average and so about 200 people drop out. Second year is a little easier. Then the 3rd and 4th get a little more easy. Is it the same at your university?

 

[Fusiontron]

Yeah generally for the 3rd and 4th year classes the class gets better grades. And the dropout rate in the first year is huge, many people just switch to economics or whatever.

 

[Choppy]

Derek - I'd be curious to know if this is an actual written policy somewhere that you've specifically seen or if you're working on hearsay.

The reason I say that is because when the work gets tough, it's easy for such rumours to run rampant. Forcing a 60% average seems a little on the low side, but it's not unreasonable for averages to be in the high sixties to low seventies.

 

[derek181]

Yeah I am just commenting by word of mouth. It makes sense though. Universities grade on a bell curve with the average being at around a low 60, at least at my university. I hear of slightly different averages elsewhere. Usually the average on a calculus midterm or final is around 50%.

 

[derek181]

Oh I just noticed you're not an engineer. There's a difference between averages in engineering and arts and science. Here are some facts for you that I 100% know. I am taking a general physics course right now covering waves, relativity, nuclear etc and the average on the midterm was a 74%. This physics course is within the department of physics which is under arts and science. Then I am taking an engineering dynamics course and the average for the midterm was 63%. Then there are the calculus courses. Oh boy are the calculus courses different between the different departments. There are calculus 1 and 11 for engineers and then there is calculus 1 and 11 that are for science students. the difference in average is 20%! So yeah maybe the average could be around 70 for other colleges but for engineering it is much lower.

 

[td21]

in my undergrad school not in the US nor Canada, the average for physics is about 2.8 and math is about 2.7. Though I know one who got 3.5 and went to caltech for PhD. So no excuse I could have done better. With protests every year, i think the situation is better now. Yes you are right. You should select courses wisely. But I think having interest and working hard are more important.

 

[derek181]

I posted this thread because I am curious. I do well above the average but have to work hard for it and am usually always stressing about it.