<p>I’ve heard that many students at BU are frustrated by what they see as grade deflation. Does anyone have any experience with this? I know that some merit scholarships like the Trustee Scholarship require maintaining a 3.50 GPA and was wondering if recipients often lose scholarships due to this.
Thanks!</p>
<p>I am required to maintain a 3.0 to stay in my major. I'm only a freshman but grade deflation is a serious problem at BU and I am having a really really hard time.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear that DJ.</p>
<p>There are dozens of threads about grades at BU. I'm tired of the subject. There is no grade deflation, just not the extreme inflation you see at some schools. Lots of schools are tarred with this label because their average GPA isn't a 3.6 or higher.</p>
<p>Exactly. I have had no experiences with deflation. It is just that other schools have so much inflation. They say the hardest part about a school like Harvard is getting in. Because the average GPA there is far higher than it really should be. BU does not inflate or add to anything. You have to earn your grade and I find that everyone gets exactly what they work for. I used to slack off and had around a 2.8. Now, I am working in overdrive and get around a 3.7 or 3.8 most semesters. Don't worry about grade deflation. Just do your hardest and your grades will represent your work.</p>
<p>I like the way you both put that. I will agree that at BU you do have to earn your grades and many schools have problems with grade INflation which makes it seem a lot harder at BU. However, I cannot agree that grades will always represent your work. In my first two science classes for my major the profs told us exactly how they distribute grades. In both it amounted to somethin along the lines of the top 20% or so get the A the next 25-40% get a B and so on. How does this reflect your work if it depends solely on how well the kid next to you does. The top 20% gettin an A could potentially all have 98 avgs while a kid with a 97 could end up with a B. I'm not saying this happens specifically but it's possible in some of the schemes I have had to deal with...this complication is exascerbated when all the kids in the class need the same GPA requirement because they're all the same major (in my case at least) Anyway my first semester freshman yr (last semester) I came out with a 2.8 and have since improved my study skills and am looking at AT LEAST two As this semester. Orgo and Anatomy will be another story unfortunately..</p>
<p>Lergnom- there is grade deflation. Very visible in SMG</p>
<p>Actually in SMG the policies have changed. I am in SMG and I can attest that I haven't experienced any evidence of grade deflation. While there is the 'potential' that the top 20% of people in a class will have 98 averages, that just doesn't really happen. The grading system also doesn't go all the way to the bottom. I've never been in a class where the professor said that the bottom 20% got a D or anything like that. usually the lowest grade is something like a C. </p>
<p>The grading systems in SMG can be pretty subjective in that they usually have a heavy emphasis on participation. When 20% of your grade is participation, it can have a big effect. Lots of times students grossly overestimate the amount that they participate and/or the quality of their participation. The curriculum is discussion and case based, so analysis and thoughtful discussion are important. The grade naturally distribute themselves and Professors do not purposely give you a lower grade just because they have to. That would be very unethical.</p>
<p>All schools have grading policies and at BU, like most, they vary by department, with some grading harder. All schools study their grades and look at how they are changing and how they compare with other schools, particularly with "competition" schools. In the late 90's, the trend in grades at BU and elsewhere was up, up, up and BU, like many schools, reigned in grades so the average GPA wouldn't go to the roof. Grades have continued to rise but at a slower pace, with most of the change being fewer bad grades, not more A's. It is my perception that A- is much easier to get than A in many classes.</p>
<p>Some schools have simply given up on grading. The average GPA at Brown, for example, is reportedly 3.7. I've posted elsewhere that a Yale professor calculated the average GPA there using honors criteria and came up with about 3.6. FYI, when I went to Yale, grades were much lower and very few people qualified for honors at the 3.5 level. One, maybe 2 kids in my entire class got all A's. </p>
<p>I assume these schools don't care much about grades for a number of reasons. First, they are marketing themselves as prestige schools and thus can pass off high grades as markers of how great their kids are. (Having seen daily the low quality of the student work in the lower level classes at Yale - and some upper - I know that's a bald-faced lie.) Second and perhaps more importantly, these schools are highly segregated by type of student; they admit very high percentages of kids who aren't academically as qualified or even as motivated as others. These kids are mostly rich or minority while some are athletes and some are international students. (BTW, I've advised many minority kids who post on this board to apply to the Ivies because they have such a substantially better chance of admission, especially if the kid is a boy. Take advantage of discrimination when you can.) </p>
<p>In the end, it doesn't really matter unless you are going to grad school. If you, for example, want to be an academic, then your grad school has a substantial impact on your earnings for at least a decade. For most people, however, where you go to undergrad doesn't matter. No one cares over time where your degree is from when you run a business, show ambition and skill, etc. It doesn't necessarily matter if you do well because the real world is not graded and some people mature - "find themselves" - out of school. This is a big country with an open economy. It's not like the way Japan, for example, has been; if you get into Tokyo U, then you get this level of job in the government, etc. The same situation used to be more the rule in Britain (OxBridge) and France but those economies have changed dramatically.</p>