<p>I just read that last year only 30% of the graduating class graduated with honors (at least a 3.4) <em>shudders</em>.</p>
<p>I could be wrong, but I think that you're mixing up terms. Graduating with honors is a different thing than having a gpa of above 3.4. Graduating with honors here means you've completed an honors thesis in your major. Graduating with a gpa of above 3.4 is graduating cum laude, a 3.6 is suma cum laude, and a 3.8 is magna cum laude (if I remember correctly).</p>
<p>Thats what I meant--I thought those were honors. It was on the WFU.edu factbook, and it said only 30% of the class graduated with cum laude at least.</p>
<p>That's like a B+ average. Wake's not an easy school, and they're pretty heavily against grade inflation. Having 30% of the class graduate with above a 3.4 actually sounds like a lot to me rather than a little.</p>
<p>the cum laudes are honors...</p>
<p>Don't let the wake stereotype of being a "hard school" scare you. Every top ranked school will be a "hard school" and the difficulty level of your classes will depend on your professor. No one said it would be a cake walk. If you were challenged in high school and did well you will be fine over here. However, the difficulty of the majors varies greatly so if you take a hard major (more classes required) then your gpa tends to be lower and if you take an easier major (less classes required) your gpa tends to be higher because you can take classes for "gpa boosters". As far as "grade deflation" that is ridiculous. Wake's grading scale is probably different than a lot of your high schools but Wake's gpa system is pretty consistent with a lot of other universities and colleges around the country. What upsets me about some of the classes at Wake is that there is a straight 10 pt scale (90-100 A, 80-89 B, etc.) because a professor who doesn't teach well will give everyone bad grades as opposed to making a bell curve with the grades. Remember, if you got into the school the adcom thinks you can handle the work.</p>
<p>Grade deflation is definitely my largest concern about Wake, as law school in hopefully in my future</p>