<p>Future pre-med here and I wanted to know how hard it is to maintain a good GPA at JHU. Is there a lot of grade inflation/deflation? Thanks.</p>
<p>I think you can go check out the other thread on what life in JHU is like! It does talk quite a bit about GPAs and stuff. (:</p>
<p>Hard work brings a high GPA. Simple as that. Just go to lecture, study your lecture notes, read your textbooks, do assignments if they exist, and of course study before finals. Honestly, high school should have developed these skills, but if not, then get ready to do these things to succeed. A 4.0 or even a 3.5 will not come easy per say, but if you do the work you will do well.
To give specifics would be indeed a fallacy as grading structures vary so much from course to course and major to major. But, in general, GPAs tend to be lower than schools of equal academic rigor (say an Ivy), as a result of more stringent conditions to receive an A. In the long run, grad schools and employers are aware of this and take it into account when reviewing you as an applicant/candidate. Honestly, I love that not everyone is running around with 4.0s, for if one does maintain one, it says that much more about the student.</p>
<p>“Honestly, I love that not everyone is running around with 4.0s, for if one does maintain one, it says that much more about the student.”</p>
<p>@Final eyes
Rofl</p>
<p>Another member of the class of 2016 here.</p>
<p>I actually agree with FinalEyes entirely. The more difficult something is, the more opportunities you have to distinguish yourself.</p>
<p>If you want to speak strictly in terms of grade deflation/inflation, Princeton, which touts its policy of deflation, actually has a higher average GPA- theirs is ~3.4, whereas ours is ~3.25. Keep in mind that average GPA is largely dictated by grading distributions.</p>
<p>Our grading policies are stringent. The challenge of the course material in general is high. But nothing worth doing was ever easy.</p>
<p>While that is true, at Princeton an A+ counts as 4.33 instead of 4 like at JHU, which skews the numbers upwards. The “deflation” policy puts a cap on the percentage of As that a department can award, it doesn’t impact the entire distribution. I never got the sense that there’s any grade inflation or deflation at JHU. Professors tend to give you the grade they feel you deserve. In lower-level classes the distribution of grades tends to be more uniform while as you move up to 400-level courses the grades tend to be A-s and As.</p>