Hi!
I’m trying to decide on whether to apply for Rice, WashU, or Vanderbilt ED.
I was wondering if any of those colleges would have grade deflation.
Please let me know.
No college has grade deflation. Some have grade inflation though.
Why are you wondering? What impact will it have?
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What even is grade deflation? The prof thinks you’ve earned an A but gives you a C anyway?
D had a fundamentals class last year that the department head told the prof that he gave out too many As and that he needed to change the grading rubric AFTER the final. It didn’t impact my daughter but there were a number of students who had their grade lowered. My understanding is that they complained to the Dean of Students and their grades were changed back, but we heard that the rubric was significantly altered for the next semester. (Which is fine in my book if the expectations are stated up front).
This does exist, however it is termed. Years ago Wellesley was concerned about too much grade inflation and put in a policy where “the mean grade in courses at the 100 and 200 level with 10 or more students shall be no higher than B+”. This had wide ranging impacts including lower grades and creating a reputation for the school being cut throat and competitive. (This policy was rescinded 2 years ago and my first year daughter there feels the environment is very collaborative and supportive.)
I think the OP is asking a good question as to whether their schools of interest have any grading policies like this. OP, I would suggest Google searching any school you are looking at with the phrase “grading policies” or “grade deflation.”
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“Tough grading policies” is something I understand. I can understand why students might not like it, and even why they might want to go elsewhere to avoid it. “Grade deflation”, on the other hand is a phrase that on the face of it makes little sense.
The situation @momofboiler1 describes is clearly unfair, but is sufficiently rare that it’s unlikely that one will be able to predict it will happen to them based on Google. Most departments keep a close eye on grading in foundational classes (in part because they don’t want to get grief about unprepared students in downstream classes) to avoid this. Even in this case they took action - although maybe 5 weeks too late.
What @smiles2122 describes is what we used to call “grading on a curve” and students demanded it. Back in the day, curves were B-centered or C-centered. B+ would be a gift from the heavens.
“the mean grade in courses at the 100 and 200 level with 10 or more students shall be no higher than B+”.
TBH, I see no issue with this for most courses. The expectation from students (and their parents) that the mean should be a B+ or higher is a bit entitled for my liking.
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I find parental pressure on grades sad and misguided but I think this also comes up for students when they are looking at grad schools (med, law?) that seem so driven by GPA. I think it is understandable that students would be concerned about different schools’ grading policies if their exact same effort at two different schools could yield different opportunities? Not sure if this is reality, though, or more of a myth?
@MITPhysicsAlum if you want it to make sense then think of it as something that counteracts grade inflation could reasonably called grade deflation. Feels like that could be a physics principal but you are the expert. 
Oh, so I’m planning on possibly going to medical school, and I know GPA matters on applying for it.
Got it! I’ll search that up. Thanks for the advice!
A mean of B+ is hardly deflation. It’s simply less inflation.
A true non-inflated grade scale would have a normal distribution centered around C…average.
The closest I’ve seen to this, and I haven’t seen a ton of grades, as they’re usually not public, was Math at Cal Poly. For the term I saw the distribution, 20% of the quarter grades were As and 8% were Fs.
Yep, I’m actually planning on possibly applying to med school later on, and my GPA would probably have on effect on my chances of getting in.
I have read two schools of thought here on CC: one that GPA is end all, be all for med school. And another view that if you go somewhere that tends to have lower grades like Harvey Mudd (is that still true) then the admissions departments know that and factor that in.
I also have read that it is hard to interpret med school acceptance rates at a college because some schools weed out their candidates more than others.
My overall take is that this is complex and nuanced and you should look closely at your target school’s med school support process to see if it is a fit.
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There’s no such a thing as grade inflation. There’re just different degrees of grade inflation from a historical perspective. Part of that inflation comes from newer courses on subjects that lack traditional rigor. Schools that offer more such courses tend to have greater grade inflation, even though more rigorous courses have also experienced some grade inflation with shifting of grading curves.
Individual professor still has lots of discretion over grading so I don’t think the answer can necessarily be found by googling a school’s grading policy. In addition, students who received poor grades tend to the ones who complained loudly about grade deflation, distorting the true picture.
Has this ever been done at a somewhat selective or more selective college? That would mean as many D and F grades as B and A grades, with student GPAs averaging around 2.0… meaning that a large percentage of students would not be in good academic standing with GPAs below that.
More likely, old grade distributions were C-heavy, but the small number of B and A grades was larger than the smaller number of D and F grades, as suggested by the 2.4-ish average GPAs at Harvard a century ago. Somewhat less selective Iowa in 1961 had an average GPA of 2.31, while Michigan in 1933 had an average GPA of 2.51 and Georgia in 1917 had an average GPA of 2.29. But these all suggest that B and A grades were more numerous than D and F grades, even though C grades appeared to be the most common.
College GPA is far from the end all be all for medical school. However, a high enough (recalculated) college GPA (and MCAT score) is necessary to get past automated screens that a medical school application must pass in order to get to a human application reader (thresholds vary by medical school). Obviously, human application readers consider a lot more than college GPA (and MCAT score) – and then there is the interview for the applicants who are rated high enough by the human application readers.
In other words, high college GPA (and MCAT score) is necessary, but nowhere near sufficient, to get admitted to a medical school.
No, certainly not. I’m just pushing back semantically at the notion that some schools grade deflate, when we have that perception based on near universal grade inflation.
Following on your interesting historical note, my dad had a fraternity brother that was put on academic probation and asked to matriculate elsewhere to raise his GPA for re-entry to MIT. He went to Princeton. Could you imagine that today?!? 
Yes. Both HMC and Cal Poly graduate engineering 4.0s about once a decade. It makes the local news when it happens.
Yes and…what about the schools that are known for grading lower? People on here have said that is factored into that “auto” step somehow, what do you think? Swarthmore is an example where people have said they get students into great med schools even with lower gpas that would have been screened out from another undergrad?
Understood. But there are nuances involved. More importantly, there are options that some students and parents do not want to hear.
As examples, the prestige of the undergraduate college is not really a factor (I would say not at all, but someone will come up with the exceptions) in med/law admissions. The state school can provide as good a foundation as top privates and may be cheaper. One does not need a JD from a T3 s cool to have a successful career. And, let’s be real, regardless of course mean, if the kid can’t get an A range grade in intro chem, which is invariably curved, then they need to expand post-grad options beyond HYS med.
Oh, and don’t get me started on those threads I find on Reddit asking which professors give A+. 