I’ve been going through many threads and articles that detail how there have been “signs” of grade deflation depending on your professor, but that these have been mostly restricted to some intro classes and a sign of BU not inflating as much as other colleges.
Still, which majors/departments in particular have been accused of doing this? Are certain majors more susceptible to grade deflation than others? Why is the average GPA at BU only a 3.0? What’s pulling it down?
Hi! I’m currently a freshman at BU and I think I can be of some use. The main problem is the big science classes. The average is usually curved to a C+, which is ridiculously low no matter how you see it. This isn’t too uncommon for any school; sciences are hard. The difference is a very, very large percentage of BU students are premed and are in majors that require these big science courses. That lowers the schools average a lot. Having a 2.3 averaged into the GPA of your average students is pretty bad.
Some other professors of small classes also decide not to give any As. My writing professor gave me a B+ and I was extremely close to her and did a lot of good work for the class. She actually wrote my recommendation for my Cornell transfer. Many of the professors at BU used to get in trouble for giving out too many A’s.
The large science classes as well as the random small classes where A’s are just not given out completely drag down the average GPA of the school. If you aren’t a STEM major, this probably won’t apply to you too much, sorry!
@hitherebuddy Thanks. I’m a prospective BMB major (biochem and molecular biology). Even though I’m taking AP Bio this year, I’ll have to encounter intro chem and a physics course as well. Then again I’m also considering switching to econ, so I’ll see…
I’m not interested in med school, only research for grad. But this has been partially worrying me because one other school I’m interested in requires a 3.0 GPA to transfer.
By “big science classes” are you just referring to the intro ones? Or would this apply to some of the 2nd year and upper-level courses as well?
Oh yeah, so grad schools do look at your GPA as well, which is pretty unfortunate for some BU students, but I think a 3.0 is very manageable! There seems to be a really high percentage of people with 3.0s, which is why that’s the average. Not too many people get that much higher or that much lower.
And yeah whoops, sorry about that. The big science classes are the intro classes for the most part. They set out to really trip you up with tricky, hard questions. I heard the upper-level courses are much easier. Every one of my upperclassmen friends (keep in mind, that’s only like a dozen people haha) has said it gets easier after freshman year.