<p>Hey guys, I was just wondering why people always talked about how difficult Berkeley was? I have a lot of respect for the school and always praised it for being the amazing school it is.</p>
<p>I spent the last semester researching with a professor about grade inflation/deflation among top universities and our conclusion about Berkeley and UCLA struck me the most. What I found interesting was that Berkeley was known for severe grade deflation but according to our research, it didn't really have grade deflation OR inflation. It was just right. Some things that we considered was the high number of CC students that transferred to UCB/UCLA that lowered (sorry to use that term) the gradings on a lot of the courses making it seem like it was a harder school than it was. Also, when a school is known for grade deflation, a lot of the times people will accept that idea and not question its validity. </p>
<p>Our research is still far from being complete and there are many other things we need to factor in to assess grade inflation/deflation, so don't get upset about our findings, as they could be completely false.</p>
<p>I don’t think Berkeley suffers from grade inflation or deflation. But can we say that someone who got 3.0 at Berkeley is academically the same as someone else who also got 3.0 from, say, West Virginia University? (I. am. so. sorry. if any Mountaineer is reading this, but I had to pick on a school. I know there are always smart people at any university, but I am talking about an academically-average student.)</p>
<p>It is not the matter of grade inflation or deflation, but the perception that if kids go to a ‘prestigious’ school like ivy league or stanfurd, then these students are assumed to be smart and thus getting high grades is justified even though it maybe be inflated. On the other hand, for those who attend a academically low-performing school like WVU, then people think it’s okay to give low grades since these kids are assumed to be too wasted to come to class.</p>
<p>In other words, does low GPA mean it’s a harder school?</p>
<p>The problem is most Berkeley students are far from being wasted at all times and a number of them are actually on the smarter side, but it seems like they don’t get the appropriate ‘reward’ for their work when it could be an A for other schools with the same academic performance. Of course, your research is about verifying what I just said in the previous sentence and I am very interested what procedure and analysis you will do to quantify this.</p>
<p>The problem is that grade deflation/inflation is a completely relative term. When you say that a school has grade inflation, you actually mean that it has grade inflation relative to some undefined other set of schools.</p>
<p>So to say that “It was just right” begs the question: What is "just right? How do you define “just right”? I think it’s clear that such a statement makes little sense. Grade inflation really only applies when comparing schools.</p>
<p>If you look at a final from a Berkeley CS class vs an equivalent class from say Dartmouth, they are leagues apart in difficulty. If you add you add up all the projects, a Berkeley student will be working a great deal more than the Dartmouth kid for the same grade even if the grading distributions are the same. </p>
<p>You are getting confused by the data. The grade distribution is not the only important set of data. A kid in the bottom 25% of the class in EECS would be at the top 25% at most schools. </p>
<p>Secondly, the statistical methodology is slightly off. They used data from law school applicants from Boalt. That excludes many of the science oriented people. In addition, this test was done to determine if there was bias between higher vs lower ranked schools. You have to take into consideration the correlation between students at higher ranked schools who have already been self selected. Overall I don’t think that that test is statistically valid. They were done by lawyers… so you know some thing is fishy.</p>
<p>My main point is, you got to experience it first hand. Talking to many GSIs, they have told me that Berkeley students work way harder and the material is more difficult. Even if you give the same grade distribution, you are getting a lower grade for the effort.</p>
<p>Berkeley has undoubtedly suffered from grade inflation, but it’s a tragedy of the commons phenemenon. Once the trend started, in order to be “fair” Cal had to inflate the grades. The average undergrad GPA is certainly above 3.0, but Cal students really work hard. </p>
<p>Cal is a well known repository for very intelligent people.</p>
While I do agree with what you said (mostly), I just want to say that it’s not necessarily true, esp the last quoted sentence. I have seen people who legitly slacked off and couldn’t finish the projects, nor did they attend class frequently. Then came dead week, they biotched about how they had to teach themselves the entire material and how unfair the course was. That attitude obviously didn’t cut a C- at Cal, nor would it cut the same grade at Darthmount, or heck, even Chico. </p>
<p>About the difficulty: If Cal’s final is not leagues harder than Darthmount’s, then why would our CS program ranked 1st in the world, along with Furd, MIT, and CMU? You choose to attend Cal and be part of the CS program, you should be well aware of the difficulty compared to other schools, especially those not in the top four.</p>
<p>First of all, I have a twin and she attends a Cal State University while I attend Berkeley. (i am not trolling fyi). And based on what I’ve experienced I affirm that there is some sort of grade inflation/deflation within universities. You see, after taking biology 1b and barely surviving those trick exams that don’t test what you actually know, I looked at my sister’s exam from her Cal State and it was indeed easier. This also applies to general chemistry!</p>
<p>I hate it when she rubs her 4.0 in my face -___-. I’ like go to Cal and see what I have to go through sistaaah haha</p>
<p>Did this study take into account the people who dropped out of the class? I don’t feel that the numbers quite justify that Berkeley inflates grades. The grades of the people of whom you are setting your observations from are the people who had the guts to “stick it out” and who survived the class. Last semester, ~150-200 people dropped CS 61A, imagine if you took into account their grades if they could not drop the class. I would assume that the average GPA would be much lower.</p>