Cornell vs. Duke. Grade Inflation or Deflation?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I know that most of the "top" schools all have grade inflation to help their premed students get into med schools. Do med schools take this into account or do they really just favor the higher GPA? I've also heard rumors that Cornell is harder to graduate from because of grade deflation and nearly impossible to get a 4.0. On the other hand, I've heard Duke DOES have grade inflation. Any insight you guys can offer here?</p>

2

<p>They’re both grade inflated. Average GPA at Cornell is 3.4.</p>

3

<p>Doesn’t matter since preprofessional schools and graduate schools incorporate the “mean” or “average” student MCAT/LSAT/GMAT/GRE score of a person applying from your institution and reweight your GPA accordingly. </p>

<p>If your school has a highly competitive body or rigorous standards… it will show with a lower GPA and higher mean MCAT score for students applying from that institution (it might not be the case necessarily, just an example)… 3.6 GPA from a school whose mean MCAT scores for the entire student body is 36 is a lot more impressive than a 4.0 GPA from a school with 29 MCAT average applying.</p>

<p>Plus, MCAT scores will normalize everything just like SAT’s normalized everything across the spectrum… Remember, highschools grade differently too which is why they used guidance counselor comments on rigor of courseload and SAT’s to compensate for differences in grading practices…</p>

<p>Plus med schools are already acquainted with the top tier institutions… Elite med schools like Harvard, Hopkins, UPenn etc… .are heavily represented by Ivy caliber students anyways so medical school admissions officers should already know the rigor of each institution very well (assuming they keep notes and profiles of each admitted student from each institution and refer back to them from time to time like they do in undergraduate admissions with different highschools).</p>

<p>Everything should work out in the end assuming you have a decent GPA compared to your peers at your school…and you kick butt on the MCATs…</p>

4

<p>Grade Inflation/Deflation is a myth that has no merit.</p>

5

<p>Unless you are talking about the University of Phoenix which is pay a fee buy a degree.</p>

6

<p>at all elite schools:</p>

<ul>
<li>pre-med classes are never inflated. They are curved, and sometimes (like for Orgo which everyoen sucks at) that curve helps a LOT.
-for humanities, my experience has been that there is a little grade inflation in the sense that most professors won’t grade TOO harshly…and have a little more leeway when there usually is no one-right-answer. (this is not true all the time…i.e history class, etc)</li>
<li>For everything else, it depends on departmental policies…but you usually get the grades you worked for.</li>
</ul>

<p>And no, the average GPA being 3.4 at Cornell does not necessarily mean it’s inflated. It could just be that there are smarter students there who naturally work hard and get better grades. Also, the student body now is considerably stronger than 10-20 years ago, so comparisons in overall GPA from here to then are moot.</p>

7

<p>vociferous – you should acquaint yourself with some facts on this before making pontifical pronouncements…</p>

<p>[recenttrendsindschools2.gif</a> (image)](<a href=“recenttrendsindschools2.gif]recenttrendsindschools2.gif (image)”>recenttrendsindschools2.gif (image))</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/[/url]”>http://www.gradeinflation.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Now, I might agree with some, as I haven’t thought it through enough yet, that grade inflation is irrelevant because adcoms normalize on their end…</p>

8

<p>Having taught in different types of institutions, I would argue that your chart indicates the preparedness of students, as in how well they were prepared prior to entering a university or college. The chart confirms exactly what I thought it would show, students in private universities are better prepared and thus perform better, high level publics get a range of students from all types of background on a larger scale numerically.</p>

9

<p>By the way my experience and info comes from teaching in the classroom and is not some kind of pontification. I don’t need a chart to tell me what I know from experience, although it is very handy in confirming what many EDUCATORS know.</p>

10

<p>OP, the following graph will illustrate that there is perhaps a 0.1 difference in mean gpa between Duke and Cornell at this time:</p>

<p>[gradedeflationunsuccessful.jpg</a> (image)](<a href=“gradedeflationunsuccessful.jpg]gradedeflationunsuccessful.jpg (image)”>gradedeflationunsuccessful.jpg (image))</p>

11

<p>vociferous… your latest post stands in stark contract to your post #4. Perhaps you were simply overstating for effect.</p>

12

<p>Hope2getrice:</p>

<p>Good point. Look at the chart titled: “GPA difference between disciplines” about 75% down in this link. Humanities mean GPA and Natural Sciencesmean GPAs differ at the same instituions by as much as 0.6on a scale of 4.0, with the most striking examples coming from Dartmouth (current), and Texas A&M (older data). Either Penn or McAlister has almost no differential, but as you see the chart errs in using the same symbol for both.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/[/url]”>http://www.gradeinflation.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;