<p>newmassdad hits it squarely on the nose. Since grade deflation helps the slackers this actually becomes a selling point for many elite schools. Everyone knows that athletes in particular are admitted to the Ivies with much lower scores and would have a much harder time graduating if the curriculum were more rigorous. It also increases applications and decreases yield. Why? Because a student well below the school mean could benefit by getting in and graduating from HYP if he engaged in strategic course choice so it doesn’t hurt to take your chances even if these schools are an Ultra Reach for you.</p>
<p>In contrast, the odds are much higher that a low scoring student admitted to Caltech or MIT for “balance” might not even get out with a degree. Scores aren’t perfect, but below a certain level they do correlate with poor performance in tough courses. So Caltech, MIT, and Chicago have a more self-selected applicant pool. Moreover, some students admitted to Caltech turn it down because they’re worried about grading.</p>
<p>When I went to Caltech the entire first year was Pass/Fail BUT something like a third to one half of the entire class got at least one F in their first two years [This is not true anymore!!]. Quite a few students transferred out to “easier” programs at Stanford, UCLA, Berkeley, Harvard, etc.</p>
<p>Conversely, my classmates who had at least an A- average basically walked on water. Grad schools competed to accept them and they literally went anywhere they wished. My stats were worse and I still got recruited by good grad schools.</p>