<p>Grade inflation is one of the big myths of college. First of all, the amount of inflation/deflation at certain schools of the same selectivity is hugely exaggerated. Grade deflation, in fact, depends more on the courses than the school. If half of Brown’s class were engineering majors, the average GPA would lower.</p>
<p>Secondly, I keep on hearing how schools like UChicago, Berkeley, and Cornell are grade deflated. What you find surprising is when applying to graduate school, a 3.5 from Harvard is more favored than a 3.5 from Berkeley (for example) with the exact test score, even though the latter is supposivly more grade deflated. The reason is that on average, a 3.5 from Harvard is a better student than a 3.5 from Berkeley. Therefore, if using GPA as a comparative number, Berkeley is more grade inflated than Harvard.</p>
<p>My point is that if you go to elite universities looking for grade inflation, you’ll be dissapointed. In fact, if you compare GPAs vs. LSAT/MCAT/GRE scores, you’ll find that among candidates of the same test score, the one from the more elite university will have the lower GPA. In other words, many of the Ivies etc. are actually grade deflated compared to lower-tiered schools.</p>