<p>will I get a good education and preparation for dental school?</p>
<p>I suppose so since BU has a dental school.</p>
<p>BU has problems with grade deflation, however, so you'll have to really work for a dental school GPA but it can be done.</p>
<p>For those who don't tend to believe grade deflation exists I'll offer this recent example. My summer class teacher is some grad student and the other day she let it slip that "<a href="yes,%20quotes">/B</a> BU makes her set the average, whatever that may be, at a B- which obviously can never always truly reflect your performance or even the class a whole"** Now I said, "let it slip" because it was pretty obvious she was not supposed to say that judging by her reaction to our faces having never actually heard a prof. say this although we all knew it to be true anyway. But yeah further evidenced when she said "oooh, maybe I shouldn't have said that..."</p>
<p>haha silly grad students..</p>
<p>That's not called grade deflation...google it and you'll see the necessary requirements to deem grade deflation. I'll give you a hint, Georgia Tech is one of the schools that published actual data to either support/reject the claims.</p>
<p>Anyways, did she really refer to herself as "makes her set the average"? Either you shouldn't have used quotes when you did, or you just pretended to quote her while changing a few words but leaving the quotes to support your claim.</p>
<p>On to the point...setting the average to B- means nothing for grade deflation. That is a misunderstanding. I've had many professors who say the average is set at a C- or a B...that's the way a bell curve works. You should read up more on bell curves. You set an average, do the best of your ability to plot a histogram or any other type of statistical graph to create a bell curve. You pick the median to be the "average" grade, in your case, a B-. Then other grades are determined by the # of standard deviations from that "average" grade. I say "average" because in a bell curve, you base it off the median, which is 50% higher, 50% lower, rather than the mean, which is the real overall average which is affected by outliers.</p>
<p>Stop perpetuating this myth of grade deflation or inflation without any evidence. Citing yourself, or your own experiences is merely circular logic and is in no sense, objective proof to prove a case like that.</p>
<p>If you have a large class and your grading is based off an objective scale with set scores equivalent to a letter grade, then if everyone gets an A, would you argue for grade inflation, or would you just never bring up the case? Bell curves work in large classes since it shows how you measure up against other people in that particular area of study. Objective scales are good, but they don't always show who is better at applying material; all the people who get A's in the objective scaled class may just have been good at the material tested upon, rather than applying it to more unknown situations, hence the reason why classes where a bell curve exists, the class "average" on the exams are lower, because the professor puts stuff on the exams to test how well they can apply it to situations in which they are not accustomed to.</p>
<p>Moral: take whatever claim you hear of people claiming grade deflation/inflation without real evidence as bs. don't go into a school thinking "hey, i only did this poorly because of grade deflation". No point in that excuse since that's just what it is, an excuse. Just work your butt of for the grade you want, and you'll understand how hard work pays off at the end. Now, even if there is published data to support either claim, don't expect so many brownie points just because you went through it all...afterall, you ultimately chose the institution you attended and are therefore responsible for whatever is brought your way...you don't like it? go elsewhere...complaining won't do much.</p>
<p>BU's own statistics show grade inflation. It was happening really fast at the turn of the century so they and many other schools have tried to slow the trend down. It is still happening but a slower pace. </p>
<p>The real thing is that some schools, many of them "prestige" schools, have simply thrown in the towel. I've noted many times that the average GPA at Yale, as calculated using their published honors, is 3.6. Brown's is apparently that high and Harvard's is higher. </p>
<p>My own feeling - totally personal - is that this trend is devaluing the prestige of these schools. I used to do admissions at the grad level but haven't been in it for a while, so I don't have facts. Now of course some kid's going to say "but that means they'll get in everywhere," which ignores the fact that admissions people aren't dumb.</p>
<p>wait, does BU have grade "inflation" or "deflation"?</p>
<p>Inflation, but not as much as at some schools. BU's average gpa is between a B and B+.</p>
<p>The school also notes that grades - and curves in classes - are departmental issues. Some departments do grade harder than others, just like at any other school. Upper level courses tend to grade easier, just like at any school.</p>
<p>My dad had a great story about this, from the way back machine: he had a prof who felt that if a 60 was just passing, then a 30 should get a worse grade than an F. He thus went through the alphabet and, since his tests took points off for wrong answers, there were rumors of a AA, which is below a Z. (Anything below an F was when finally reported turned into an F.)</p>
<p>In the world of hyper grade inflation, BU's own grade inflation (as data have shown) grows at a much smaller rate that it looks like grade deflation when compared to other schools (<em>sneeze</em> Harvard). The slight increase in average GPA could also be attributed to the increase quality of students who perform better than their predecessors. As a person who detests grade inflation in all of its incarnations, I applaud BU's effort to keep grades fair and realistic. Also, don't worry about grad schools. Those people are veterans who know which school practices hyper-inflation and which school gives true earned grades.</p>
<p>...Did I just say something nice about BU?! I need a shower.</p>