UC vs IVY LEAGUE

vicissitudes
Fri, 26 May 2006 14:41:39 +0000

It’s been shown through admission statistics to medical schools, business schools, law schools, that admitted Berkeley students on average had a higher GPA than admitted (insert top private school with inflation) students. I don’t know why this happens and it is indeed troubling.

Those who work at graduate admissions sometimes SAY that they take the difficulty of the school into account (grade deflation, etc.) but I’m not sure how much truth there is to that. College admission officers have often stated that they take rigor of courseload into consideration along with GPA, but I question how much consideration. Someone could take 2 APs and have a 4.0, while another takes 4 APs and get a 3.8. It could have taken much more work for the second kid but most of the time colleges will take the first kid over him.

I suspect the same is happening with graduate and professional schools. Many people have already pointed out that medical schools look at college GPA and MCATs more than anything else, and that the undergraduate school rarely matters. It leads me to believe that Berkeley students are suffering in the graduate school admissions due to its grade deflation, which graduate schools seem to pay little attention to.

Now, this really has little to do with Berkeley’s quality of education, except to say that perhaps some top students are drawn to other schools due to this situation which lowers the quality of the student population. Still, it’s a troubling issue.