Hello! I currently ranking my colleges for questbridge and cannot decide between these two colleges. As a premed student, I’ve been told be beware schools with grade deflation and pick a college that would optimize my GPA for medical school admissions. Between Swarthmore and Haverford, which one has the least grade deflation or which has most grade inflation?
The rule of thumb on CC seems to be that whatever college you attend has grade deflation, while the schools that everyone else attends have grade inflation.
Not sure there’s any way you can get an accurate answer to your question as it is unlikely that any sort of reliable analysis comparing these schools has ever been completed.
Have you visited the two colleges? If not, do so. Students tend to do better at colleges at which they feel most comfortable.
Both schools have info on their websites about pre-med and applying to med school. Both schools have strong med school placement, reputations for strong stellar academics and access to research and internships. I’d consider those qualities more than grade inflation/deflation.
The college I went to has a report on their website showing the average college GPA per major. So it may be a good idea to check each school’s website to see if they publish average GPA per major. If you are able to find average GPA per major for both schools, that information might be helpful in determining which school has more grade inflation.
Also, if one school is a reach for you and the other is a match or safety, that might be something to consider too because many classes are curved, and the more intelligent and hard working the students in your curved classes are, the harder it will be to compete for good grades in those classes.
Haverford has less grade deflation than Swarthmore. Both have it but Swarthmore is notorious for it
Swarthmore even sells a shirt in its gift shop that says “Anywhere else it would have been an A”
My kid loved it. As the mother not so much