Grade Inflation

[Venkat89]

<p>Compiled by bluedevilmike for grade inflation/deflation using LSAT scores for correction.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=266240&page=2[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=266240&page=2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

@BDM

A little quick work on Excel can give us standard deviations below the mean for the index described above:</p>

<p>(Negative numbers are grade deflated and positive numbers are inflated.)
MIT -2.646136
Penn -1.486136
Carnegie Mellon Univ. -1.446136
Johns Hopkins -1.246136
Swarthmore -1.246136
UC Irvine -1.046136
Dartmouth -1.046136
Rutgers College -1.006136
William and Mary -1.006136
Princeton University -0.966136
Univ. of Chicago -0.966136
Univ. of Michigan -0.966136
Harvard University -0.926136
Williams College -0.886136
Princeton -0.806136
Yale -0.766136
Carleton College -0.686136
Cornell -0.686136
Duke University -0.686136
Trinity College CT -0.686136
Stanford -0.646136
UC - Berkeley -0.646136
Haverford College -0.646136
Oberlin College -0.646136
Pomona -0.646136
Pace Univ. -0.566136
Univ. of Virginia -0.526136
Middlebury College -0.506136
Rice -0.446136
Northwestern University -0.406136
Emory -0.406136
Columbia Univ. - Columbia College -0.326136
Univ. of Texas -0.286136
Georgetown University -0.246136
Boston University -0.206136
Middlebury -0.206136
UC - San Diego -0.206136
Univ. of Michigan - Ann Arbor -0.206136
Brown -0.166136
Emory -0.166136
Univ. of Notre Dame -0.166136
Notre Dame -0.126136
Bryn Mawr College -0.046136
Purdue University -0.046136
Tufts University -0.006136
Univ. of Rochester 0.033864
Tufts 0.073864
Univ. of California - Los Angeles 0.073864
Brandeis University 0.113864
Michigan State Univ. 0.153864
UCLA 0.153864
Univ. of Southern California 0.193864
Villanova University 0.353864
Baylor Univ. 0.353864
Univ. of Massachusetts - Amherst 0.353864
Boston College 0.373864
St. John’s Univ.-Jamaica 2.353864
Temple University 2.353864
Univ. of North Texas 2.753864
Jackson State University 3.153864</p>

<p>For those looking for a more mathematical explanation (I have been PMed about this):</p>

<p>Raw calculation:
The link posted by sreis has GPA and LSAT data for all applicants from a variety of schools. Under the formula described above:
[GPA-(LSAT-100)/20], each school was given a “raw” score.</p>

<p>Mean adjustment:
I then computed the mean (which turned out to be approximately .44) and subtracted that from each of the schools, so that the middlemost schools would get a 0, schools that were more deflated got negative numbers, and schools that were more inflated got positive numbers. (Previously, most schools had been positive.)</p>

<p>SD adjustment:
Finally, in order to get some idea of how important the variation was, I calculated the standard deviation, which turned out to be approximately .25. By multiplying all the values by 4, I converted that SD into 1. What this means is that you can instantly look at the index and see how inflated or deflated a school is relative to the mean in terms of standard deviations.</p>

<p>MIT is 2.6 “standard deviations” below the mean for grade indexing by this standard, etc.</p>

<p>What this is not:
This does NOT represent any kind of grade correction. For example, it does NOT tell you how much you should add to your GPA to see what you would have gotten had you attended MIT, or Jackson State University, or whatnot. (The raw scores would have been useful for that purpose, and you can reproduce that calculation very easily using the website.)

</p>