<p>A lot thread on CC mentioned it's hard to get high GPA in Harvard, but what is the avg/mean GPA, or roughly what percentile in each class could get A?</p>
<p>I read another Yahoo forum, people talked about top 25% in each Harvard class could get A. Is this number sounds true?</p>
<p>Princeton has grade deflation and limits the number of A’s to 35% per department (though the percent may vary by class). I imagine it’s a much higher percent at H, which has no such policy. I’ve heard that whereabouts of 95% of all grades are A’s and B’s, though that could be myth.</p>
<p>Out of the 9 classes I’ve taken so far, in all of them much less than 35% percent of the students received A’s. A-'s are easier to get, but in most classes still require a decent amount of work. B’s and B+'s are very common, and C’s are probably slightly less common than A’s.</p>
<p>If trends have continued since 2005, the mean GPA is about a 3.50.</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/Harvard.html]Harvard[/url”>Harvard]Harvard[/url</a>]</p>
<p>I think the GPA required for the cum laude designation (top 50% of class taking honours program in their concentrations) is 3.45. Polyglot’s description is very accurate – the A is a rare beast here, and the B+ is the mode.</p>
<p>How about Engineering Majors? Do you know of any of your classmates who have had a harder time getting a decent GPA with all those hard science and engineering courses? My son is interested in doing premed and I think it would be a good idea to know what he is getting himself into if he chooses to take on engineering as his major.</p>
<p>On an unrelated note, regarding the accelerated AB/SM degree, how many people decide to attempt it and is it really competitive to get into?</p>