I am thinking of applying ED to Johns Hopkins and the only aspect that is causing some hesitation on my part in grade deflation. I realize that grade deflation is serious at JHU, but is it as serious for majors like International Studies and Political Science as it would be in some science related major like (biology or anything pre-med)? Also, how badly could this affect me when looking to apply to grad schools - would top tier universities look at a slightly lower GPA from JHU and make some kind of exception when comparing it with a higher gpa from a less competitive university?
Don’t think that article has any value. “Nearly half of students who graduated from Lehigh University, Princeton University and the University of Southern California this year did so with cum laude, magna cum laude or summa cum laude honors, or their equivalents. At Harvard and Johns Hopkins, more got the designations than didn’t.” By saying half of the graduating body has those designations dose not make sense because those designations are for top 5%, 10%, and 20% only, so only 20% (they are exclusive of each other) of the graduating class can have those designations.
@amNotarobot Honors at JHU signifies a mininum GPA of 3.5. When 59% of the graduating class has above a 3.5 or above at JHU, it indicates heavy heavy grade inflation.
And no, at Harvard and others, cum laude is not restricted to top 20% of the class. Hardly.
For students interested in the humanities and social sciences, comparing the average GPAs and LSAT scores of pre-law students is useful.
The average GPA at JHU is pretty much exactly what you’d expect given the average LSAT score of JHU applicants, suggesting there is neither grade inflation or deflation at Hopkins.
167.50 Yale
167.40 Harvard
166.10 Princeton
165.98 Chicago
165.72 Stanford
165.67 Dartmouth
165.00 Columbia
164.97 Duke
164.58 Penn
164.48 Tufts
164.31 Brown
164.30 Northwestern
164.05 Wash U
163.48 Georgetown
163.45 Vanderbilt
163.44 Rice
162.75 Notre Dame
162.65 Cornell 161.82 Johns Hopkins
161.75 NYU CAS
161.18 William & Mary
160.84 UVA
160.64 Emory
160.48 Michigan
160.30 Brandeis
159.44 Berkeley
158.94 USC
158.85 UNC Chapel Hill
158.70 Wake Forest
158.21 Boston U
156.96 UCLA
Estimated GPA (LSAT/180*4.0) + Actual GPA
3.72 3.73 Yale
3.72 3.69 Harvard
3.69 3.55 Princeton
3.69 3.60 Chicago
3.68 3.71 Stanford
3.68 3.67 Dartmouth
3.67 3.70 Columbia
3.67 3.69 Duke
3.66 3.68 Penn
3.66 3.62 Tufts
3.65 3.75 Brown
3.65 3.59 Northwestern
3.65 3.65 Wash U
3.63 3.65 Georgetown
3.63 3.49 Vanderbilt
3.63 3.68 Rice
3.62 3.59 Notre Dame
3.61 3.62 Cornell 3.60 3.61 Johns Hopkins
3.59 3.59 NYU CAS
3.58 3.44 William & Mary
3.57 3.43 UVA
3.57 3.51 Emory
3.57 3.56 Michigan
3.56 3.67 Brandeis
3.54 3.55 Berkeley
3.53 3.56 USC
3.53 3.41 UNC Chapel Hill
3.53 3.39 Wake Forest
3.52 3.53 Boston U
3.49 3.55 UCLA
Grade Inflation
0.11 Brandeis
0.10 Brown
0.06 UCLA
0.05 Rice
0.03 Columbia / Stanford / USC
0.02 Duke / Georgetown / Penn 0.01 Berkeley / Boston U / Cornell / Johns Hopkins / Yale
0.00 NYU CAS / Wash U
-0.01 Dartmouth / Michigan
-0.03 Harvard / Notre Dame
-0.04 Tufts
-0.06 Emory / Northwestern
-0.09 Chicago
-0.12 UNC Chapel Hill
-0.14 Princeton / Vanderbilt / UVA / Wake Forest / William & Mary
warblersrule, that is a very interesting correlation of average (median I presume you mean) GPA and LSAT scores. I have never seen that formula before but it seems intuitive and elegant. Is that original with you?
@warblersrule The only way to calculate grade inflation is by looking at average GPA by school. In that context, a 3.6 average GPA is hardly “no grade deflation”. You could also attempt to standardize by SAT score and you’d get a completely different set of skewed results.
JHU’s average GPA increased from 3.49 to a 3.61 while average LSAT went up by barely 1 point.
Duke’s average GPA increased from 3.57 to 3.69 while LSAT went up by about 1.5 points
Princeton’s average GPA increased from 3.39 to 3.55 while LSAT went up by essentially nothing (0.2 points).
Despite what warbler’s indicating, there is rampant grade inflation. No idea how you can make the assertion there is grade deflation at Princeton as in his table.
Princeton may be experiencing more rapid grade inflation now, after some years of having an anti-grade-inflation policy, although its average grades may not yet have caught up to those of some other similarly selective schools. (Note the distinction between the average grades and the rate of change when referring to “grade inflation” – think calculus.)
Great information being posted. The mean LSAT by school is particularly interesting. As in most large-n data sets of scores, they are an excellent proxy for average intelligence levels at the schools.
The min-max numbers are particularly noteworthy. Even at the elites (HYP) you see a ~+4 standard deviation spread between the bottom and the top.
Grade inflation - especially the resulting grade compression at the top of the scale - tends to mask these huge spreads in ability, reaffirming that standardized testing remains a relevant metric.
About grade inflation generally, here is a useful assortment of tidbits:
There is rampant grade inflation almost everywhere and, by and large, that has been going on for 40+ years. The entire U.S. must be Lake Wobegon, where all the children are above average. See the www.gradeinflation.com site referenced above.
JHU is like any other top universities and I know some of the recent graduates(part of the extended family) who did two most in-demand undegraduate programs. There is neither grade deflation nor grade inflation. Is the academic environment challenging due to peer pressure? Yes. So is the case in many top universities.
The statistics shown are for law school applicants who are almost all not STEM majors, and therefore have higher average GPAs. Also, even from top schools, students with low GPAs are probably less likely to apply to law school. With Hopkins the issue is not so much the grading, but the intensity of the courses, and students admitted being strong academically and studying hard. That makes it more difficult.
The main issue is with med schools, which look at GPA and do not adjust enough for school. For premed, you are probably better off going to a 100-200 ranked state school. In other fields, getting into a slightly worse graduate or professional school is not such a big issue as “getting in” to med school, and schools usually are aware of how intense Hopkins, or say MIT, is and adjust.