Hello everyone! I’m really interested in UCLA, but I’m so scared of the supposed grade deflation I have heard about! I want to go to med school, so I need to keep a high GPA, which really worries me because i personally don’t think I am naturally smart, but I work hard! I got accepted for biochemistry, but I am also thinking of switching to biology.
Current/past students at UCLA, have you experienced grade deflation? Is it common in all classes, upper-division, etc? And, how “cutthroat” would you say the competition is? Would you say that it’s extremely difficult to get good grades without constantly studying? I am willing to study and work hard of course, but I also do not want to spend my entire college life doing that, which is what my cousin’s friend told me she did when she attended a UC (I am not sure which one) a few years prior.
Thank you so much! 
I don’t know if I’d call it grade deflation. I think it’s more of a “lack of inflation.”
I think people get what they deserve. If you’re the bottom of the class, you get a bad grade. If you’re at the top, you get a good grade.
UCLA alumn here…
This is the first time I am hearing about grade deflation at UCLA. Perhaps, this is a South Campus thing because at North Campus, there was no curve, you got the grade you deserved. This probably that had to do with our assignments being heavily writing based.
But It all depends on your professor on how he/she grades. Use BruinWalk, that will be your source of finding a good professor, or ask students who are a year ahead of you, they will tell you who to take and who to avoid. At my time at UCLA, I had only one professor who was a complete jerk and I should’ve used my better judgement and avoided him. Everybody else was as welcoming and helpful as they could be.
My time at UCLA was never cutthroat. All my peers were more than welcome seeing my notes and it was the other way around We worked in study groups, and guided each other to our best abilities. If you ever walked around YRL(Young Research Library), you would see students sitting around together and working together. You just need to find people who are as driven as you.
You don’t have to constantly be studying, but it is important to read over your notes for a few hours or record the lecture and re-listen to it. The only time you will have to be on your game is the week prior to finals and during finals. During finals week, there were days where you would maybe get two hours of sleep in two days but that was me, I was a bit of a maniac. I enjoyed that rush of staying up and grinding out my work.
I was concerned about this for my youngest son, who is a second year south campus major. I kept reading over and over about this “grade deflation” and I don’t think it is true. He has taken 18 classes now and has earned 17 A’s and 1 B+. His brother, on the other hand, is a Caltech student (senior). The difference in rigor is like night and day. He has a brilliant mind and was his high school class valedictorian at a top high school. He has struggled to maintain a 3.3 gpa there at Caltech. At UCLA you can take 2 or 3 science/math classes per term. Contrast this to Caltech where you have to take 4 or 5 science/math classes (and they are all highly demanding and difficult!). Don’t be scared to go to UCLA or any of the UC’s. If you work hard you will earn a good grade. Have good self discipline from the very beginning.