<p>i have heard that princeton deflates GPAs</p>
<p>will a low gpa from princeton hurt my chances at a top medical school (do medical schools recalculate princeton GPAs)?</p>
<p>Yeah they do. I believe that the grades are based on a bell curve. So, there is already a predetermined amount of people who will get As, Bs - Fs. Basically, people will end up failing, even if they really earned a B or C</p>
<p>^^^
Don’t many/most undergrads weed like that for premed prereqs? </p>
<p>“Basically, people will end up failing, even if they really earned a B or C”</p>
<p>I don’t think that’s true.</p>
<p>I don’t think these schools are failing students who really earned a B or a C. I doubt that if everyone scored 90% or better that those who had a semester ending percent of 92% would get an F. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No, they won’t give a D or F for passing work*. But a student who might have gotten an A- at a more grade inflated school may get a B+ at a less grade inflated school, for example. However, to a pre-med, any grade lower than an A- is a bad grade:</p>
<p>A = acceptable
B = bad
C = catastrophic
D = disastrous
F = forget it</p>
<p>*In “curve” grading, the bell curve may only be applied to A+ through C- grades, with D and F grades being “earned” on a more absolute measure.</p>
<p>Med schools don’t re-adjust p’ton gpa, however p’ton includes a “letter” with every transcript and LOR explaining their grade deflation policy. Son is alum so his interviewers were aware of the the grade deflation policy, it was mentioned during the interview when they were asking about his course list.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>However, isn’t it the case that if less grade inflation adversely affects the applicant to a medical school, it could result in being screened out before the interview?</p>
<p>^^^Meaning the gpa is screened out before interview stage? Sure, if the gpa is being screened by a computer not looking at schools, just gpa, it could easily happen. Do I know if it does, do not know. Son’s GPA was not super fantastic, decent with a good MCAT. He did receive 15+ invites out of 23 apps. The no contact/rejects came from his NON-reaches…so an interview at Harvard but not Drexel, interview at Univ of Washington as OOS not Miami, interview at Univ of Michigan as OOS not USC. Made no sense to me…maybe a computer screen?</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>The screening GPA is far below the average GPA. I don’t know exact numbers but I believe it’s on the order of schools with class GPA averages in the 3.7+ range probably screen at highest a 3.0.</p>
<p>
This depends on the curve. While Princeton may only control A+ through C-, that does not mean all curves do.</p>
<p>If 35% of the class get As at Princeton, I would consider it liberal grading. Most of the state school I am familiar with, no more than 20% of the class gets A. Am I missing something?</p>
<p><a href=“Grading at Princeton | Office of the Dean of the College”>http://odoc.princeton.edu/faculty-staff/grading-princeton</a></p>
<p>Depends on what the grade is supposed to mean. Getting into Princeton takes a lot so it’s not unreasonable for large proportions of their students to master introductory level concepts, or at least a larger proportion than a random state school. Princeton obviously believes the grades should correlate with your standing in the class regardless of how much material you actually know.</p>
<p>My point is if 35% of the class is getting A, where is the grade deflation. Infact it is grade inflation.And my point is it is much more difficult to get A in public ivys than the Ivy leagues. </p>
<p><<depends on="" what="" the="" grade="" is="" supposed="" to="" mean="">>
Whatever it means it is 4.0 on your transcript. </depends></p>
<p>“Public ivys”? Really? </p>
<p>Sorry, drives me nuts. Sports league. Maybe we should start saying “are there weeder classes in the SEC?”</p>
<p>^ <a href=“Public Ivy - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Ivy</a></p>
<p>@yesdee, I totally agree with your previous post. Princeton is either “neutral” or slightly grade inflated.</p>
<p>Thanks Plum, I have heard the term before. I just think it is silly. Just because some silly author in 1985 says it doesn’t make it so. Jeez, is Tiger Mom Amy chua going to be relevant in 20 years? Yuck</p>
<p>“Getting into Princeton takes a lot…” I must agree with you IWBB. The only three people I know personally who have gotten into Princeton recently have been extremely wealthy Cuban Americans. It took a lot, but I’m not sure you were referring to $$$. (Sounding bitter, I realize, but I wanted to add a little touch of reality too.)</p>
<p>I’m glad Princeton added this in their explanation of the 35%:
Tryth is, I hate to think of what the percentage of As is at most colleges these days. Grades were always important even when I was in UG, but with all this pressure to get past a certain gpa, they don’t seem as meaningful now. Personally, I really think most people who have a 4.0 are gunners, but that prejudice came from being a teacher. I used to have a student who’d belly ache when I’d take a point or two off due to a few writing deficits. I probably gave her a higher numerical grade than I should have, but ALL she cared about was getting a 100. And I was only a 5th grade teacher! (who cares about grades in elementary school?)</p>
<p>@GA2012MOM,</p>
<p>I agree with you, the public ivy term is stupid, but some people just can’t handle the fact that they’re not at an “Academic SEC” :P</p>