<p>I have heard that the professors at College of William and Mary do not give out A's (A- at best) and therefore a 4.0 is out of the question. Is this true? Can anyone who goes there give me feedback? </p>
<p>Thanks alot :)</p>
<p>I had one brilliant friend with a 4.0 - the rest of us don’t disclose our GPAs. 
And no, grad schools don’t see B’s from W&M and think they would be A’s somewhere else.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, our family of 3 W&M grads has done okay, and managed to overcome.</p>
<p>None of my kids would touch W&M with a ten foot pole, though, so you can tell that we still kvetch about it some 15-20 years later.</p>
<p>Fine school, though. :-)</p>
<p>@sakacar: Ahh, I see! Thanks! So it is possible, but there are no exceptions made for lower grades there?</p>
<p>I think it depends on your department and your professors. There is (or at least, was) significant grade deflation.</p>
<p>I got some A’s, but I got more A’s at Brown, MIT, Tufts, and USC than I ever got at W&M. What does that say? I don’t know.</p>
<p>Is it a self-fulfilling prophecy kind of thing? You think that no one gets A’s and you just accept B’s? I don’t know.</p>
<p>I will say that I often felt that if I didn’t agree with a professor, my grade suffered. I wasn’t alone in this. I do think that a lot of the “old white men” have retired, though, and that is a very good thing.</p>
<p>W&M professors have high expectations.</p>
<p>But, W&M students consistently do very well on graduate school placement, including law school and medical school.</p>
<p>Plenty of W&M students have high GPAs, but you bet they work very hard for them, and yes a 4.0 is basically out of the question. Each year 0-2 students out of 1400+ graduate with a 4.0… so I guess if you want a 4.0 (not sure why you would), you should choose another school.</p>
<p>@soccerguy: </p>
<p>Yeah, I agree that a 4.0 isn’t necessary. I was mostly addressing the rumors I’ve heard that W&M specifically has professors that give out B’s like its candy on Halloween and give out A’s like they’re Nobel prizes! Hoping this isn’t the case.</p>
<p>This transcript key only reports the years between 2006-2010, but it’s a reassuring chart (scroll down to table 1): [William</a> & Mary - Transcript Key](<a href=“http://www.wm.edu/offices/registrar/studentsandalumni/studentrecords/transcripts/transkey/index.php]William”>Transcript Key | William & Mary)</p>
<p>It shows that, in 2010, the average undergrad GPA was 3.24. But it also shows that, in terms of 2010 grade distribution, 44 percent of grades were As or A-minuses (I would bet this is heavily skewed toward A-minuses), and 34.7 percent were in the B range (including B-pluses, Bs, and B-minuses). Only about 15 percent of grades were Cs or lower; 6 percent were Ps in classes taken pass-fail.</p>
<p>@frazzled: That was EXACTLY what I was searching for! Thank you. Yes I would assume the same skew toward the lower A range but at the same time it is reassuring that the teachers aren’t determined to sabotage the grades then!</p>
<p>A 4.0 isn’t necessary at W&M. I’ve never gotten a B, but I have a few A-'s, so my GPA isn’t perfect, but in almost every single job interview I’ve ever had as a W&M student, one of the first things the interviewers commented on was my academic success at W&M. They know W&M is hard. It’s not some secret. A couple students here and there manage to get a 4.0, but the majority of high-performing students aren’t going to have one. A 3.5+? Sure. That’s manageable. But constant perfection at W&M is almost impossible. Especially in certain majors. </p>
<p>If you’re worried about the rigor of W&M…don’t be. Hardworking, high-performing students at W&M are just as successful (if not more so) than students with 4.0s at many other schools. Grad school. Med school. Jobs. Etc. W&M students generally perform well across the board.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Because … ?</p>
<p>They have a mother, father, and step-father who went, for starters. It doesn’t seem sexy. But we’ve all griped (more or less good-naturedly) about our GPAs. We all attended fine grad schools, though, and had a good time. Like I said, it’s a fine school. </p>
<p>My eldest is going to Wellesley, so she’s opting for her own grade deflation avenue.</p>
<p>VHS Grad,
I’m a rising sophomore at W&M and got a 4.0 this past year while taking a science-heavy course load and doing research. The grading is tough, but fair.</p>
<p>Would you say that getting a B is not terribly challenging, i.e., that the professors are reluctant to give out A’s but not necessarily B’s? Or is the standard for a B also harder than it would be at another school with comparable academics?</p>
<p>Class of '88, about 1200 students, 1 person, the valedictorian, was the only one with a 4.0. I had a 2.7 and was in the top third back then. Religion department was notorious for low grades with the average grade awarded below a C.</p>
<p>THe formatting didn’t keep, but you can see here that in 2010 (last year on this report), 78.7% of the grades given out were either A or B and the average GPA was a 3.24.
TABLE 1 – Overall undergraduate grade distribution percentages for each of the last five years (i.e., the percentage of A/A–'s awarded, the percentage of B+/B/B– 's awarded, etc.)</p>
<p>A</p>
<p>B</p>
<p>C</p>
<p>D</p>
<p>F</p>
<p>P</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>2006</p>
<p>42.8%</p>
<p>36.5%</p>
<p>11.5%</p>
<p>2.1%</p>
<p>1.3%</p>
<p>5.4%</p>
<p>0.5%</p>
<p>2007</p>
<p>43.1%</p>
<p>35.9%</p>
<p>11.4%</p>
<p>2.2%</p>
<p>1.3%</p>
<p>5.8%</p>
<p>0.3%</p>
<p>2008</p>
<p>43.6%</p>
<p>35.5%</p>
<p>11.3%</p>
<p>2.3%</p>
<p>1.5%</p>
<p>5.7%</p>
<p>0.2%</p>
<p>2009</p>
<p>43.6%</p>
<p>35.2%</p>
<p>11.4%</p>
<p>2.3%</p>
<p>1.3%</p>
<p>6.0%</p>
<p>0.2%</p>
<p>2010</p>
<p>44.0%</p>
<p>34.7%</p>
<p>11.5%</p>
<p>2.2%</p>
<p>1.3%</p>
<p>6.0%</p>
<p>0.4%</p>
<p>Source: Fall Term Overall Undergraduate Grade Distribution Percentages</p>
<p>TABLE 2 – Undergraduate cumulative grade point averages (GPA).</p>
<p>Fall 2006 Fall 2007 Fall 2008 Fall 2009 Fall 2010
3.22 3.23 3.23 3.23 3.24
Revised October 2011</p>
<p>Sorry- didn’t notice someone had already posted this data above… Would delete the post if it would let me</p>