Wharton --> other grad schools?!?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
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<p>I have a question regarding Wharton and other graduate schools that have competitive GPA standards (law, medical, etc). </p>

<p>The average wharton gpa is known to be around a 3.2-3.3. Many people say in Wharton's defense (when responding to claims that Wharton is solely preprofessional and narrows your career path to just business/finance) that many students from Wharton go on to different careers in different fields, and gain acceptance to many of the top graduate programs in the nation (law, medicine, oxbridge, etc). </p>

<p>What I'm wondering is, how can Wharton undergrads be competitive for top grad schools with that kind of GPA? Is it only the elite few with the highest Wharton GPAs that can hope to get spots at these kinds of schools? I'm fully aware that getting into a top-12 law school or a reputable medical school is usually only accessible to the best achievers in each class, but it seems like with that average Wharton GPA, admissions to top law/medical schools would be the exception, not the rule.</p>

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<p>1) Admissions committees are generally aware of which schools inflate/deflate their GPA. You could make the same argument about princeton as their grading system is probably more rigorous than Wharton’s, but they still send plenty of students to grad schools.</p>

<p>2) 3.2-3.3 is actually pretty exaggerated because you will take a lot of grade-inflating CAS classes that are definitely not curved around a B+. I would say a more accurate approximation is probably around 3.4-3.5</p>

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<p>you can safely factor out of the average super rich / influential families, super legacies, 1/2 the varsity team of every sport (I know a few that can pull their weight but a kid in bpub250 got a 12% on his midterm…yeah…), and many diversity candidates / people with weird and unique backgrounds (no judgment, just saying they tend to perform worse as a group because they weren’t prepared as well by their high schools).</p>

<p>If you’re admitted for your mind and work ethic, you shouldn’t have a problem at all.</p>