Grade Inflation U?

[sakky]

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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.

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<p>I think what people mean is that school grade inflation/deflation is inherently intertwined with “course” grade inflation/deflation. Leaving aside Chicago, when people say that Berkeley or Cornell is grade deflated, what they usually mean is that Berkeley/Cornell * technical courses * is grade deflated. I completely agree that Berkeley creampuff majors are not grade deflated, but rather are almost certainly grade inflated. It’s just that Berkeley and Cornell have a lot of students in technical majors. Similarly, when people say that MIT and Caltech are grade deflated, what they really mean is that MIT and Caltech * technical courses * are grade deflated, but of course the overwhelming majority of the students are majoring in technical subjects. </p>

<p>But in many cases, the distinction is a distinction without a difference. Again, take the example of the guy I know who had an outside scholarship that required him to maintain a 3.0. It wouldn’t have mattered if he had gone to Caltech and majored in physics. The rules were crystal clear - he had to maintain a 3.0 cum GPA in college. The scholarship committee didn’t care that certain majors or certain schools might be easier than others. All that mattered is that he had a 3.0 if he wanted to maintain the scholarship. So that’s why you end up seeing people shirking away from tough majors.</p>

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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.

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<p>Nevertheless I would still argue that there is such a thing as grade inflation, even controlling for the major. For example, BigGreenJen has stated that the median grade in upper-division bio and chem classes at Dartmouth is around an A-. I defy you to find upper-division bio/chem classes at MIT or Caltech that have median grades that high. Yet I don’t think there is much dispute that the students at MIT/Caltech are at least as qualified as those at Dartmouth.</p>