Hi everyone!
I’ve been recently accepted in the early action round. One major concern that students in past years have voiced is the grade deflation policy. Although it’s now no longer in place, is there some lingering legacy of the past in students earning lower grades? Or is the trend moving toward grade inflation, similar to some of Princeton’s peer institutions?
The policy is gone, but many people here will tell you that it is still felt inside the medium sized non-BSE departments. That being said, grading and classwork at Princeton is notoriously difficult. You know the saying that goes, “The hardest part about Harvard is getting in?” The hardest part about Princeton is Princeton itself. I will say this, however. The level of support, attention, and community support you will find here will be difficult to find anywhere else. You will be surrounded by peers and faculty who will have a vested interest in seeing you succeed. Is it difficult? Yes. But is it worth it? Absolutely.
There is indeed great disparity among the ivies in terms of grade inflation but that shouldn’t deter people. Employers and grad schools know all too well which ivies have considerable grade inflation (ahem ahem Harvard, Brown, Yale looking at you lol). A person with a 3.7 from Princeton and another one with a 3.7 from Harvard, ceteris paribus, will not be looked at as the same.
As a BSE major, I notice no difference from last year. It is still incredibly difficult to get an A in a class… However, I’ve kind of accepted the difficulty here, and I don’t really get upset when I get a B or C, which is something freshmen here often have trouble doing. With that said, I wouldn’t go to any other university. Grades aren’t as important as people make them out to be.