RoryDuhMan

How does the grading system at stanford work? Do most professors curve? What is the curve to?

Do most people who try hard succeed in school?

googol123

Yes, depends on the department and the professor, and yes. So basically you answered your own question. :P
btw the gpa is a +/- system, so 4.3 for a+, and so on.

im_blue

The average GPA is around a 3.3-3.4, so most classes have a B+ average curve. Some classes are easier (think foreign language, music, etc) and others are harder (premed, science, engineering) in their grading curves.

TheGirlsLoveMe

I heard for most econ classes, the curve is pretty brutal, with about 20% getting A's

googol123

just a bit of advice,
"on-track" and "off-track" really only applies to the intro math series (and some chem lab classes) where they force the same curve regardless of the instructor. For other classes, the better instructor maybe actually teaching it "off-track." Check out courserank.stanford.edu

floppy

TheGirlsLoveMe: Not true. Most econ classes give about 40-50% A's.

do what googol123 said and check out courserank.stanford.edu for econ 1a, 1b, 50, 51, 52.

im_blue

Yeah, 20% A's didn't sound right to me either. Even if there's 60% B's and 20% C's, that's still only an average of 3.0, which is quite low for Stanford. And I haven't heard anything about Economics having a reputation for grade deflation.

svsaraf

so what kind of curve is there for the sciences?

how do premed students do in med school admissions?