Northeastern Grade Deflation?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northeastern University
1

Hi I think Northeastern practices grade deflation. Here’s why:

Northeastern’s Honor’s Requirement

3.5 to 3.69 Cum Laude
3.7 to 3.849 Magna Cum Laude
3.85 to 4 Summa Cum Laude

Average According to cumlaude.org

3.65 to 3.79 Cum Laude
3.8 to 3.89 Magna Cum Laude
3.9 to 4.0 Summa Cum Laude

As you can see above Northeastern’s GPA requirements for Latin honors are lower than the average shown at cumlaude.org. If you want you can compare it to other schools and you’ll find that it is lower than most. It is to my understanding that latin honors are given to top 5% for Summa Cum Laude, next 10% for Magna Cum Laude, and the next 10% for Summa Cum Laude. Does this mean that Northeastern’s students on average have lower GPAs to be in the top percentages?

2

These GPAs are actually recently revised upward - http://www.northeastern.edu/news/2014/02/latin-honors-requirements/ although they were not put into effect immediately (so the rules you entered with where the ones for your graduation).

Some schools do Latin honors by percentages, others by GPA. The Northeastern Latin GPA requirements do not translate to 5% of the students earning a 3.85 GPA.

In general I do not feel that there is grade deflation at NEU.

3

I agree with kiddie.

Although I do not think I have the background information to conclude whether or not Northeastern does deflate grades compared to average, I don’t think that the Latin honors brackets are an accurate metric of comparison. School-wide grade distributions would be the way to look at that, methinks.

4

Yeah, I would also agree that there isn’t really grade deflation here - frankly, if I was to guess we have either, I would have said inflation.

There’s plenty of reason that those honors could have different ranges - I don’t think grade deflation is a valid conclusion.

5

Graduation Honors (Latin Honors)
In recognition of distinguished academic achievement and high standards of academic integrity, the University of Pennsylvania awards graduation honors to undergraduate students based on the cumulative g.p.a. on their transcripts at the time of graduation:

summa cum laude: 3.80 or higher
magna cum laude: 3.60 or higher, but less than 3.80
cum laude: 3.40 or higher, but less than 3.60