<p>I really like Vanderbilt and I am interested in majoring in political science or economics. </p>
<p>Is grade deflation prevalent in Vanderbilt? (especially in social sciences department)</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>My D is in CAS & has worked very hard. She has an excellent GPA. I think that there are certainly some classes known for being weed-out classes & there will be students who get bad grades. The average GPA is not as high as it is at some peer institutions, from what I understand. However, it is possible to do well.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is not any harder than its peer institutions regarding grade deflation or risking a lower GPA in my opinion. That said, don’t attend Vanderbilt unless you are ready to work very very hard because the faculty pitches classes to classrooms of strong learners daily and they expect you to be disciplined.</p>
<p>Have a son that also went to Duke. Both of my kids were standouts in weak high schools with the test scores that are the norm at Vanderbilt and with test scores near or in the top quartile. Test scores however are not enough. Work habits and class attendance make the difference.</p>
<p>The next kid may be no smarter than you are but may be more disciplined or more advantaged by their higher quality high school background or parental background. You have to gauge all these factors and get to know yourself. Our high school for instance had very weak AP instruction with few people making over 3s. not the norm at Vandy…most kids mastered APs but not all! some had high schools with weaker instruction.</p>
<p>My Duke son’s comment was that there is no “bottom quartile” at Duke and he had to learn to gear up considerably re class preparation. There are no points for classroom homework or for raising your hand and participating. You have to learn to be graded on a few exams or papers and this is a new skill. When a quarter of the kids have near perfect test scores, you can also believe that some of them didn’t have to try too hard for those test scores because they are simply very bright and fast learners and solid on standardized tests. </p>
<p>I do not really believe there is much of a “bottom quartile” at Vanderbilt as well. Most students were A students in high school and are something of perfectionists who will push themselves to learn. The difference is that you must “Know Thyself” when you land in a school of “equals” on paper. You have to know what you require to learn and you have to accept that others learn differently than you do. My Vanderbilt son for instance is excellent with ideas and abstractions and highly verbal so he excels in classes where ideas are the heart of the matter and he writes very well. He is lazier when it comes to uploading tons of factoids for classes that are more quantitative and require you to memorize a lot. He had to correct himself and to learn to compensate and to focus on memorization skills to keep up at Vanderbilt. Another student might have the opposite weakness.</p>
<p>Vandy son also got a little carried away with attending tons of free lectures and cultural events when he might have done better staying in the library and doing rote learning. Others make mistakes focusing on their social lives when they should be studying. These experiences are really what college is all about. College is really about mastering YOURSELF in a sea of varied people of varied talents.</p>
<p>Attending a school like Vanderbilt with almost 7000 undergrads means learning to keep your spirits up when you are no longer “the best.” You have to learn to judge yourself and others differently and to run your own race. </p>
<p>My Duke son’s greatest asset I think was that he was not jealous of any friends who were more talented. Instead he admired them and they would tutor him when he tripped up. I think this is true at Vanderbilt as well. Envy is a wasted emotion when the entire school is capable. It is best to celebrate your friends and classmates and focus very strongly on running your own race. Then the true assets of attending a larger college like Vanderbilt are enjoyed because you will probably learn as much from your classmates and friends as you will from the faculty over four years.</p>
<p>Duke son was an Econ and History major. He did not have an A average in Econ where he was simply not at the top of each classroom but he was able to ace his history courses. Econ is very quantitative. Vandy son has a few majors and minors but one is Poli Sci. A grades in Poli Sci are attainable but not handed out easily. As in general at Vanderbilt are not earned easily but they are attainable. You will have to put in a lot of work and have foresight to make As at Vandy but discipline will result in better grades at Vandy and anywhere else.</p>
<p>^Thank you so much.</p>
<p>Thank you kelsmom and faline2- I really hope you didn’t misinterpret my question. I will definitely carry my great work ethic from High school to college next year- and if it is Vanderbilt, I would be very honored :)</p>
<p>Can anyone else share their thoughts on “grade deflation” at Vandy, specifically for an economics major/financial economics minor?</p>
<p>I’m not an econ/social sciences major (EEOB/EES), but in my experience there’s a lot more grade inflation than deflation. at least in the traditional, gaussian sense (as in, not in the outrageously overinflated HS sense). Some of the classes don’t have it too bad (a lot of the lower level science courses – Bio 110 and chem 102 and Ochem 210 or whatever curved to a C+/B-, so they’re only slightly inflated, and the distribution is usually pretty normal (though since so many people retake ochem it ends up being amusingly bimodal, iirc – the kids from last year vs the ones taking it fresh)), but others have averages in the B -> B+ range. I don’t think it regularly gets any higher than B+, at least not for major classes, though I’m pretty sure my freshman multivariable class had an average of a high A, haha.</p>
<p>In the liberal arts classes I’ve taken the averages tended to be higher – low As or high Bs.</p>
<p>So at any rate, there’s no grade deflation at Vanderbilt, only low-moderate amounts of inflation.</p>