Dillema: Stern's Grading Curve!

Sogui
Sun, 09 Apr 2006 15:41:07 +0000

Your argument holds somewhat true for business schools, but you underestimate the BHP (Business Honors Program) at UT. There was another thread on this somewhere, but top wall street i-banks also recruit at the BHP (they have a list at the McComb’s BHP site) and the starting salary for BHP students that take a job in the NE is very competitive.

You also seem to forget that McComb’s at UT (according to US News) is equally ranked to Stern, and both are on the top 5 list for finance majors, with Stern holding a marginal lead. Factor in the extremely selective BHP and McCombs becomes a highly competitive choice.

Now factor in the fact that graduating from McComb’s BHP will ensure that you have ~3.9GPA, while the curve at Stern will make a 3.9 a harder achievement and ultimately hurt your college experience because you have to work that much harder to earn a 3.9.

Statistics show that law schools don’t really pay attention to marginal difference in schools… I doubt top law school adcom’s will really be that aware on the difference in academic competitiveness between McCombs and Stern… unless your attending HYPS or one of the other top colleges, “Prestige,” really doesn’t seem to factor in… the only reason you will even notice the difference in law school recruitment between say a #20 school and a #60 shool is that the students at the #20 school are gonig to be overall more well rounded and self-selective (and more likely to rock the standardized tests).

For Business Grad schools, I don’t know how much weight they put on GPA… but if its anything like the way that top law schools work, a 3.9 at UT McCombs BHP is going to get you farther than a 3.6 at Stern.