<p>I fell madly in love with Harvey Mudd College, but one thing stands in my way... grade deflation.
The GPAs are very low because of the very difficult classes.
But i love the nerdiness, its honor code, and its small size</p>
<p>Are there any schools on the west coast like this without the grade deflation?
I cannot have a low GPA because of medical school</p>
<p>I don’t think there are any other schools on the West Coast that quite replicate HMC without the grade deflation. Harvey Mudd is rather unique.</p>
<p>Somewhat less selective LACs in the Western states include Whitman College, Colorado College, and Occidental.</p>
<p>In the East, a college that seems to have a very good record for medical school placement is Davidson College (in North Carolina). Haverford College, in the past at least, supposedly has had a very strong med school advisory program. It is very small and has a strong honor code. Like HMC, it is also part of a college consortium (with Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore, which also are excellent LACs).</p>
<p>But you know, if you are aware of the grading patterns at Harvey Mudd College, don’t you think med schools are too?</p>
<p>Well it seems to me not many people know about harvey Mudd, and many schools GPA in a formula for acceptance</p>
<p>You can get a good gpa at Harvey Mudd, you’ll just have to be that much more dedicated though.</p>
<p>You’re mistaken.</p>
<p>Grades are deflated among the hard sciences at every respectable elite institution.</p>
<p>It’s not a phenomenon exclusive to Harvey Mudd.</p>
<p>No one even remotely suggested that.</p>
<p>“I don’t think there are any other schools on the West Coast that quite replicate HMC without the grade deflation. Harvey Mudd is rather unique.”</p>
<p>“But i love the nerdiness, its honor code, and its small size”</p>
<p>That is what he is referring to as unique, and its location on the west coast, as well as the fact that it’s one of the few technical LACs. Plus, grades may be deflated at most of the respectable elite institutions in the hard sciences, but certainly not all, and not to the same extent.</p>
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<p>Some people make it their business to know these things. Medical school admissions committees, for instance.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s true that grades are deflated in the natural sciences at most very selective schools. However, you have to consider that, at almost all other LACs, fewer than 1 in 3 students major in the natural sciences and mathematics. At many of them it’s less than 20%. And you don’t have to major in these subjects to prepare for med school.</p>
<p>Why don’t you look at Reed College? It’s in Portland, OR, so farther north than Harvey Mudd but it’s still on the west coast. I’m not sure about grade deflation, but I know most students their are not even told what their GPA is- grades are not the emphasis there, its more about learning the actual material. They also have a strong honor code, a great premed program, and are known for getting students into good med schools.</p>
<p>Reed’s campus-wide GPA has been about 3.1 for 25 years, so no inflation or deflation.</p>
<p>From 2003 through 2008, of applicants with a 3.1 science GPA or better and at least 28 on the MCAT, 86% were admitted to med school.</p>
<p>So, yes, med schools know which schools don’t have grade inflation.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.reed.edu/registrar/forms/grades.pdf[/url]”>http://www.reed.edu/registrar/forms/grades.pdf</a>
[REED</a> COLLEGE MEDICAL SCHOOL ACCEPTANCE](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/ir/medschool.html]REED”>Medical School Acceptance Rate - Institutional Research - Reed College)</p>
<p>Your statistics about Reed are verified by the data on gradeinflation.com, but using the same source it shows that HMC’s average grades from 1972 to 2008 have increased from 3.16 to 3.31. So I’m curious why 128769 says they have grade deflation?</p>
<p>I don’t think “grade inflation” is an issue here.</p>
<p>It’s more: “I’m afraid of getting low grades, being exposed as mediocre/sub-par relative to my peers.”</p>
<p>The average GPAs for most elite private institutions have gone up to some extent, but on the surface, HMC’s 3.31 is still lower than the means/medians of 3.4X-3.6X that are floating around other campuses.</p>
<p>I was thinking Reed as well until I saw the ‘loved the honor code’ part of the OP. I think the honor code at Reed requires giving your roommate’s paraphernalia back, if asked.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong–Reed is a superb school. But it has a druggie reputation.</p>
<p>Look at Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Wellesley, Pomona, Middlebury. All have great pre-med and are small schools.</p>
<p>Well, I don’t know how you feel about Texas, but Rice has an honor code, a (relatively) small student population, a very strong premed program (I don’t want to be premed, so I don’t know if it is specifically premed, but they definitely have a crazy percentage of people going into medicine and whatever the program is called I know it is strong), and a friendly nerd vibe.
:]</p>
<p>i enjoy science so i would love to major in biochemistry</p>
<p>and thank you guys very much 
ill get an interview and talk to HMC about it. By the way im a female but its hard to tell with my username :)</p>
<p>I also second the Rice University suggestion… we are also next to the world’s largest medical center (Texas Medical Center).</p>