<p>
[quote]
Don't worry too much about grades at Cal, because grad schools everywhere do adjust applicants for their campus grade inflation or lack of it.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I wish that were true. But I don't think it is. Not even Berkeley's own law school, Boalt, gives as much respect to GPA's earned in Berkeley undergrad than earned at Stanford undergrad. </p>
<p>
[quote]
I graduated from Cal with a 2.9 and got into most of the top 10 MBA programs I applied to.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think this is a pretty poor example, because the fact is, MBA programs don't care that much about GPA. Work and leadership experience are far more important.</p>
<p>As a case in point, I know a guy with less than a 2.5 from a no-name school who is in HBS. How did he get in? Simple. He was a decorated officer in the Special Forces, and had just completed a tour in Afghanistan before he got admitted. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Two of my best friends at Cal were history majors, one ended up at Yale Law and the other at Michigan Law.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think people should carefully look at this as a point of comparison.</p>
<p>So for Yale Law, 134 prelaws from Stanford applied, 22 got in, for an admit percentage of 16.4%. The average GPA of the admitted students was 3.86, the average LSAT was 171.2. 26 Prelaws from Berkeley applied, 1 got in for an admit percentage of 4%. The GPA of the admitted student was 4.0, and he had a 178 LSAT. </p>
<p>For Michigan Law, 37 Stanford prelaws got in out of 114 applicants, for a 32.4% admit percentage. The average GPA of these admits was 3.53, the average LSAT was 170.3. 29 Berkeley prelaws applied, 6 were admitted, for an admit rate of 20%. They had an average GPA of 3.94, an average LSAT of 169. </p>
<p>Hence, the point is, it seems to me that Berkeley prelaws have to get SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER grades to get into top law schools, relative to Stanford prelaws. That's right - SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER. In other words, not only is it probably easier to get higher grades at Stanford, but you don't need to get very high grades to get into a top law school coming out of Stanford. The average GPA at Stanford is probably at least a 3.44 (which is what it was in 1994), yet having a a GPA of 3.53 is the average GPA of Stanford prelaws to get into Michigan Law.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gradeinflation.com/stanford.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.gradeinflation.com/stanford.html</a></p>
<p>
[quote]
I believe that Cal sends the most students to graduate schools nationwide.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I've heard this one too, and it's probably true, but almost certainly due to the sheer size of Berkeley. Berkeley sends a lot of kids to graduate school simply because Berkeley has a lot of kids period. A far far better way to measure this is to measure the percentage of kids going to graduate school.</p>