Echols or Ivy

<p>I don’t know if UVA suffers from grade inflation…</p>

<p>^ I sure hope so.</p>

<p>average GPA is a 3.2-3.3, thats pretty much on par with ivy leagues. Some of the other top-tier colleges have averages of like 3.4-3.6. But UVA is still up there in terms of inflation.</p>

<p>Naturally some majors are significantly more challenging and/or labor intensive than others, so to look at simply an average GPA at a university is extremely misleading. That being said, there was a study put out by Berkeley several years ago that ranked schools according to “Hardest Schools to Get an A”; I can’t locate it (the link is on CC somewhere), but I vaguely remember UVA as being in the top 20. (LACs were included as well.) You can also compare/contrast using
[National</a> Trends in Grade Inflation, American Colleges and Universities](<a href=“http://gradeinflation.com/]National”>http://gradeinflation.com/)
but again, I would discourage putting much weight in these studies because they’re not giving the student an accurate assessment within their chosen field of study.</p>

<p>I’m not quite sure why schools want to deflate their grades. Is it “fun” to give students lower grades and make finding a job more difficult. Sure, nothing should be given to anyone, but to lower grades on purpose is ubsurd.</p>

<p>.2–.3 is actually a significant difference. Stanford suffers from grade inflation (avg GPA is something like a 3.6).</p>

<p>I don’t know if that is grade inflation though wahoomb. The students accepted to Stanford are obviously VERY smart. It might just be that they all do well in their classes.</p>

<p>Wanted to put my two cents in. I love UVA and was so extremely happy and excited the day I found out I made Echols. But today I am choosing Penn over Uva. I know I will love these next four years. I’m also sure that I would have been just as happy if I had spent them at UVA. But we all have our reasons- and for me, it’s about starting a new life in a place I can’t drive home from.</p>

<p>Throughout my visits to both schools, I’ve met people who are turning down Princeton and Columbia for UVA. I’ve met people who are turning down Harvard and MIT for Penn. I’ve met people turning down UVA for VA Tech and NYU. I’ve met people turning down Penn for Duke and SciencesPo. In the end, it’s all what you make of it.</p>