<p>Anyone know what the top 3% gpa is in CAS? I noticed phi kappa wants top 3% from juniors.</p>
<p>Considering the amount of grade inflation at Cornell, it’s probably pretty high (well over 3.9). I’m guessing most of the junior inductees are from non-science majors.</p>
<p>speaking of this, I was wondering if anyone knows roughly the GPA distribution at CAS? could be just a rough estimate and be helpful.</p>
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<p>I don’t think Cornell has grade inflation.</p>
<p>[Grade</a> Inflation at Cornell](<a href=“http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/grade_inflation_at_cornell/]Grade”>Grade Inflation at Cornell – Outside the Beltway)</p>
<p>Its average GPA is on par with Havard, Princeton, and the like despite having an inferior student body. That’s grade inflation.</p>
<p>My guess is that the average GPA is around 3.45 with a std. dev of around 0.25 (meaning the top 2-5% is somewhere in the 3.95 range).</p>
<p>“Its average GPA is on par with Havard, Princeton, and the like despite having an inferior student body.”</p>
<p>■■■■■, much? Good day, sir.</p>
<p>By the way, just glancing at that site, I see that:
“Armed with accurate, official grading information, students used it to pick easy classes and avoid difficult ones: once-hidden guts were now readily identified, enrollment in them ballooned, and since the new policy was instituted the overall rate of grade inflation—already a subject of concern at Cornell, as in the academic world in general—has more than doubled.”</p>
<p>So, you can say that those students who picked the easier classes and what not would have shot up the GPAs, sure. But what about those who take the hardest classes? They’re still inferior to you, eh?</p>
<p>EDIT: Are there not students in Harvard or Princeton that also take the easiest classes available? Do they not bring up Harvard’s and Princeton’s average GPA up as well?</p>
<p>The difference is that most colleges don’t explicitly make the median grades of every class available on the internet. I personally think this is a terrible policy that has caused grade inflation at Cornell to explode. Cornell tried to compensate by posting the median grades on transcripts which is another bad move because now the world knows Cornell for what it is: a grade inflated school just like the rest of them. I’m glad I applied to med school before Cornell adopted the new transcript policy. I don’t think my Cornell GPA would’ve looked nearly as impressive had the median grades been put next to it. </p>
<p>Grade inflation is rampant at Cornell, whether you want to admit it or not. It is especially rampant in non-science courses but also in upper div science courses. I had a 3.9 GPA as a junior in CAS and was not selected for PBK until senior year which means the top 5% is definitely higher than 3.9.</p>
<p>If you have the same curving system as another college (such as Harvard) and your students aren’t as smart, then that college is going to be tougher. Cornell students love to brag about how Harvard students have it easy and don’t earn their A’s. BS. They have it harder than we do. Much harder.</p>
<p>@Norcalguy, are those numbers for Cornell overall or for CAS?</p>
<p>Those are for Cornell overall. There is now a dearth of data for the individual colleges. But, Cornell used to have a lot of its internal documents available on the internet which had GPA data. The data I saw basically listed the average GPA’s of the various colleges at Cornell in 1996. Engineering was lowest and ILR was the highest (around .25 higher than engineering). Everyone else was in the middle. So, there’s no reason to think that the average GPA at CAS is any different from the average GPA at Cornell.</p>
<p>That’s interesting because I thought usually that science majors had lower gpas. </p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, what did you major in?</p>
<p>I was a bio major in CAS.</p>
<p>You have to realize that science majors aren’t exclusive to CAS. There are science majors in Engineering, CALS, HumEC. </p>
<p>Also, the vast majority of majors in CAS are not science majors.</p>
<p>In the end, everything balances out and the average CAS GPA is probably close to the average Cornell GPA.</p>
<p>norcalguy - you may want to check the numbers. cornell is not grade inflated. grade inflation goes on at Harvard, Yale or especially Brown or Stanford. In the fall 07, cornell had a bio class with a median grade of D! cornell is not a school that practices grade inflation. look at yale or brown - that is grade inflation - nearly 80% of all grades at Brown are A. this is my opinion after just briefly looking at the numbers
