Bates is known for being extremely rigorous, it’s even mentioned in the wikipedia article for grade deflation. Does anyone have any experiences about it? Im looking to go pre-med so a good GPA is a must.
Rigorous doesn’t equal grade deflation.
As a general rule (a very small minority of schools excepted, of which Bates does not appear to be one), the entire idea of "grade deflation is a myth. Grades in colleges have consistently trended upward and a college student is now dramatically more likely to get an A or B than they used to be.
And Bates appears inline with that trend:
Just three years ago in the fall semester of 2018, students whose GPA above 3.77 were named to the Dean’s List. Last semester, students whose GPA was above 3.92 were named to the Dean’s List. This means, at Bates, 25% of students have a GPA of 3.92 or higher!
When I was at UCLA, the average GPA was below 3.0. Even then, I had a professor wait until a day after the drop period passed to tell the students that to combat what he perceived as grade inflation then, he would automatically drop everyone one grade, so the highest grade possible in the class was a B, etc. That’s grade deflation.
A college where 25% of the class have a 3.92 or better does not have a grade deflation problem.
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I have a student at Bates - they all study a decent amount but grading seems to be fair. Some classes are more rigorous than others, of course. I think it just really depends on the professor/class. I imagine Bates is similar to other peer liberal arts schools in the Northeast. My student is not pre-med, so I can’t speak to the required STEM classes for that.
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My child got a C in one class because she didn’t do enough work to earn a B. She knew she didn’t deserve a better grade. That one C forced her to work extra hard so that she could bring up her GPA. After that, she got the grades she earned.
I don’t think Bates practices grades deflation. You will get the grades you deserve if you work hard. Good luck!
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