NU vs. Ivy, MIT, Stanford, and UChicago in terms of grade inflation

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

<p>So, I came across this Newsweek article that says Ivy schools and certain other schools of their caliber have grade inflation:</p>

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"A 2003 Princeton study found that marks of A and A-minus accounted for 44 to 55 percent of grades at the Ivy League colleges, MIT, Stanford and the University of Chicago."

[/quote]
</p>

<p>GRADE</a> DEFLATION | Newsweek Education | Newsweek.com</p>

<p>I'm just wondering 1) how sound this study is in the first place and 2) how NU fares in comparison to these schools?</p>

2

<p>It must be stated that NU compares to any of those listed colleges academically. As far as I am concerned, professors try and make it so that the average is always a B. I know some freshman classes make it such that there might be slightly more people who get As and Bs simply because you have no idea what's going on. </p>

<p>My friend who goes to Yale said that no one fails. This is not the case at NU. You will work for your grades, and in some cases, extremely hard.</p>

3

<p>Hahaha. No way are A's and A-'s 44-55% of grades at NU... If anything, it'd be more along the lines of B's. I don't think UChicago or MIT have that much grade inflation, although the other schools mentioned do for sure.</p>

4

<p>You definitely have to work hard to do well at Northwestern. The STEM courses DO fail students even with a curve.</p>

5

<p>There are many Bs but few As. there are of course those courses that are more b.s. like intro to music or religion that most athletes take and it's pretty much an auto-A, but for pretty much everything else you have to work your butt off. especially since even though you're on the quarter system, you take 4 classes a quarter rather than 3 classes a quarter which most quarter system schools do...so all in all, no grade inflation.</p>

6

<p>I have a random question... If you test out of some classes via AP scores, can you opt to still take the class and not use the AP credit score?</p>

7

<p>I am certain that you can.</p>

8

<p>Also keep in mind that Northwestern may be more intense because of its academic schedule. You end up taking more classes in a shorter amount of time, and that's probably what turned me off most about NU last year. So it can be tougher than other top schools, with or without grade inflation.</p>

9

<p>Thanks! Next year's going to be busybusy. :D</p>

10

<p>I cannot speak for all departments, but I find that most professors in Chemistry department is fairly "forgiving", let's say, when it comes giving grades for upper level courses. Marks in GenChem and Orgo are more reflective of the amount of time and effort you put in, but in higher level courses the professors reward you a bit for having to put in more work and for being responsible for more advanced material. All in all, I would not say that 44-55% of grades are A's and A-'s. I would, however, venture a guess that the majority of grades are A-'s and B's... that's just judging from my experience (e.g. only 4 people out of 200+ got A's in one of my science courses ha ha).</p>

11

<p>not much grade inflation at MIT compared to others, much to the chagrin of premeds.</p>