<p>I found the article, “Where All Grades Are Above Average” (linked to the gradeinflation website) very interesting. It was written in 2003 for the Washington Post by a Duke Professor who was a visiting prof at Stanford at the time and became the impetus for the website. It is worth reading.</p>
<p>Here is what I know second hand about grading at Stanford. My D attended a private high school with major grade DE-flation. A 4.0 did not exist in her graduating class even though 30% were National Merit awardees and 25% of her class were accepted into Ivy League colleges.
She has found the grading scale to be pretty comparable at Stanford. In fact, it may be slightly easier. At her high school a C was really considered average, satisfactory. Whereas, her understanding at Stanford has been that average (under the mode of the bell shaped curve) is a B and above 1 standard deviation from the mode is an A. Therefore, I assume that more than 1 standard deviation below the mode is a C (but according to the article, Cs may be even more rare than that. </p>
<p>This scale skewed to the higher end seems appropriate given the high caliber of students at Stanford. However, when you figure that the average student at S was used to a 4.0 in high school, suddenly getting Bs could be shocking. As I mentioned before, this was not a surprise for my D since her HS gave very few As. She has found that her Stanford gpa is very consistent with her HS gpa.</p>
<p>So, Tupacalipse, if you are coming from a very rigorous HS with low grade inflation, my guess is that you can expect to maintain about the same gpa at S. Otherwise, many of my D’s peers have found that they are getting Bs in subjects that they used to get As in. My guess is that this will be true in any of the top colleges you are looking at. </p>
<p>Although I have heard that Yale is not strong in the physical sciences/engineering, it sounds like its bio dept is better and in fact, I believe they recently built or is currently building a new science facility that should be a big boost to their program. </p>
<p>On the other hand, they have put a lot of money towards making undergraduate research very accessible to Stanford students. Also, the reputation that S students have a more laid back attitude on the surface but work like crazy behind the scenes seems to be true from what my D has observed. According to her, they are not intense, extreme, singularly focused, obsessive compulsives. They are hard-working, ambitious, intellectually curious and passionate about academics as well as their extra-curricular interests. She loves the stimulating environment without the competitiveness and cut-throat attitude. However, although she is a science major and has pre-med students in her classes, she is NOT pre-med. I know nothing about the students at Yale or Princeton.</p>
<p>Last piece of advice, choose an environment that you would want to live in for the next four years; a place that you could picture yourself thriving in, because these are potentially the best four years of your life – it is a time of minimum responsibilities and maximum freedom!! </p>
<p>Congratulations on your tough decision and best wishes for your future success!</p>
.</p>