<p>I'm 99% sure I wanna go to Cornell (already accepted on a guaranteed transfer), but I've heard all these deflation occurring there...</p>
<p>How hard is it to get/maintain a say, 3.7+ gpa? (I currently attend NYU, and even though I barely did any work I got a 3.93 last semester -.-. Maybe I got lucky with easy courses tho)</p>
<p>to say the least you will have to work very very hard for a 3.7</p>
<p>yeah, cornell has some classes that are graded to a harsh curve, but employers and grad schools know this. as an example, almost 90% of med school applicants with a 3.4+ GPA from cornell get accepted on their first try, and an elite NY consulting company which looked at my friend's resume (with a 3.5 GPA) called the resume "excellent"</p>
<p>12 of my 15 credits for intro classes had averages set at 2.67. I know students who according to the grading scale of the prelims assumed they would have A's but ended up with b/b+'s because they curved down after other factors were added in.</p>
<p>I like the grading. It's difficult enough to make me nervous and keep me on my toes and make me feel extremely proud when I do get good grades and still reasonable enough to make me feel like I've pretty much gotten what I deserved.</p>
<p>Can you explain what it means to "curve down" ?</p>
<p>See, the grades are designed as such that you don't get a grade for reaching a certain score, but you get a grade according to your rank in the course. For example, if there were 100 people in a course, then the top 15 would get A, the next 15 A-, the next 15 B+ and so on something like that. That means your work might be deserving of an A, but because there happens to be people who've done better, you get a B instead.</p>
<p>Wow...that's really tough. Is there a reason why Cornell does this?</p>
<p>To eat at the lining of our stomaches.</p>
<p>No seriously, I have no idea either, and this bothers me to hear this about Cornell AFTER I got accepted ED. I'm not a student at Cornell yet but in my opinion I don't understand why a college would not inflate their grades with everyone else. Graduate schools don't seem to mind Harvard's grade inflation. It seems to me like the school that inflates their grades before everyone else and then deflates them after other school start to say something would have the upper hand. I know someone is going to respond with something like, "because people go to school to learn" or something to that extent, but I think it is more important, at least in my opinion, for school to be a stepping stone to bigger and better things (with minimal stomach lining damage).</p>
<p>I agree. I hope there is some leniency when graduate schools look at students from Cornell. This really changes my view, so now I'm not sure where Cornell stands on my list.</p>
<p>as i understand it, your transcript is issued with median grades alongside your grades in the classes. employers/grad schools will know how you did compared to the others and thus will have an idea of the difficulty of the course and the difficulty of work at cornell. further, the grade deflation and course difficulty at cornell is well known by those who matter, rest assured.</p>
<p>Praise the lord :)</p>
<p>bongoboy: what about people who want to go to medical school? I hear that the first stage in the admissions process is to sift through pure numbers such as MCAT scores and GPA. After all the number sorting, THEN they go into extracurriculars and essays. Do they somehow adjust the GPA in their calculations (I think this would be extremely time-consuming and subjective, thus, highly unlikely). I just wish Cornell would inflate their grades like the rest of the Ivies.</p>
<p>How many people graduated magna cum laude????? in engineering?</p>
<p>what's magna cum laude?</p>
<p>Magna cum laude is awarded to all engineering students with a GPA > 3.75 (based on all credits taken at Cornell).
Summa cum laude is awarded to all engineering students with a GPA > 4.0 (based on all credits taken at Cornell).</p>
<p>Also, Summa cum laude in engineering? that must be impossible...</p>
<p>considering Cornell's grade deflation, does the minimum GPA required vary between different universities?</p>
<p>theslowclap, 89% of students applying to med school with 3.3 (or 3.4, I forgot) at Cornell get accepted. 89% puts the national average to shame. </p>
<p>I don't find that all professors curve down. My math teacher said, "I'd love for you to all get A's and you all will if I think you have a true understanding of the class." Some teachers follow the normal distribution for grades, others are more lenient. The curve is probably more rigorous for science majors, because they like to make you miserable for kicks. </p>
<p>I was a biology major last semester and no longer am, due to the intense hatred I developed for it here at Cornell ;). I suspect that my grades in 2 of my premed classes were curved down, considering I found out I didn't bomb the final after all, but it happens. </p>
<p>" I don't understand why a college would not inflate their grades with everyone else"</p>
<p>That's some grand reasoning there. I did poorly last semester and I don't agree with you, at all. Grad, med and law schools all know that Cornell is extremely difficult, so I don't think you should stress so much since you haven't arrived yet.</p>
<p>Oh please, let's stop with the "I go to Cornell so feel sorry for me" routine. Cornell grading in engineering/science is tough at best. Grading in humanities courses is grade inflated. I have yet to get lower than an A in a non bio/chem class (and I've taken classes in the foreign language, English, Math, anthropology, asian american studies, history, etc. departments). If you're too chicken to major in science, then go major in humanities. You can still go to med school. The biggest reason you will fail at Cornell is not because of its grading. It's because you come to Cornell expecting to fail.</p>
<p>As for the med school stats, I would caution that the 90% stat is for applicants with 3.4 OR ABOVE GPA's (including those with 3.8, 3.9, 4.0 GPA's). If you have exactly a 3.4-3.5, the acceptance rate is only around 60%. That said, that's still decent and the 77-80% overall acceptance rate is right in line with other comparable premed schools like Northwestern or WashU.</p>
<p>to the person who said "med schools don't seem to mind harvard's grade inflation," yes it's true, but if harvard suddenly moved to a harsh grading system, i doubt you'd see any fewer harvard students getting into med school. It's based on reputation. Students with 3.4s from decent but not excellent school like UC boulder aren't anywhere nearly as likely to get into med school as 3.4s from Cornell and the aforementioned Harvard.</p>
<p>Also, about numerical analysis: Even if med schools do sort through MCAT and GPA preliminarily, they need to equate GPAs from different colleges, so a third factor they throw in the mix is their own "ranking" of colleges in terms of quality and difficulty. If your school grades very harshly, that will be normalized. But also, if your school is crap, your good grades will be normalized in the other direction.</p>