<p>There has been discussion about the inflation of undergrad GPA's in the Ivy League. Princeton introduced grade DEFLATION a few years ago. Does anyone have recent statistics on average GPA's at HYP. Has Princeton's average GPA gone down significantly? Anyone know the current average GPA for the 2008 Harvard graduating class, what GPA was needed to graduate with honors and what percentage of the Harvard's class graduated with honors?</p>
<p>Mean GPA is 3.53 (self-reported) The</a> Harvard Crimson :: News :: Seniors satisfied overall; extracurriculars get high marks</p>
<h1>of students graduating with honors is capped, see Advising</a> Program Office: Honors for more info</h1>
<p>When HYP attracts the cream of the crop of the world's college applicant pool and then accepts < 10% of them, why would anyone expect their students to get Bs and Cs? They never did prior to going to college. Southern Cal's % of football players who get drafted by the NFL is way out of step with other schools'. Is USC guilty of "athletic-inflation?"</p>
<p>gadad, your argument assumes that grades should be an objective, rather than relative, metric of a student's academic performance. Of course HYP students will produce high quality work. But it doesn't immediately follow that they should all get good grades. Princeton believes that grades should differentiate students from their classmates--i.e. my grade conveys some information about how I did relative to my fellow Princetonians. Harvard and Yale, while certainly recognizing that grades must convey information about relative performance, have chosen to put a greater emphasis on the objective quality of students' work, thus keeping grades at those schools higher. The debate that we should be having is over which approach is better.</p>
<p>Good observation, Weasel. What possible merits could Princeton find in penalizing half their students for being in the lower half of Princeton's normal curve, when they're all in the the very tip of the upper end of the national curve? I'm sure that creating the internal competition stimulates some inherent motivation for achievement, but do the majority of Princeton students require a threat in order to be motivated?</p>
<p>Grade deflation is the reason my son did not apply to Princeton. He didn't like the competitiveness that this type of environment produces. He already is a very self motivated student and wanted to get the most out of college in terms of education. These students at Princeton and Harvard are the top of the top and they don't need to be at each other during college. They paid their dues to get into these schools now they should learn from one another and from the top professors.</p>
<p>bump for prospect2013</p>
<p>Does anyone know the avg gpa for Prineton? Is it significantly lower than that of harvard?</p>
<p>I heard it was 3.33, if I’m not mistaken. So, it’s slightly lower.</p>