<p>I’ve pretty much decided that BU is where I want to go, but the stories that I’ve heard about the grade deflation at BU are starting to scare me. I messed up in HS so that pretty much ruled out all chances of me going to an ivy or top tier school for ugrad, but I don’t intend on making the same mistake in college. I want to be competitive for the top law schools, but I don’t want something like grade deflation to dash my hopes. I’m also considering transferring, so much so that I’ve alrdy registered for the June 9th ACTs. I’ll be attending SMG while at BU. Any words of advice on the grade deflation problem?</p>
<p>Hi Odin64,</p>
<p>Lergnom has posted several notes on this topic on one of BU threads. You might want to search by his name.</p>
<p>What is SMG?</p>
<p>Also, I do believe that if you apply yourself and work hard, you should be able to proactively shape your future.</p>
<p>Other than Harvard and a couple other schools, I think grade deflation seems to exist at many other schools. Again, I recall that Lergnom also posted a list of schools and their grade deflation.</p>
<p>BU's grades have risen but not as fast as at some schools; there is no deflation, just a lower rate of inflation. Grades vary from class to class - like at any school - and BU is a big school so some kids don't care as much about grades or don't work very hard. A couple of people have said the difference is maybe a half grade between BU's grading and an easier grading school. If you search, there are some links to stories in the Daily Free Press.</p>
<p>Does it matter? When you apply to college, you're one of 34,000 applications for a class of over 4,000. When you apply to a professional or graduate school, you're in a much smaller number of people for a much smaller number of places. You know that there are a zillion high schools so the universities can only do minor adjustments for quality. Every university has reported averages, so you tell me how a 3.5 GPA at a school where the overall average is 3.5 is better than a 3.4 where the average is 3.1? It's kind of silly, isn't it? If higher and higher grades actually meant kids from that school had a competitive advantage, then every school would be forced to inflate grades as fast as possible - and it would mean professional and graduate school admissions people are complete morons.</p>
<p>I went to a top 5 law school and the process for admissions there looks closely at your application. The real problem with getting into a big name law school is that the admissions pool has become more competitive. They now receive over 5,000 applications for about 400 places. They look at grades but not in isolation, so if you make the rough cut then they look deeper into your record.</p>
<p>Lergnom, </p>
<p>On BU Med website, under profile, entering class 2006 to BUMS, they mention this - </p>
<p>The 117 4-yr MD students were selected from a pool of over 10,000 individuals who submitted initial applications to BUSM and on the academic side, this is one of the best qualified classes we have ever had. </p>
<p>This would mean that their acceptance rate is 1.17%! This is an astoundingly low number of acceptances in BUMS after BS.</p>
<p>Do you think that this is a typo? I have to check other regular MD programs though.</p>
<p>no its not a typo...when i went to my smed interview the receptionist said that about 11K applicants applied this yr and that she was a really busy person.</p>
<p>Gosh! That certainly narrows down my S's choice of schools then. He got in at 7 yr BA/MD in NJMS.</p>
<p>I never knew that the acceptance rate is SOOO low for MD programs. I sort of thought, that fewer people apply to grad schools (as they do for say PhD programs, or MS programs etc)..... looks like all of you kids who got in direct MD should stay put with those programs.</p>
<p>If the acceptance rate to MD degree programs is between 1 and 2%, it's a much worse crapshoot after BS than now! </p>
<p>This certainly helps us narrow down the choice rather efficiently.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Those numbers are skewed by the way med school admissions works. You can see a clearer picture [url=<a href="http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/%5Dhere%5B/url">http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/]here[/url</a>]. The total number of applicants is only about 40,000 for 17,000 places. This info is from the Association of American Medical Colleges. I don't know if it's 100% complete but it's the best available. There are only 4 medical schools in MA with about 2500 spots. The data says that 194 kids applied to med school from BU. I assume that includes the ones from the 7 year program, since they are in BU's med school's stats. </p>
<p>All this means you apply to a lot of places and that BU is very popular for med school because it is in Boston, one of the two main medical centers (with Chicago) for medical education, as well as a huge research center.</p>
<p>AAMC does not tell you how many kids from a school get into medical school. </p>
<p>If a kid is in a 7 year program that guarantees medical school - and that program is accredited and is in the US - and really wants to be a doctor then the kid should go.</p>
<p>194 kids applied..that doesnt seem right...cuz for SMED itself i heard that about 550 applied</p>
<p>The number does seem low but if you go through the lists, that's what it says. The other data seems right on. For example, if you look at total applicants for each medical school, BU is listed at a little over 10k for the 2006 group. The footnote says there were 483k+ total applications, with an average of 12 per applicant for the 39k+ applicants. BU, Drexel and GW get the most applications. Not sure why. Maybe a large group of people think they have a shot to get in. </p>
<p>If you look deeper, it seems something else is going on. Just looking at MA, BU has the lowest % of in-state applicants. (Harvard, oddly, has a very low % of women applicants.) BU takes about 1/3 in-state, however that's determined, but why does Tufts list 44% in-state? Are they counting 7 year programs and does that skew the data enough? </p>
<p>It is clear that it's easier to get into a medical school where you are a resident. That makes sense; they want to train doctors for their own population, not to export.</p>