<p>I have not read every post on this thread so I apologize in advance for any redundancy. Grade comparison is tough even within a school. At S’s school, honors for his “major” in the humanities is 3.0. It is exceedingly difficult to get a full B or above in a course. In another department in the same school, honors requires a 3.5 (both of these GPA’s require an honors paper, recommendations, etc. as well). There are about the same percentage qualifying from each, is one group more accomplished than another? In another science course of 90 students there were 7 A’s given. The most frequent grade was C. Students who choose their major well, avoid those particular science courses, and manage their course selection (taking a lower level calc or bio sequence) can get a very good GPA. The majority of students don’t do this, resulting in the College honors GPA is 3.25. Who is the better educated, the 3.7 student who navigated the course selections, or the 3.25 student who really challenged themselves? (Luckily, most at the school are the latter.)</p>