<p>somebody else on this forum had a theory that Berkeley’s relatively relaxed admissions standards forced the school to grade harshly in order to fail out the slow kids. That probably isn’t right. It’s actually really hard to fail out of berkeley. Just look at some of the former or current athletes, or brothers at a few of the more ■■■■■■■■ fraternities, or (I hate to say it) some of the kids who got in because they came from disadvantaged high schools: they don’t drop out! They stay for 5 years and get on academic probation, but they don’t fail out. They probably aren’t getting into grad schools or getting really impressive jobs (maybe they are tho IDK) but they certainly don’t all throw in the towel or get booted just because they aren’t really smart enough to be there.</p>