How much does Ross grade inflation help?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
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<p>“Previous person who says wharton’s average gpa is a 3.6 is wrong. The undergraduate wharton average gpa is nowhere close to 3.6, since a mere 3.4 qualifies for cum laude… a 3.6 is summa cum laude.”</p>

<p>Actually, according to the link you provided, a 3.6 is Magna Cum Laude.</p>

<p>Also, your link does not necessarily prove your point. Do you know how many people graduate with Magna Cum Laude? Unless you do, then your argument is invalid. At my high school, a 3.5 qualified for Cum Laude. About a 1/3 of my class graduated with Cum Laude or higher.</p>

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<p>777Blue77 </p>

<p>My mistake, a 3.6 is indeed Magna Cum Laude, not Summa, but my point is that a 3.6 is considered as Latin honors at Wharton…</p>

<p>Given that Magna Cum Laude is an honor usually only given students near the top 10-15% of students at prestigious universities, no way the AVERAGE GPA can be a 3.6 at Wharton. Just take a few moments and try to mathematically or numerically reason it out. It won’t make sense for that to be the case. </p>

<p>Even if, let’s just say, 40% of the class of about 630, graduated with Latin Honors, with 5% in Summa Cum Laude, the next 10% in Magna Cum Laude, and next 25% in Cum Laude, while the each person in the remaining 60% of students has a 3.39, the highest possible gpa for a non-Latin honors student. (This is already a very generous assumption that is in favor of YOUR argument, as I am playing the devil’s advocate here). But if you do the math, you will find that the top 40% of students would need to average a 3.915 to maintain the 3.6 total gpa, which isn’t possible. </p>

<p>Calculations:</p>

<p>(3.6)(630)=2268, The total amount of points a 3.6 average would add up to in a class of 630</p>

<p>(3.39)(.60)(630)=(3.39)(378)=1281.42, The total amount of points of the bottom 60% of the class, given that they all have a 3.39, the highest possible non Latin honors gpa.</p>

<p>2268-1281.42= 986.58, Subtract to get the total number of points needed for the other 40% of students’s gpas to sum in order to maintain a 3.6 </p>

<p>(X)(630)(.40)=986.58
252x= 986.58
X=3.915</p>

<p>On average, the other 40% would need a 3.915, which is not possible since that means 40% of the students would need to be in the Summa cum laude group.</p>

<p>Wharton definitely doesn’t do that, and therefore, the average gpa can’t be a 3.6. </p>

<p>Q.E.D. </p>

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<p>None of that would ever happen. For one, Ross intentionally makes the exams hard enough and long enough that the average usually sits between the high 60’s and low 80’s depending on the test. And secondly, even if that actually happened on a single exam it wouldn’t matter because the curve is on the total course grade, not just one exam. </p>

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<p>“Does everyone at Ross with over a 3.7 apply to the BBs?”</p>

<p>No. They also apply for consulting, accounting, marketing, or any other field that Ross places students in. </p>

<p>"If MBBs, BBs only look at GPA, "</p>

<p>Firms look at A LOT more than GPA. Having a 4.0 won’t guarantee you an interview - it just won’t eliminate you like a 3.3 (likely) would. The top firms care about technicals, experience, and personality/fit too.</p>

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<p>While I agree that the 4.3 GPA for A+ is not necessary (I thought Ross was going to do away with that in the near future), I think Ross’ grading policy is fair. On average, Ross students complete their first year at Michigan with a 3.7 GPA. Why should the mean GPA for students at Ross be lower than the mean GPA they had going into the program? </p>

<p>wukong, I would not think too much about Ross’ grading policy. Being in the top half of the Ross class is no walk in the park. The average Ross student completes the first year at Michigan with a 3.7 GPA. The mean unweighed high school GPA/SAT/ACT for Ross preadmit is 3.9/1480/33. No matter how you look at it, Ross students are academically accomplished. That being said, yes, Ross students are going to be better off than students at undergraduate business programs that have deflationary grading policies (wharton being a notable exception). But just because that’s the case does not mean that all Ross students with 3.7+ GPAs are applying for Banking jobs. In fact, Ross is less Banking-focused than many of its East Coast peer programs. You have a large portion of Ross students who wish to work in other industries, such as manufacturing, technology, marketing and consulting.</p>