<p>I was talking to somebody who goes to the collge the other day and they told me that there is an evident problem with grade deflation at Georgetown. Can anyone confirm or refute this?</p>
<p>I am going to be part of the sciences department probably as a biochemistry major and am quite worried that my GPA will be horrific due to this deflation. Any input would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Getting an A is hard. Very hard.</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry too much about it, a moderate GPA at Georgetown will go a long way.</p>
<p>Why are the grades so low? Are the tests super hard or something?</p>
<p>Even in lower-level classes, is it really hard to do well?</p>
<p>This is kind of scaring me......</p>
<p>The lower-level classes might even be worse than upper division (at least upper-division it is justified, it is complex stuff). But the Government and Economics Departments have quotas, so you have to be the best to get the A.</p>
<p>So what about, persay, the chemistry department?</p>
<p>Why would lower level classes deflate grades?</p>
<p>Because of the grade quotas. When they set a certain percentage on how many people can get an A, it doesn't matter how smart you are if you are not in the top percentage. So, for instance, if you had 100 an IR class with 100 of the country's top IR professors, it wouldn't matter how good they are, because someone has to get a C...</p>
<p>It's not nearly as bad as people make it sound. I don't think Georgetown suffers from deflation at all, but I also don't think it has the same kind of inflation that some of the Ivy Leagues are notorious for.</p>
<p>I think you will find that the majority of the people get Bs and it is EXTREMELY aggravating to always get the B and never the A, especially when an extremely broad base of people get Bs and it doesn't really mean anything.</p>
<p>(Though, it is possible that I just FEEL like everyone gets Bs...because no one would probably say anything if they got lower).</p>
<p>Are there curves as well as grade deflation? Say the highest score on a midterm was 23% and the average was 17% (apparently this happened on Columbia's intensive physics midterm?) Would the 23% be an A then?</p>
<p>this makes georgetown less appealing to me as a pre-med, because no matter what undergrad you go to, you need a really high GPA to get into a good med school..</p>
<p>what about at MSB? approximately how well do you need to do to get that A?</p>
<p>Also, I was wondering, how big are classes etc for a business major?</p>
<p>bump to get more input from current students</p>
<p>It pretty much depends on the class. Certain departments like the econ department have set percentages (25% A etc...the lowest they usually give is a C-). As an SFS student, that is the only class that had certain rules about distribution to my knowledge. A lot of my teachers at the beginning of the semester would tell us that they don't give many As, but it's easy to get a B.</p>
<p>Seriously though, learning not to take your grades too seriously your first semester and even later should be a big priority. There is just no way that you are going to get the same kind of grades you got in high school because then everyone would be getting As. If you let your grades get you down freshman year you will be miserable I promise. You might not be able to feel it but a lot of your energy will be zapped from adjusting, and there won't be as much to direct towards your studies. I think the most important thing for freshmen is to learn how to keep things in perspective. Your microeconomics grade will not determine the rest of your life and neither will your first or second semester.</p>
<p>Thanks that was a helpful post.</p>