^ How many schools actually have notable grade inflation? Looking at the LSAC feeder school PDF (yes, I know it’s LAW SCHOOL not MED SCHOOL - the data’s not “perfect” - but it does give us an indication of average GPA’s for those who are applying to professional school of some sort . . . ).
Anyway, using the list of schools from Post #32, here are average GPA’s as of 2017:
LSAC - “Feeder Schools for ABA Applicants” - Median GPA’s
Harvard—3.69
Vanderbilt—3.49
JHU—3.61
WashU—3.65
Brown—3.75
Duke—3.69
Columbia—3.7
Stanford—3.71
Notre Dame—3.59
Yale (>6000 undergrads)—3.73
Rice (>4000 undergrads)—3.68
Dartmouth (~4000 undergrads)—3.67
Average 3.66
UChicago 3.60
Differential = -.06
According the the UCIHP FAQ page, that’s the same differential that the College’s MD admits show for mean overall GPA relative to the National Mean: 3.66 vs. 3.72.
So while we can’t comment on Science GPA’s specifically, we do see hints of an overall consistent pattern, namely, that UChicago students hoping to go on to professional school tend to present GPA’s that are a bit lower than the “average” but not by much. Within a certain “reasonable” range, other factors might be kicking in to compensate for the lower GPA’s, and certainly “lack of grade inflation” is a pretty well-known “other factor.”