<p>I’m overdoing the posting today, but let me deal with the grade inflation nonsense.</p>
<p>As I’ve posted before, it’s up to each LS to decide for itself whether all grades should be treated equally. However, they are given one piece of information to use to evaluate grade inflation. The LSDAS processes the transcripts of virtually all LS applicants–certainly all of those to top LSs. They put these grades onto the same scale. Then they calculate the median GPA of all students applying to LS that year. According to Ariesathena, a former poster here, they also give some sort of general ranking–like your 3.8 at Cornell puts you in the 75th percentile of Cornell applicants to law school, GPA wise. The numbers the colleges publish as the median GPA do NOT matter AT ALL. It’s the median LSDAS calculated GPA of LS applicants from your college which is used. </p>
<p>They also calculate the median LSAT of the applicants from each school. Some colleges, such as Yale, actually post this data publicly. So, I know that Yale College’s median LSAT has been in the 164-165 range. </p>
<p>To get an idea of how grade-inflated a college is, LS admissions officers compare the median LSDAS calculated GPA of all applicants with the median LSAT of all applicants. In a perfect world, in the AGGREGATE, all students with a 160 LSAT should have a 3.0 GPA. (Drop the one in front of the 160/20= theoretical should be GPA.) It’s the extent to which this deviates that determines how grade inflated a college is in the eyes of LS admissions officers. USING THIS SYSTEM, Harvard and Yale Colleges are NOT particularly grade inflated.</p>