re #11:
I just checked, and the GPA threshold in Cornell arts & Sciences (sliding scale from 4.0 to 3.7, based on # credits; threshold for those carrying a normal course load is 3.8)) is still materially higher than the cutoff for Dean’s List in its engineering college (which is 3.5). To me this indicates that this university, at least, actually has no problem with “the engineers getting Bs while the English lit or econ majors get As”. They didn’t when I attended either.
The referenced close friend and brother who graduated from Cornell did not also attend undergrad at Harvard or Yale. You should know that Cornell students are big whiners. They would like to perpetuate the belief that the school is so much tougher, because it makes them look tougher, whether or not it is true. How would they know if it is actually true?
Here’s how one might actually know. The examples I gave above were from individuals who actually attended, as an undergrad, both of the schools they compared. Whose student bodies did not even have the academic chops of H or Y. Or P.
YMMV…