you can check the stats yourself and draw your own conclusions. but one thing is clear, grading at cornell is not inflated and cornell grading is very difficult - when compared to several others like Yale</p>
<p><a href=“http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu/Grades/MedianGradeFA10.pdf[/url]”>http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu/Grades/MedianGradeFA10.pdf</a></p>
<p>Considering Cornell posts the grades of its classes, there’s no reason to guess whether Cornell is grade inflated. Look for yourself. </p>
<p>Cornell’s average GPA is about the same as peer schools but the quality of its students is not quite the same. Hence, it is slightly grade inflated compared to those peer schools. And if you are going to call Yale or Harvard grade-inflated (which many Cornellians do), you certainly have to put Cornell in the same category.</p>
<p>Like I said, I was a student here. I took 13 or so non-science courses and ended up with 1 A- and 4 A+'s and the rest were all A’s. And the A- was from a professor in the History department notorious for difficult grading. I think Cornell should abolish both the posting of median grades online as well as on the transcript. I personally think this new policy will hurt Cornellians applying for law and med school.</p>
<p>well, we can disagree on that. a median grade of D in a bio class is something that is crazy, but happened at cornell. a grade report may give the impression of a lot of A and B grades but remember it starts with AEM classes. look at the threads about grading in the sciences at Yale, Brown and Harvard and note that they always mention about 80% As.<br>
my opinion - cornell has on average when compared to Yale, Brown, Harvard, way - way lower average grading. cornell, especially in the sciences is like a B at best median, while Yale and Brown are mostly As.
cornell’s rep for tough grading in the sciences especially is completely true.
a mean grade of D at cornell, even if it does not happen othen, is not, in my opinion, a grade inflated school. I don’t think cornell has on average any grade inflation at all. I think grading is difficult at cornell all this, my opinion.</p>
<p>@ norcalguy</p>
<p>The issue at hand is that essentially all Ivies and top privates have median GPA around 3.3-3.4. This doesn’t necessarily mean that there is a grade inflation. This may imply several things: 1) students work hard to get good grades 2) There are plenty of ‘easy’ fluff classes and majors to boost GPA’s at all top schools, enabling students to manipulate GPA’s to an extent 3) Many students at top schools are smart, thus getting decent grades overall. 4) Top schools aren’t enforcing ‘that’ difficult of a curve for many classes, relative to the strengths of the student body.</p>
<p>Talking about grade inflation…I have no doubt in mind that a student capable of pulling a 3.4 in Econ at Cornell could easily pull a 3.8+ at an average State U, such as Arizona State University. At Cornell and other top schools, getting A’s are harder and take much more work compared to State U’s. </p>
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<p>You must be a very smart fella. </p>
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<p>Not sure about Med School, but law schools won’t care about this policy, I suspect. As long as you have certain GPA range and LSAT, you are golden. There are numerous top schools that forgive rather mediocre GPA’s, given the candidate scores within 75% of incoming students for LSAT. For instance, as long as you break 170 on LSAT, even a 3.0-3.3 GPA could get you in at a T14 law school. (regardless of where you did your undergrad)</p>
<p>@lazy, you might want to check the Yale, Brown threads. - average GPA of their graduating seniors is above 3.7. As are not easy to get at cornell.</p>
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<p>And what makes you think the average GPA of graduating seniors at Cornell isn’t 3.7? </p>
<p>The average GPA of Cornell freshman is 3.1. So, for the entire school’s average GPA to be 3.4-3.5, the average GPA of Cornell juniors and seniors need to be 3.7ish. You need to compare apples to apples. You can’t compare the GPA’s of graduating seniors of Yale to the average GPA at Cornell (which includes freshmen, seniors, juniors, and sophomores). Practically, everyone’s GPA will rise throughout their college career.</p>
<p>CORNELL pUTS THE MEDIAN GRADE NEXT TO OUR REAL GRADE ON OUR TRANSCRIPT?!</p>
<p>That is ****ing ■■■■■■■■.</p>
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<p>These are kids used to getting 4.0 back in hs. A major drop in GPA.</p>
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<p>I should’ve gone to Brown…</p>