<p>MIT has the reputation of requiring very hard work, and giving low grades. The first part may be true, I don’t know, thankfully I did not go there. The second part is definitely not true. See <a href=“Homepage | MIT Faculty Governance”>Homepage | MIT Faculty Governance;
<p>in which one finds the intriguing report “almost half (49%) of grades assigned to upperclassmen are A’s, compared to 22% for freshmen.” </p>
<p>The law school obsession with grades makes sense. They don’t care if you are an engineer- why should they? They want to know whether you are alert enough to work the system the way you have to work it to get into law school. After all, they are turning out lawyers, not monks. If you take demanding courses, get lower grades, then in your senior year realize you have ruined your shot at the top law schools, then you never belonged there in the first place. They want people who enter college understanding the system (take courses and majors that will result in at top gpa), and work it that way.</p>