<p>ariesathena, some are and some are not okay with not having legal jobs. Many people go to law school to advance their careers within their field. For example, is it not uncommon for police officers hoping to move higher up to attend law school? This is just an example, but not everyone wants a job after law school. Yes, many people do, probalby most, but not everyone. And not all doctors come out of med school with a nice cushy residency (as cushy as they can be, i guess). I'm sure some are working in bars with your law school grad friends.</p>
<p>So many people in many fields want jobs that the cannot have, be it PhD's, M.A.'s, M.D.'s. Perhaps it is harder for a J.D. to become a DA or a PD than it is for an M.D. to become a practicing physician, but it is still hard for the others.</p>
<p>That might be true, but it DOES NOT CHANGE THE FACT THAT MANY PEOPLE WHO WANT THOSE JOBS CANNOT GET THEM. Not trying to patronize, but you're 18. Go through four years of college. Then, drop $150,000 of your own money on a law school education - which is a professional degree, like engineering, designed to prepare you for a certain career - and then realize that said career might not be open to you, but you still have $18,000/year in loans to repay.</p>
<p>There is no point to debating other professions - we're talking law and medicine. MDs are going to be doctors when they graduate. They can't all be anaesthesiologists, but they can all be doctors. It is not the same for JDs - even though some of them want to be lobbyists or whatever, there are people who want legal jobs but cannot get them. We aren't talking about Ph.D.s in sociology; we aren't talking about law students who want to be politicians; the focus is people who want to be lawyers.</p>
<p>sakky - "For example, I would say that Berkeley, Cornell, and Duke are peer schools. Of those three, Duke is the one that has the most grade inflation. "Coincidentally", Duke is also the one that has the highest premed placement rate."</p>
<p>Where in the world do you get that Duke has the most grade inflation? I have been looking at this for the past month, talking to several people that currently go to Duke and alumni as well, and trust me, Duke is in no way a school that possesses grade inflation. If anything, it would be a severe deflation. I'm just wondering where you got this information that Duke inflates grade so much.</p>
<p>Duke is in no way a school that possesses grade inflation. If anything, it would be a severe deflation.</p>
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<p>Duke has been part of the same grade-inflation trend that has affected virtually all elite private schools over the last couple of decades. The most recent data suggest that grade inflation there is virtually identical to that at its peer schools (Princeton, Dartmouth, Northwestern, etc.).</p>
<p>Bucknell and Lafayette also have a high acceptance rate for medical schools. It all bascially depends on your G.P.A really. You can get into a medical school from almost any college as long as your G.P.A is up there and you have the desire and determination. I'll be attending Bucknell and I want to go into medical school.</p>
<p>I don't have the data on Cornell, but I take it from other Cornell students and alumni, including norcalguy, that Cornell is the most grade-deflated of the Ivies, hence Cornell almost certainly is more grade deflated than is Duke.</p>
<p>Just as a point of reference, compare Duke's average GPA to that of other well-known grade-inflated schools. </p>
<p>Looks pretty similar to the Duke data, doesn't it? So Lnkinpark777, perhaps you'd care to explain to me again how Duke has severe grade deflation? How is that again?</p>
<p>Well, sakky, since apparently you lack the ability to defend your point in a tactful manner, I happen to know quite a few students who currently attend Duke. For some odd reason, I happen to believe people I actually know rather than a website that was last updated in March, 2003.</p>
<p>Heck, I myself happen to know a couple ofrDuke graduates and current Duke students who basically said that it was pretty easy, relatively speaking. Basically they said that as long as you do the work, you know you're going to pass the class, and probably with at least a B. So there you have it - you have your contacts at Duke. And I have mine. </p>
<p>And what's not to believe about the website? So you're saying that Duke has dramatically changed in the last 2 years? If so, then surely something should have been run in the Duke campus newspaper about how much harder the grading is currently, compared to years past. Perhaps you'd care to point me to the article? </p>
<p>Sorry to break it to you, but Duke is a heavily grade inflated school, and always has been. Whether you want to believe it or not, facts are facts.</p>
<p>I happen to believe people I actually know rather than a website that was last updated in March, 2003.</p>
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<p>Individual students are simply not in a position to know the school-wide average GPA unless they get it from a source such as this website (or the school publishes it openly). There's no unbiased way to gather that info from one's friends and acquaintances; only registrar data can tell you the real story.</p>
<p>How difficult the courses are, and whether you have to work your butt off to be an A student -- now, those, a current student can tell you. But they aren't the same thing as grade inflation, for which the mean GPA is the crucial datum.</p>
<p>Grading patterns like this simply do not change overnight. The only way to effect a dramatic change in a short time period is for the administration to impose a radically different grading policy that all professors are forced to follow. Princeton's recent policy change regarding the number of A's that can be given is a good example of something that is probably going to change the average GPA to a meaningful extent over the next three years. Unless Duke has done something similar in the last two years (which it hasn't), data from 2003 should be quite up-to-date.</p>
<p>Mostly agree with Hanna... except for a small point. If there is really dramatic grade inflation or deflation, you know. There were 24 of us chemical engineers, and believe me, we KNOW how they grade. We know, as a fact, that the median is always a 2.5 - because almost all of the professors grade on that scale. We know who had the two highest overall GPAs, and we knew that they were a 3.8 and a 3.56 - those people received awards and they didn't mind telling their grades.</p>
<p>So, very narrow exception to a general rule, and one which occurs mostly in science & engineering courses (occasionally math).</p>