<p>Other Boston area schools tend to know about the grade deflation reputations. I am yet to get below a B for a final grade but I’ve only taken one class considered to be STEM up until this point. The curves do play a part especially in weed out classes for Chem, Bio, and Engineering. Still some of this people saying their grades were deflated put in the same effort they did in High School and expect to get the same grade which just doesn’t happen.</p>
<p>First of all, “grade deflation” doesn’t exist at BU, or anywhere else that I’m aware of. The average GPA is somewhere a little over 3.0. The fact that other private schools have moved their averages up over the last few decades doesn’t mean that BU is “deflating” grades. They just aren’t inflating them. The only reasons people complain about “grade deflation” are that they either a) don’t understand how curved grading works (i.e., they have some misguided notion that a 90% should be an A- even if it’s the median grade in a class, and imagine that grades can only be “curved” upward) or b) don’t want to explicitly ask for inflated grades and want to portray their ■■■■ GPA as some injustice done to them by BU.</p>
<p>That said, for certain graduate fields where rankings matter and student’s undergraduate GPAs are a factor in the rankings (e.g., US News law school rankings), going to a school with…inflated grades will help you get in. Even if the admissions officers understand that the grading system at BU is relatively harsh, there’s not a whole lot they can do about it. They’re not just trying to identify the best candidates - they’re trying to raise their median GPA numbers.</p>
<p>BU’s quality of its student body has gone up dramatically in the last few decades. GPA’s have not gone up as much to reflect that change so there is in fact GPA deflation. </p>
<p>If you want an easy 3.8, go to Framingham State University of SUNY New Paltz. If you want to work hard and earn it, go to BU.</p>
<p>I think people are just wanting adequate compensation for their work. I don’t think its ridiculous to want your work evaluated on its own merits. </p>
<p>Grades don’t compensate your work, they evaluate it in comparison to that of your peers. Can’t keep up? Go to a different school.</p>
<p>You totally just made up that definition. Grades are a measure of how well you did, but nice try adding the peer part in.</p>
<p>Wait, I’m confused. First you said that they compensate you for your work (so if you work hard you’re entitled to good grades), now you’re saying they’re a measure of how well you did (so if you’re successful you’re entitled to good grades). Are they compensation for work or a measurement of success? Or are you just throwing a bunch of convenient definitions against a wall to see which one sticks?</p>
<p>Most classes on BU are graded on some sort of curve - though often a very loose one (e.g., setting the median grade at a B). By definition, curved grading only measures performance in relation to your peers. The average grade is already determined before anyone does any work. The average student gets the average grade. What aren’t you understanding?</p>
<p>It’s both grades are compensation for the work you do and should be judged on their own merits. Having a curve is grading people’s work via comparison and doesn’t account for variations in class strength.</p>
<p>Why are you so combative? </p>