<p>What should I do? Should I avoid it? Should I just go to an unknown(but inexpensive) state public university to avoid it? I need to go to graduate school. What should I do?</p>
<p>Do nothing?</p>
<p>Matriculate at a school notorious for grade INFLATION; ie, U Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon</p>
<p>??? Three of the four schools mentioned by Redbirdz (all but Harvard) have probably the lowest amount of grade inflation amongst top universities. So I would take those specific recommendations with a large serving of salt.</p>
<p>I know those schools are notorious for grade deflation, especially U of Chicago(though it's inflated by .15 over the last four decades). I'm thinking about attending UMich, and a low GPA scares me. I've heard horror stories--stories of teachers taking the classes 85% average and lowering it to a 70% average to meet the grading standard; stories of students graduating with hard earned 3.3's and having a hard time getting into law/medical and even graduate school. The schools they applied to didn't take grade deflation into account.</p>
<p>*** is a guy to do? Should I just attend Grand Valley State University(MSU gave no money, the bastards).</p>
<p>...but I'm on scholarship at UMich ><</p>
<p>Or should I attend that private LAC that isn't AS bad that doesn't have grade quotas?</p>
<p>RedBirdz is just being annoying. UChicago, Carnegie Mellon and JHU all have grade deflation (UChicago being one extreme case, IMO).</p>
<p>I think UMich sounds great. Don't worry so much about the grade inflation..</p>
<p>Grade deflation!</p>
<p>I'm not even sure I'll go to graduate school. It seems like it, since I'm in the LSA...</p>
<p>Maybe I'll end up as a graphic designer and not need it...</p>
<p>ARGH!</p>
<p>Just be a curve buster and you won't have to worry</p>
<p>I was planning on being a curve buster; then I decided to attend a top public.</p>
<p>Nah, I'll just be a curve buster then. It'll be harder since I'm no genius.</p>
<p>
[quote]
UChicago, Carnegie Mellon and JHU all have grade deflation (UChicago being one extreme case, IMO).
[/quote]
Rather than grade deflation, it's more accurate to say they don't have grade inflation. The average GPA at all three is above 3.0, which definitely isn't grade deflation in my book.</p>
<p>The average GPA is a 3.0 and they're among the smartest students in the country. Requiring a GPA lower than 3.0 to prove grade deflation is a ridiculous qualifier.</p>
<p>Anyway, does anyone know the average GPA at UMich?</p>
<p>Well, if warbler had Wake Forest in mind, then it's not really a ridiculous qualifier. Warbler's right, it's not that UChicago has grade DEflation, it's just that there's no grade INflation. Individual professors may have certain policies where they use a specific curve or only give As to the top 3 or so papers if at all, but those are personal preferences that vary by professor and department, and not the university's grading policy. Grade deflation would be a conscious effort on the part of the university to curb the amount of high grades given, like at Princeton, where they instituted a policy that only a certain percentage of grades given could be As. THAT'S grade deflation. Wake Forest is similar. But just because a school is notoriously hard or the students are swamped with work all the time (like Chicago) doesn't mean it has grade deflation. Chicago is a difficult school, I think intense academics themselves are an built-in grade deflator</p>