Does anyone if there is grade inflation at schools like Tufts, Barnard, NYU, USC, Univ of California schools, BU, Cornell, UMich, etc?? Thank you!
http://gradeinflation.com/ (list of schools at the bottom) for general information.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/2074436-some-colleges-have-grade-distribution-information-available-by-course.html for some information by course at some schools.
The only thing I have heard about Cornell is that there is NO grade inflation, it is one of the tougher graders in the Ivy League.
Cornell is tough. Lots of really bright and gifted kids that push the curve. STEM courses are tough. My son took a freshman writing seminar where he thought he was earning an A. Showed up to each class and participated in discussion, met with professor during office hours about research paper to ensure it was on track and he still ended up with a B. He questioned the prof about his final grade and he said he only gave out so many As, he was close but apparently not A quality to him. This class was supposed to be his ‘easy’ class too to help his gpa that suffered from a bad Calc grade 
UMich does have grade inflation in general, but it depends on the department, level, and course. Be careful: that doesn’t mean it’s better for your GPA compared to a school without grade inflation! The fact that there is no college-wide grade inflation means you may do just as well in two different courses, get A for one, but B for the other! Also, when you apply for positions in places where they’re aware of grade inflation in Michigan, they would consider a B a bad grade, while it might be actually a good grade for the course with tough grading criteria (which is not at all uncommon in departments such as Math and Physics in Michigan).
(btw, if this is about choosing a school, I think you shouldn’t care about this AT ALL!!!)
-IMO a lot depends on the field. Generally, grading for liberal arts areas are higher than for STEM areas.
When I was attending Cornell, the cutoff GPA for Dean’s list in the College of Arts & Sciences was higher than the GPA cutoff at the engineering school. One can infer that the engineering college graded tougher.
re #3:
-While Cornell is tough, it is not necessarily tougher than other schools with comparable student capabilities, in comparable fields of study. There have been posts to the Cornell subforum, by students who transferred from one school to Cornell, (or their parents) that the first school listed in #1 was harder than that student found Cornell to be. A student at the second school found it to be essentially the same level of academic demands. Cornell has relatively a high proportion of STEM-related majors, which probably impacts the aggregate GPA. That does not necessarily mean a history major there has it tougher than at a lot of other good schools.
- The problem at a university with students who have many areas of excellence is that one person's throw-away class that they took for it to be easy is another person's passion, and central to that other person's interests and abilities. A lot of STEM majors should not expect highest grades in a writing-oriented liberal arts seminar class stocked with students like my daughter- a liberal arts major who basically writes for a living. That is in her wheelhouse, and she is just better at it. When I attended I took a similar freshman seminar and got a B range grade too. At one point the prof read aloud the paper of a student who received an "A". I always fancied myself to be a strong writer, but this person's paper was far beyond what I was producing.
But this kind of situation is not unique to Cornel, it would happen at any school that has strong students across the board and also has distribution requirements.
I’ve heard that there is no grade inflation at Cornell and that it is very difficult. Much more so than Harvard and other Ivys.
@monydad while my stem son is not the creative writer, he did receive an A in the Fall semester writing seminar. The spring writing seminar was a different prof and the paper for which he received a B was a case study (more like a business management assignment), not a creative assignment. Since the majority of he grade was based on the research paper, my son made sure he had the prof check his paper at different stages to be sure he was on the right track. He participated in all class discussions when most students didn’t. Anyway, my son’s point was that he was fully engaged in the class more so than the other students and was given feedback by the prof that his paper was in fact very good only to be disappointed with a B overall in the class.
In addition, my son has a plethora of friends from HS at various UCs and private well-known CA schools (even a private school in Massachusetts) and they compare class rigor and such, and all agree that Cornell is in fact more difficult. I know it’s anecdotal but at least it’s feedback from current college students.
UCs rarely practice grade inflation (Berkeley is notorious for deflating GPAs).
BU supposedly practices grade deflation as well.
This was a post to the Cornell subforum from 2015, by recent Cornell grad @norcalguy :
“Cornell is not grade deflated and is actually grade inflated, like the rest of the Ivy League universities. Average GPA is over 3.4. As late as a few years ago, Cornell published the median grades of each of its classes and the vast majority of classes were curved to a A- or B+ median, including most upper level science courses.”
re #6,
Here’s another one from @norcalguy , from a few years earlier:
"The students at Harvard and Yale are significantly better than the students at Cornell. Therefore a 3.46 GPA at Harvard is probably harder to achieve than a 3.37 at Cornell.
Honestly, Cornell presents a challenge but a very manageable one. I did premed at Cornell and I found freshman year to be the most difficult (most of the complaints come from freshmen who are not used to getting 3.0’s). The later years are VERY grade inflated (and, dare I say, easy) so that the average GPA ends up being 3.4. The vast majority of upper div courses are curved to A’s, A-'s, and B+'s."
