<p>how easy/hard is it to get a 4.0 at vandy?</p>
<p>is an A- considered 4.0 or 3.7 like it is at some other schools?</p>
<p>Vandy actually has more of a reputation for grade deflation. The average GPA for all undergrads, according to the Fall 2009 grade report on the Greek Life website, was 3.341. That’s an interesting publication at any school with a Greek Life office; here’s the link to Vandy’s: <a href=“http://www.vanderbilt.edu/greek_life/stats/09fallgrade%20report.pdf[/url]”>http://www.vanderbilt.edu/greek_life/stats/09fallgrade%20report.pdf</a> . The average GPA for all freshman women was 3.25; for freshman men, 3.159.</p>
<p>This is obviously going to be major- and curriculum-dependent. If I recall correctly, an A- is a 3.7 and an A is 4.0; nothing higher for an A-plus.</p>
<p>Wow. It’s kinda hard to believe that grade inflation at schools has run so rampant that an average above a B would be considered deflation. ;)</p>
<p>You make an excellent point, BasementCat. I don’t know what the average GPA in a school with grade deflation would look like. Anything below a 2.0 is usually grounds for academic probation, isn’t it? So the schools themselves seem to expect that students will do better than the “gentleman’s C.” When I was in school, a C was considered average; apparently now, a solid B is average in many selective schools. I found these overall undergad GPA numbers recently for schools that are often considered to have tough workloads:</p>
<p>William & Mary – 3.26
Emory – 3.32
Vanderbilt - 3.34
Dartmouth – 3.37
Wash U – 3.41
Northwestern - 3.41</p>
<p>I remember when I graduated from high school, I was #7 (massive slacker back then, but I promise I’ve changed) with a 92/100, and the valedictorian had a 98 or 99. A few years later, I saw a list that indicated everyone in the top ten that year had at least a 106/100. Scores above 100 weren’t even possible just a few years before.</p>
<p>After the recent global warming research scandals, I saw someone joke that global warming wouldn’t be a problem in the U.S. anyway, since we could lower the temperatures by switching from Fahrenheit to Celsius. Creeping grade inflation reminds me of that.</p>