<p>I have been reading about schools that have grade inflation but also schools that have severe grade deflation which is meant to weed out students for certain programs and such. </p>
<p>I was wondering if Notre Dame had grade inflation or grade deflation?</p>
<p>Thank you for the help :D</p>
<p>I had this same question 1 year ago when deciding between colleges. My best answer would be that ND has neither. Some Ivy League schools are famous for grade inflation (cough, Harvard, cough), essentially guaranteeing that students get A’s in certain classes. Other schools such as Vanderbilt (they stuck out to me the most and the person who conducted my alumni interview essentially reiterated this to me…) have a sort of system that basically is grade deflation, weeding out students, most notably on the pre-med track. </p>
<p>That being said, ND has some difficult classes, especially for science majors but there is no grade deflation or inflation. Med schools recognize this and do not penalize students at all for this, as evidenced by the 80%+ acceptance rate to med schools.</p>
<p>Arts and Letters GPA’s are inflated as well as business. Science is deflated, engineering extremely so.</p>
<p>Average GPA is a 3.4 Average Science class GPA is a 3.2.</p>
<p>thank you so much
this information has been very helpful</p>
<p>I know someone who attends ND and let me state that they are extremely helpful when it comes to tutoring etc but the premed track is very rigorous. They definitely weed kids out quickly (by first semester or end of freshman year). Their program is rigid and they make you take 18 credits the first semester and 19 the second. You have to take calculus both semesters and then gen chem 1 followed by organic in the second. I thought it was weird that gen chem 2 isn’t taken until sophomore year. Either way its a weeder program, hence the reason they ultimately have an 85% med school acceptance rate. I’m not saying its a bad thing but sometimes I think that kids who were weeded out so early ‘may’ have made it through the program somewhere else. (That’s a big ‘may’) Freshman year is tough but that puts a little extra strain on the individual. Although like I mentioned in the beginning the amount of services available to help you is fantastic at ND. They truly go out of their way to help a student who is floundering!!! I haven’t come across any other school who does as much as ND and you don’t even have to ask for help. They actually contact you, if they see a failing or low grade in any of your coursework. Your advisor really keeps track of everything. They are fantastic! As for the grades. I thought they were very fair. The average calc, chem and orgo grades were always in the mid seventies to low eighties. You can’t ask for more than that. Its just that the curriculum is demanding, especially with 18 to 19 credit a semester. My friend took religion, which was mandatory for first semester and she had to write 22 papers. Crazy right?</p>
<p>Wow. I had no idea. I was told it wasn’t a weeder program.
I guess pre med anywhere is just hard though. </p>
<p>And I thought that they couldn’t weed you out by the end of
freshman year because freshman year you had to take the
mandatories and you couldn’t decide on a major. </p>
<p>Anyway thank you for the info :D</p>
<p>One of the big premed programs at ND is the Science Business major and the first semester course work was calc 1 (4cr.), gen chem 1 (4cr.), eco (4cr.), religion (3cr.), and language (3cr.) plus you have to take a health class for no credit although there was even a little bit of work for that too. Its a health/gym class by the end. Then second semester is calc 2, organic 1, language, philosphy,and history. Somehow that adds up to 19 credits. Its a very specific rubric you follow. </p>
<p>We debated when this student was having a tough time with Gen Chem 1 about how wise it would be to go into Orgo and they were very clear that that was the path their students take and that they did things this way early on to make sure kids were in the right program from the get go. </p>
<p>This particular student that I know very well did leave the program midway through 2nd semester freshman year and is now a business major at Mendoza the number 1 b school in the country so the alternatives are not bad at all, but I do feel in some ways that it was harder than it had to be.</p>
<p>To give ND their credit, it is very apparent when you go to that school that it is a well oiled machine. They really do know what they are doing in all aspects. So I very big part of me knows that something like 90% of all premed majors leave by the end of the sophmore year and perhaps ND realizes that its better to get kids out quicker and moving in their true direction sooner…</p>
<p>Honestly, its a fantastic school and they are their for you 1000000%. I was very impressed, which is not ususal.</p>