Definitely not bragging about Vanderbilt being hard. You can even make the argument that Vanderbilt doesn’t deflate grades per se, but to say that it inflates grades is exaggerating. Students who have worked hard all their lives with good grades and challenging AP courses have to put in extra effort in STEM courses at Vandy, especially the weed out calculus and chemistry classes. Surely not everyone has suddenly lost their chem/math skills after coming to Vandy! Gen chem has a notorious reputation for a reason, so much so that it was mentioned twice during Chancellor Zeppos’ address to the class of 2019 last year.
From my personal experience, even non-STEM courses don’t give easy As and don’t ‘water down content’ (Econ, writing courses). Some courses, such as those in the Managerial Studies department are definitely easy As, but you’ve really got to look hard for other easy courses. And even in those, averages aren’t A-/As.
Out of curiosity, what is your major at Vanderbilt, or some courses that you found inflated grades, @bernie12 ?