GPAs at Penn vs Brown

[lostaccount]

I just discovered that the average GPA at Brown, pretty much regardless of discipline (thus STEM grades are as high) is 3.63. The average grade in the physical sciences including engineering (which is rigorous in other schools) is 3.525 at Brown. Does anyone know the average GPA for Penn? I assume that GPAs at places like Penn, Cornell, and Princeton, particularly in STEM, are not anywhere close. I wonder if admissions for grad schools and professionals schools can distinguish Brown’s GPAs from meaningful ones. Overall, only 4% of the grades given to Brown students are C’s (in physical science it is 7%. Can you imagine an intro physics class where almost nobody got a C? If you are a student at Penn, can you describe what grading is like in STEM?

[fogcity]

Some old data
http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~ese302/lab-content/Grade_Inflation.pdf
Suggests that the average GPA at Penn CAS is 3.38

You need a 3.7 to be on Penn’s dean’s list

[Much2learn]

DD is in SEAS and says that the engineering average is between 3.0 and 3.1. That seems to make sense if CAS is about 3.4.

[KeDIX1414]

The student newspaper announced that the overall average Penn GPA is about 3.41 if that helps.

[ricck1]

This is a useless question. Princeton and Harvard are well known for their grade inflation. Penn, Columbia, MIT, Chicago, the grading is much more rigorous. Brown has a lot of grade inflation as well.

[lostaccount]

Such huge differences in requirements too. Brown has none. The GPA is sort of a joke at Brown. At least you have to take classes at the other IVY plus schools. Take a legacy of Brown and you get two generations of entitlement but you can’t necessarily count on other things. Princeton did away with its grade inflation by instituting grade deflation strategies but they have done a reversal on that. A’s are not given out like candy at MIT or CalTech. It’s hard to graduate without getting an education at Penn, Columbia, MIT, Caltech or Chicago. Equating by student, grades for the IVYs will likely be considerably higher than those or Caltech and MIT. But if you equate for major they are likely to be closer. Except Brown.

[RenaissanceMom]

@lostaccount‌, you are constantly bashing brown both on the brown forum and elsewhere. You started this thread just for this purpose in the Penn forum, lol. What’s up? Were you or yours rejected? Oh, your post above is misinformed, but you already know this from reading posts written by brown students/ alums/ parents over on the brown forum. Your posts are really tedious.

[lookingforward]

I think OP only knows some superficials about Brown, which deflates his position. Obviously, you have to take certain courses to complete a major like engineering. You think the school is full of navel gazers?

[RenaissanceMom]

Every concentration at brown has required courses.

[fenwaypark]

I think OP only knows some superficials about Brown, which deflates his position.

I agree. And in the scheme of things I guess it’s no big deal, just one of those things that sometimes happens on message boards.

Except for this.

The OP passes him/herself off as a guidance counselor or independent college counselor, based on the following quote from the Brown forum. Those professions…and the students they serve…deserve much better, I think.

For the past three years I’ve seen quite a few Brown legacies accepted to Brown but rejected from all other Ivy league+ schools including some schools (academically stronger) siblings are currently enrolled in. Because Brown was being used as their safety (because of legacy status) these students had not applied ED and talked about Brown being low on their list yet got in anyway.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18099837/#Comment_18099837

[lookingforward]

I’m not a college student but I am a professional in education, I’ve advised students and learned a lot from my own.

if OP wants to advise, he or she should skip the crap.

[arwarw]

@lostaccount‌, you are constantly bashing brown both on the brown forum and elsewhere. You started this thread just for this purpose in the Penn forum, lol. What’s up? Were you or yours rejected? Oh, your post above is misinformed, but you already know this from reading posts written by brown students/ alums/ parents over on the brown forum. Your posts are really tedious.

@RenaissanceMom‌ Perhaps it’s cathartic. I’m sure as parents, most of us can appreciate the hurt of experiencing our own kid’s rejection in admissions or otherwise.

Last year on CC, I remember a father whose D was rejected from Brown et al and he concluded that you had to be a minority or athlete to be accepted. Obviously not true, but if it helps him deal with it and move on, what’s the harm?

http://www.mrt.com/import/article_e4a50257-e1dd-5733-a307-0894cbe64ad3.html

The teens rebound immediately. Their parents, say guidance counselors, aren’t quite as resilient.

“The kids cry for a half hour and they’re on their way,” said Joseph Monte, a counselor at Albert Einstein High School in Kensington, Md. But for parents who have pushed their children toward an alma mater or an elite school, he said, it’s tougher to let go.

“Sometimes the parents have a harder time accepting it than the student does because they’ve made a really big investment of themselves, their time and their money,” said Lynne Bushee, a guidance counselor at Central Senior High School in St. Paul, Minn.

[fenwaypark]

Obviously not true, but if it helps him deal with it and move on, what’s the harm?

No harm for those who come to the site to tell stories and chit-chat.

Lots of harm for those who come to the site for reliable information, supported by facts. Kudos to @RenaissanceMom (and @lookingforward) for standing up to this poster both here and on the Brown forum.

[lostaccount]

I try to include only accurate information in my posts. The information I include isn’t always welcomed by all readers but my goal is that it is for all objective information be accurate. I would not want anything less for my advisees so I would not do any less than that here. The question posed here is a question.

[arwarw]

^^ Unfortunately, the information you include is not accurate. For example you said:

Such huge differences in requirements too. Brown has none… At least you have to take classes at the other IVY plus schools.

Each concentration at Brown has course requirements. The information is available on Brown’s web site.