<p>@Oyama: The thing is, these GPA’s aren’t obtained in the same environment. If a student earned a B+ at UC San Diego with X amount of hard work, do you think they will get that same B+ with X amount of hard work at Cal or MIT? There’s a slim chance, but most likely, they probably won’t. The thing is that the average GPA at a school at one point in time doesn’t tell you about the inflation or deflation. Just because X>Y does not mean X is more inflated than Y. It means the grades given were, on average, higher, but if the students at that school deserved an even HIGHER GPA than the average, then it is deflated. The grade you get is the result of: the competition and environment (Curve based on class performance or no?), the circumstances in which you earned the grade (Did you work really hard for it or did you slack off?), and the circumstances in which you received the grade (Despite slacking off, did you still get that A?)</p>
<p>If the average GPA at Cal SHOULD be higher, but isn’t because a 93% is a B in the class, then there is grade deflation. The reason why the average GPA is higher at Cal is because despite the skewed curves, the students still manage to get better grades.</p>
<p>If I worked hard enough to get a 92% in the class, but end up with a B+ when I deserved an A-, then my GPA drops. If this happens to everyone, do you think that, if the Cal students had the exact same grading curve as UC San Diego or UC Irvine, their average GPA would be EVEN HIGHER? The competition at Cal and UC San Diego and UC Irvine are all different.</p>
<p>If the average GPA at Duke should be lower, but it isn’t, then there is grade inflation. They’re curving the grades up and giving good grades to the students.</p>
<p>Many elite private schools do have a lot of grade inflation. If you have some logical reason/proof why/how many of the private schools (Harvard/Princeton/Duke) do not want to inflate their grades, then please say so. I’m not saying all elite private schools have grade inflation. I mentioned exceptions (MIT, Caltech, Cornell). Even Northwestern has some grade deflation (Organic Chemistry).</p>
<p>As for the “only faculty from public schools putting teaching as a second priority…” I said underfunded public schools such as the UC’s. I’m not assuming that all public schools are like that. In fact, I know that there are absolutely fabulous public schools out there with excellent teaching staff. The UC teaching quality is quite sub par. There are teachers there whose job is to teach, but the majority of the professors there care more about research than teaching.</p>