My daughter was accepted to BU and, along with Tulane, it’s at the top of her list. My son is currently at a college where there is grade deflation and it’s almost impossible for students to get an A. Since my daughter will be on the pre-med track it would not be in her best interest to go to a college that has grade deflation and I’m wondering if BU or Tulane have grade deflation. Thank you!
Im wondering the exact same thing. That is my biggest issue with going to BU
I have read older posts that it was harder to get an A at BU than at Harvard. But I don’t know if that is actually true. I’m hoping we will be able to get an answer - maybe from past or current students.
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If you search for grade deflation, you’ll come up with a bunch of threads, including multiple where I’ve commented. Answer is: yes, there is grade deflation. 100% true. I’ve advised other pre-med focused students that if they want to prioritize getting As/a “perfect” GPA, that BU may not be the right school for them. You CAN get a very good GPA at BU if you work really, really hard… but not a 4.0, and anything above a 3.5 will be hard-won (and you’ll come out of school very well prepared for med school). But there are plenty of pre-med (and 7 year med program) students from BU who are up for the challenge–someone has to get As in class when you grade on a curve, after all–including one who commented on CC fairly recently (you can find their answers if you search on this topic). I don’t know enough about Tulane to advise an either/or, but I can confirm that concerns about grade deflation at BU are legitimate.
I’m a current freshman at BU and I’m currently getting an A in 2/4 classes. It is not as hard as people say it is. My friends all are in different schools and have similar grades to me. I don’t know anyone with lower than a B- in any classes. If you do your homework and go to office hours and actually study you will be fine. Of course if you are going pre-med it will be harder, but for most normal majors it’s not nearly as bad as it’s made out to be
Thank you. I appreciate the input.
@laurrodes How hard are the core classes?
@Apples1789302 it depends on your level of interest. I always find classes that aren’t pertaining to my major the hardest because I genuinely just do not care about them as much as I care about my major classes but they are not too difficult as long as you keep up with the work
@laurrodes That makes sense. do you have a sense of how other students are doing? If there a fair number of A students that have time for other activities other than studying.
@amy989 my friends and I are all doing well and we have plenty of time to go out on weekends, join clubs, sororities, etc. No matter where you go, college is a lot about learning how to manage your time. I personally don’t find it difficult to make time for fun things with my schedule at BU
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There has always been a rumor that grade deflation exists at BU - don’t know if this is true. There was grade deflation at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where my son attended undergrad, and this did impact him when he applied to law school. He ended up at BU law (which just moved up to #20 in the nation!), but he was trying for a T-13 law school. Attending a school without grade deflation (or just doing better undergrad - he did well, but needed to do better to get into a T-13) would have helped during law school admissions (and in the case of the OP, med school).
No.