<p>Why don't you ask all the "rich" or those that could easily afford to go to Berkeley for years on end or if they wanted to go to the most expensive private schools for 5 or more years without breaking a sweat why they go to Berkeley? There are many reasons why one might do this (such as strengths in particular programs, immense global prestige, "it was the best school he/she got into", but really, it doesn't matter why they go, what matters is that some do this.</p>
<p>Gradeinflation.com has some valuble information, but has some problems. Reputation is not everything. Cornell, another school known for grade deflation, also isn't so grade deflated anymore on the whole. The same is true for Chicago. The thing is, people are most aware of the most big-name frontrunners such as Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, and Brown, as well as the top LACs, and so I think some see this as the marker- but really, these guys are way ahead of the average, so if your average GPA is increasing, but at a much slower rate then these leaders, you still have grade inflation, although not necessarily any undeserved grade inflation.</p>
<p>Also, while this is the most useful data we have, I would be interested in how things changed since the report.</p>
<p>NeedAdvice, I just don't like it when people makes claims about entire programs when so many programs are really known for being good and have advantages that other schools cannot offer. USC also suffers from the same problem.</p>