<p>I heard that due to grade deflation, it's kinda difficult to get a good GPA at USC. Particularly, at Marshall. Is this true? Can anybody shed some light in this area for those of us thinking about grad school after undergrad?</p>
<p>I’m wondering about the Marshall Curve as well</p>
<p>no…I need to have a good GPA to get into a good grad school or transfer if I don’t like USC. Is this really true? Where did you guys hear this?</p>
<p>It depends on what you mean by “grade deflation”. It’s college. Not everyone is going to get an A all the time.</p>
<p>I’m not a business student, but this has come up often enough. There are no official rules stating what percentage of the class must receive A’s, B’s, etc. (i.e., a curve)</p>
<p>In fact, there never was any “marshall curve”. There used to be some guidelines about the target average GPA of the class. They eventually raised the target GPA, and recently ditched it altogether. </p>
<p>And frankly, even though I’ve never taken any business courses, it never seemed to me to be that bad. I’ve seen plenty of engineering students take business courses or switch to a business major (partially) because of their GPA.</p>
<p>Don’t most Engineering students get A’s and B’s?</p>
<p>it varies. There are some courses where typically everyone gets >= B, some where the majority (~2/3) get A’s or B’s, and a couple that are somewhat more spread.</p>
<p>It’s a bit hard to say, because the policy in most classes is that the grade is based on individual performance and not on an arbitrary curve. I’ve taken many engineering classes where the professor promises to give everyone in the class an A if that is the quality of work.</p>
<p>A thread from January 2008 quotes a memo sent about this:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/449334-no-more-curve-usc-marshall.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/449334-no-more-curve-usc-marshall.html</a></p>
<p>There is still a curve, but it isn’t a strict bell curve. You are essentially ranked among your peers and grades are assigned based on segmentation of all your points at the end of the semester. It typically works out quite well with around 15% of the class being in the A/A- range.</p>
<p>If you are hoping to graduate summa cum laude, its going to be a pretty difficult task at Marshall.</p>
<p>But is it doable? 
Or extremely rare.</p>
<p>It’s more rare than anything. Just be well-rounded and you’ll be successful. Don’t stress out too much about grades. I know a girl who graduated with a 2.6 and ended up working at Pricewaterhouse. Its all about who you know.</p>
<p>Does this grade deflation apply to all of USC or just Marshall?</p>
<p>Just marshall. Most classes at USC, grade distribution is professor’s discretion.</p>
<p>And that 15% number doesn’t sound right. Maybe it’s just the sort I hang out with, but most people I’ve talked to have gotten plenty of A’s and A-'s in business courses. And there definitely seem to be more A’s than in engineering, where 20% A/A- is the usual minimum.</p>
<p>Then again, I’ve never taken any business. Take it as you will.</p>
<p>To clear up a few things (I am a Marshall senior):</p>
<p>1) There used to be a Marshall curve. It used to be set to 2.85. Then they switched it to 3.0. They didn’t set the number of A’s and B’s per se, but the aggregate GPA for the class had to meet the target GPA. They have since abolished this policy, although some professors (maybe half) still curve their classes to a 3.0. Some classes go as high as 3.2. So the aggregate average GPA is probably between 3.0 and a 3.2.</p>
<p>2) For engineering, I can’t speak for all majors, but my buddy in computer science said that the average GPA was below a 3.0 for his major. But there are a lot of different tracks within engineering, so take that with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>3) PwC has an officially stated minimum GPA of 3.2, and people with a 3.5+ were getting rejected this year, so I don’t think that’s a typical case. On the whole, getting a high GPA really opens a lot of doors.</p>
<p>I think the take home message is that there are plenty of A’s to be gotten, but you’re not going to get them for an average performance in a class (unless the class is all really good, or if it’s a class with a more generous grading pattern)</p>
<p>This is not grade deflation, per se. The “marshall curve” may or may not be what you call grade deflation, but the fact that the average grade is not an “A” is not grade deflation. It just means there’s no grade inflation.</p>
<p>What does PwC stand for?</p>
<p>PricewaterhouseCoopers</p>