Academics and Social Life At Princeton

<p>lol it evens out</p>

<p>Ernie, not necessarily. You'd be surprised at how many ways there are to get from point A to point B on campus. I love the fact that no matter which way you decide to take one day, it's almost always a breathtakingly scenic route. Just a fun fact. :D</p>

<p>Thank you for some insight on princeton. It seems like an exciting school that I would fit right into. I really want to go there now.</p>

<p>does any current princeton undergrad know if the grade deflation policy has started to have adverse effects on professional and graduate school matriculation. I know it is still early and a class of four years worth of deflation has not graduated yet (so grades are still going down relatively). I was just curious, specifically when it comes to medical school applications. thanks</p>

<p>med school acceptance rate up to a three-year high of 95%.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S15/90/45C97/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S15/90/45C97/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>sort of - that's a misleading statistic because numerically, less were accepted than last year, but even less applied. This is after one year of deflation. I guess it is too soon to make these judgement calls. This is really impossible, but even more telling would be the quality of med programs that students are going to and whether the top medical schools are going to make adjustments for Princeton (when they really don't for CALTECH).</p>

<p>something interesting to be gleaned from those numbers f.scottie is that the number of applications were 10% last year. maybe more are being weeded out by the harsher grading. It will be interesting to follow this as the fully deflated classes begin to graduate in a few years.</p>

<p>yes, but at the same time, the number of applications is up 1% from two years before, so the numbers are really flat over the two-year implementation period. and naturally, the number of med school applicants is going to vary quite a bit from class to class, so i'm not sure there's much cause for concern with a one-year decrease, especially in light of back-to-back increases in acceptance rate (the more important measure, in my opinion). i get the sense, though, that you're looking to fit facts to a preconceived thesis on this one, crimsonbulldog.</p>

<p>the application numbers are down 6% from two years ago, maybe its normal, I don't know. I don't really have any preconceived notion other than the example of caltech. I figure the yield numbers will rise while the applications fall because of a greater weeding out. Then there might also be a decrease in the quality of the schools as well (I think Mt. Sinai is the #1 med school for Princeton) because of formulaic admissions practices at certain medical schools.</p>

<p>you're right about the application numbers; i was mistakenly using the matriculant numbers provided in the article. as for "formulaic admissions practices," law schools are perhaps the worst perpetrators, with their obsessions over GPA and LSAT averages. princeton's dean of the college insists she's done all she can to inform graduate and professional schools adcoms about princeton's new policy, but it's inevitable not all of them will view princeton grades in light of it.</p>

<p>OMG I AM OBSESSED WITH PRINCETON NOW.</p>

<p>-future premed student (cardiologist, maybe?)</p>

<p>Good for you pk12313! We have an awesome pre-med track. Princeton is an excellent university (and I may be biased, but I DO agree that it is the best undergrad institution in the country. You won't find the winning combo of individual attention, highest endowment per student, and fierce alumni loyalty anywhere else)!</p>

<p>On the subject of grade deflation, here is a survey carried out by the Undergraduate Student Government at Princeton. You may find the student responses to be very enlightening.</p>

<p><a href="http://webscript.princeton.edu/%7Eusg/grades/tabulated.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://webscript.princeton.edu/~usg/grades/tabulated.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>