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<p>I think this is said with a math major bias. Admittedly, a 3.7 in math is very acceptable, but when you consider other fields with grade inflation, a 3.7 is far from impressive to a top 5 graduate school. I know very many humanities majors with GPAs over 3.8 who really aren’t the most intelligent or hard-working people. So although I think what you said would be correct in terms of a science major, I don’t think it’s necessarily correct for some other majors.</p>
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<p>Yes, but Chicago has a top-3 undergraduate theoretical math program in the nation, and compared with a lot of the other fields, Chicago math just has a ridiculous amount of opportunities. I don’t think other fields give you as much of an opportunity to TA as a 2nd or 3rd year, and I certainly don’t think they give you the research opportunities that the math department does. Most serious math majors come out of undergrad having at least 2 serious sessions of research, including REU (Chicago’s and other schools’) and DRP.</p>
<p>Also, you can’t seriously say that Sally doesn’t sometimes exaggerate. I think that the average grade in Honors Analysis is about a B. And given any class, 30 people (10 as first-years, 20 as second-years) will take Honors Analysis. Assuming then, that 15 people will get a B or above, if what Sally says is true, then at least 10 people will be going to a top 10 grad school like Stanford, Berkeley, or Courant. I’m disregarding Michigan, because Michigan is ridiculously easy to get into. Looking at the stats for graduate school matriculation, which are on Peter May’s VIGRE page, you’ll see that this isn’t nearly close to the truth. We usually have about 2 people going to MIT, Princeton, or Harvard, and about 2-3 people going off to Stanford, Berkeley, or Courant.</p>
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<p>You’re right. But although I think there may not be much of a difference between a 3.8 and a 4.0 (in all classes of your major), there’s probably a significant difference between a 3.5 and a 4.0. The spirit of my statements was not to say that a good GPA will get you into a top grad school, but that a non-excellent GPA will often keep you out. It’s the same with GRE scores in most situations. I also don’t think that grades are handed out as arbitrarily as you say they are, especially in math and science courses.</p>
<p>I stick with my previous statements (which were only said with regard to top-5/10 grad schools) that it’s extremely difficult to gain admission to such a school. The reason that top graduate schools only admit 10-15 students in each major per year is because they only want the best of the best (they are, after all, FUNDING your entire time there). This is also why they extend their admissions moreso to internationals than undergraduate admissions does, and is also the reason why affirmative action does not hold a significant position in grad admission.</p>