<p>Should grade deflation be considered as a factor when choosing a school? I feel like grade deflation is a big factor when choosing a college. Schools notorious for grade deflation worry me because I'll probably attend a graduate school eventually. Is giving grade deflation any weight wise?</p>
<p>Keep in mind that grad schools also know which schools have grade deflation and will take that into account when evaluating your application.</p>
<p>yea, but sakky pointed out on one of his threads that grad schools really don't take that into account as much as you would think. I think sakky has a post that compared MIT to Princeton's med school acceptances. Dig that out, it'll answer your question.</p>
<p>There is a big difference between colleges with actual grade deflation and colleges that don't have grade inflation. Some colleges "notorious" for grade deflation have average GPAs over 3.0, which isn't exactly deflation. There is also a difference between grad schools and professional schools; GPA is less important for grad school. Molliebatmit got into nearly all of the best biochem grad programs with a 3.4 at MIT.</p>
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Is giving grade deflation any weight wise?
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<p>Absolutely. If the average GPA at a school is 3.1, it may not officially be a "grade deflated" school, but it is important. Talk with current students if possible and try to understand the rigor of coursework and difficulty of getting an A and having a great time.</p>
<p>I'm don't know the difference between a professional and graduate school. I think professional school is med school, b-school, and law school but I'm not sure. The school I know I'd have a good time at, while still managing good grades isn't as highly ranked as my other choices. It does have some amount of prestige though. And there are hot girls there.</p>
<p>Well, what are the schools that you are considering. Someone earlier was worried about choosing Vandy over Cornell because he likes Vandy more but Cornell is more prestigious, when in actuality the difference is not much at all. It may be the same situation for you.</p>
<p>My choices are MSU, UMich and Macalester.</p>
<p>Haha, I love that I'm always the standard example for getting a low GPA and still rockin' the grad school admissions game. :D</p>
<p>As warblersrule pointed out, it depends whether you're talking about *graduate school<a href="PhD%20and%20master's%20programs">/i</a> or *professional school<a href="law,%20medical,%20veterinary%20programs">/i</a>. Professional schools tend to care about GPA and standardized test scores quite a bit (as sakky has amply demonstrated for medical school), while graduate schools tend to care about other factors, like research experience and letters of recommendation, and will be more lenient with a low GPA from a school known for tough grading.</p>
<p>Yes, mollie is exactly right. My mind is always on professional (law) school, and you will get very little leeway in that case, but graduate schools are different, particularly if you come from a great but difficult school like Chicago, MIT, Reed, etc.</p>
<p>I think you'll be given leeway, but don't expect too much of a difference. I would definitely consider it a factor in college-choosin.</p>
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yea, but sakky pointed out on one of his threads that grad schools really don't take that into account as much as you would think. I think sakky has a post that compared MIT to Princeton's med school acceptances. Dig that out, it'll answer your question.
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Haha, I love that I'm always the standard example for getting a low GPA and still rockin' the grad school admissions game. </p>
<p>As warblersrule pointed out, it depends whether you're talking about graduate school (PhD and master's programs) or professional school (law, medical, veterinary programs). Professional schools tend to care about GPA and standardized test scores quite a bit (as sakky has amply demonstrated for medical school)....
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<p>Yep, sad but true - professional schools just don't seem to care that some schools and some majors are more difficult than others. They don't know, and they don't want to know about it - it's like they * deliberately choose * to not know. Hence, if you want to maximize your chances of getting into a professional school, you are better off going to an easy school and choosing easy classes. Sad but true. </p>
<p>The same also holds to a large extent with many employers. Many employers use GPA cutoffs (usually around a 3.0). If you don't reach that cutoff, they don't care why. Maybe you didn't reach the cutoff because you just took extremely difficult courses. But they don't care about that. All they will see is that you didn't reach the cutoff. Sad but true.</p>