I originally wanted to apply to Princeton, because it met all my requirements that I have for selecting colleges. Then I heard about their grade deflation policy, which limited the amount of A’s in a department to 35%. I couldn’t imagine myself being in a competitive environment. I know some disagree, but I think a policy like that is too harsh. Maybe in one class everyone deserves an A and another no one does. I think I will apply now! Would their grading policy change encourage or discourage you from applying?
@greenteen17 yes they officially changed their policy but as many professors said at the time that didn’t mean that they would start grading in a drastically different way. And it should not matter too much.
grad schools, forms and people familiar with the ivies know that they are varying degrees of grade inflation within the ivy league. it is known that Brown, Harvard, Yale have more grade inflation and that Cornell, Princeton, Penn and Columbia take a more deflationary approach to grading. Not really sure where Dartmouth really stands in terms of grade inflation/deflation.
@Penn95 I suppose things won’t change so much, but the policy really didn’t sit well with me.
I don’t want to go to a school that has a inflationary or deflationary approach. I just want everyone to earn their grades and be collaborative, not competitive. Now that there’s not a strict grade policy, I think the atmosphere won’t be as competitive.
@greenteen17 I totally agree with you. And especially for people interested in pre-med I think a slightly more inflated GPA would be useful or even just a more collaborative environment. To answer your question, I was definitely going to apply either way, but it is slightly more encouraging that they have disbanded their grade deflation policy. You should check out http://www.gradeinflation.com/ You can see the average GPA of almost every school and can see their trends over time. (I think Princeton’s average GPA increased 0.07 in just 1 year after getting rid of their grade deflation policy.)
A lot of universities have that policy and are just not vocal about it. I worked in a department that had a policy like that - they tried to limit the amount of As in large lecture-style classes to about 35-40% of the class.
Don’t assume that competition coupled with grade deflation automatically means a lack of collaboration. My son found Princeton to be an exceptionally collaborative environment, and most of his degree was under the grade deflation policy.
I’m a current Princeton student, and I’d like to add that even though grade deflation is no longer a significant policy, the letter grade that you receive particular test/midterm or in a particular class still depends on how well others do, so in that sense there is still a competitive environment. Midterm tests are graded in such a way that the average grade is usually standardized to a B, so other people’s performance very much still impacts your’s.