<p>Kids, do the math. 90% (or so) of the students entering Chicago (and similar schools) were in the top 5% of their high school classes. Their GPAs reflected that. The median unweighted GPA of accepted students at Chicago is probably around 3.8. However, only 5% of Chicago students will be in the top 5% of their University of Chicago class (which is probably pretty close to a 3.8+ GPA), and the median GPA at Chicago is something like 3.35 (and, I bet, somewhat lower than that for first-years). Any way you cut it, the vast majority of students at Chicago are going to see a significant decline in their GPAs from high school to college. A few won’t, some will even do much better, but most will need to cope with it.</p>
<p>That’s true everywhere comparable, by the way. With all the kerfuffle about grade inflation or deflation, the range of median GPAs at peer schools is maybe-maybe as much as .2, with Chicago not at the lowest extreme. </p>
<p>So why do Chicago students pitch and moan about it more than some others? At Harvard there’s a culture of saying “Grades don’t matter because this is Harvard! And besides, I put all my energy into comping the Lampoon.” At Chicago, there is a culture of saying, “Grades don’t matter, learning matters,” but that doesn’t sound as convincing, and no one is putting all his energy into comping anything. People are more focused on their classes, so any lack of complete success in those classes stings a little more.</p>