<p>newmassdad - that’s a fair point, Chicago plays all of this stuff (the requirements for the marshal, gpa cut offs for PBK, etc.) notoriously close to its vest, and I think it’s good - it discourages empty resume or GPA building and encourages exploration.</p>
<p>Also, you’re right, self-reporting can be very inaccurate here, and there can of course be rounding errors and the like. When I was at Chicago, though, I was close friends with a few marshals, PBK members and actually, one kid who wound up winning the Rhodes (I’ll leave out whether I was lucky enough to be on any of these lists for anonymity purposes). Toward the end of our fourth year, a discussion between all of us came up, and while the winners and marshals agreed there was no “magic-number,” most seemed to think around a 3.8 (say around a 3.75) at the end of junior year was the cut-off for Marshal candidacy, and a 3.8+ was needed just to get your foot in the door for Rhodes/Marshalls candidacy. Around a 3.7 (say a 3.65) seemed to be cut-off for PBK. With the grade inflation a decade later, the actual numbers might need to be adjusted a bit. </p>
<p>Again, these are all ballpark figures, and of course there are always exceptions to the rule. Someone who contributes in some amazing way may be up for a student marshal appointment even without an absolutely stellar GPA. Generally, I think, and even over time, the GPA ballpark I’ve provided holds true for the majority of the top of the class.</p>