Regarding grading at Harvard vs. Cornell, I agree with @norcalguy. When I attended, a friend who was a TA in a freshman class at Cornell had a friend visiting who TA’d virtually the same class at Harvard. The friend read the papers being graded and said that the work product overall was substantially inferior to what she was grading at Harvard. This makes a lot of sense to me, YMMV.
re #7, @CALSmom: so substitute business for creative writing, it’s the same point. It’s a curved class, some people got A’s.IMO it’s not inconceivable that some of those students might have been more invested or more gifted at the material, however marginally. My D2 received her lowest grade at Cornell in a business class at Dyson. She was going on and on about how easy it was, yet in the end she didn’t do that well. Maybe some other students in the class cared more, so put in more effort, and didn’t just put it down as being “easy”…
She worked hard, for sure, but still had time for extracurriculars, jobs, and active social life, and also got great grades.
Moreover she transferred into there, and said the work demands vs. her prior school were essentially the same.
There’s my individual anecdote. But she was a liberal arts major.
Are you looking for schools with grade inflation or are you trying to avoid it?
Grade deflation tends to occur more in STEM heavy schools because they dont want the engineers getting Bs while the english lit or econ majors get As. A close friend and her brother graduated from Cornell (plus Yale law) and say that Cornell is much harder overall than H&Y. More like Princeton.
re #11:
I just checked, and the GPA threshold in Cornell arts & Sciences (sliding scale from 4.0 to 3.7, based on # credits; threshold for those carrying a normal course load is 3.8)) is still materially higher than the cutoff for Dean’s List in its engineering college (which is 3.5). To me this indicates that this university, at least, actually has no problem with “the engineers getting Bs while the English lit or econ majors get As”. They didn’t when I attended either.
The referenced close friend and brother who graduated from Cornell did not also attend undergrad at Harvard or Yale. You should know that Cornell students are big whiners. They would like to perpetuate the belief that the school is so much tougher, because it makes them look tougher, whether or not it is true. How would they know if it is actually true?
Here’s how one might actually know. The examples I gave above were from individuals who actually attended, as an undergrad, both of the schools they compared. Whose student bodies did not even have the academic chops of H or Y. Or P.
YMMV…
Berkeley has (had, it’s been a while since I was there so I can’t vouch for anything current) a required curve for the large undergrad classes (e.g., physics 8a, 8b, etc) where only the top 15% (? I think this was the cutoff) could get an A. There was more leeway in the upper-division courses IIRC.
yeah–this “You should know that Cornell students are big whiners” Is a reliable a data point…Your anecdotes are more valid than mine???. Why dont we agree they just cancel each other out…
FWIW I know a great many Ivy grads–the refrain was it was hard to get in–school was easy. (Yale, Harvard, Penn and Dartmputh) Many went on to grad school where the real work began. The only school I have not heard this about was Princeton.
Literally all my college friends were Ivy grads. Every one of them would tell you, “the toughest thing about this school was getting in.” And that was back when grading was actually tough.
I know this isn’t helping OP’s particular question. But my advice is not to worry about silly things. Just go out there and crush it. “How tough is the school, how tough is this particular class, how am I doing relative to others.” I can say from personal experience that I never thought about these questions for even a millisecond. Who had the time - there was so much to learn! Best of luck, OP, get out there and shine wherever you wind up!
FWIW I attended Cornell, and I’ve been following the CC Cornell sub-forum for years…
as for the other:
http://www.thedp.com/article/2016/10/adam-grant-wharton-preprofessional-culture-grading-curves
But lest you think it’s just this one alum’s opinion, here are some other CC subforum posts from other alums and students:
"Cornell is not actually harder than other top schools, objectively or subjectively. There is ZERO data to support that notion.
What makes Cornell unique is that it has a larger proportion of students who are unable to handle that workload (this includes transfers as well as freshman admits). That’s why I think Cornell students are some of the biggest whiners of workload difficulty."
Followup to above, from another student:
“This. At Cornell, there is a mix of very hard classes and also, very easy classes.”
Another:
“There are a lot of whiners at Cornell. I agree with you on this. But, just because Cornell students complain more about grades, it doesn’t actually mean Cornell is actually more difficult.”
From @norcalguy:
"Look, I did premed at Cornell. I know it’s challenging. We knock the crap out of the MCAT. But I also know that Cornell is full of whiners. It’s self-perpetuating. People come to Cornell expecting it to be grade deflated and when their grades don’t go their way, they think it’s due to the (non-existent) grade deflation. Take responsibility for your own grades and you’ll do fine. "
Followup to above, from another student:
“Norcalguy is right. There is a certain subset of the Cornell population that whines. Do us a favor and if you do go to Cornell, don’t whine about your grades. Or better yet, go somewhere else.”
and my boyfriend is a french underwear model
Post # 4 on this thread includes most of the schools OP is interested in (except BU & Barnard) :
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21681396#Comment_21681396