<p>The emphasis on college grades without respect to grade deflation or inflation bothers me. I am afraid to go to my top choice of college due to fear of not being able to go to medical school afterward (they deflate grades harshly)</p>
<p>donāt go to college with grade deflation. itās not worth it.</p>
<p>Northwestern University has classes that curve; mostly economics/science/math/engineering classes though.</p>
<p>Boston University, esp if you are in their pre-med program</p>
<p>
If you mean MIT, I think the bark is worse than the bite ā the average MIT senior has a 3.4 GPA on a 4.0 scale, which is in line with other schools mentioned in this thread.</p>
<p>Well MIT is a great choice, but it wasnāt what I was referring to</p>
<p>Oh, sorry. 
I looked at some of your other posts and figured thatās what you were referring to.</p>
<p>wowā¦stalkerā¦ haha jk</p>
<p>btw quick unrelated question about MIT. Do people spend their whole MIT lives cooped up doing work, or is there actually a social scene?</p>
<p>Well, thatās a loaded question if Iāve ever seen one.</p>
<p>Personally, I was a double-major at MIT and managed to participate in my dormās government, spend 15 hours a week at my undergrad research job, work for the admissions office, and participate in (and captain) a club sport, while having close friendships and meeting and dating the guy I ended up marrying.</p>
<p>So I would say there is actually a social scene. People at MIT work hard and play hard.</p>
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</p>
<p>Do you have a source for this?</p>
<p>Mollie B at MIT</p>
<p>hmmm</p>
<p>norcalguy, I saw it on a printed booklet distributed by a campus group my senior year (2006). I am trying to find that booklet on the web.</p>
<p>EDIT: Found the booklet, but found one better: the original data! Itās on page 40 of [this</a> PDF](<a href=āCommittee on the Undergraduate Program (CUP) | MIT Registrarā>Committee on the Undergraduate Program (CUP) | MIT Registrar), and itās data from 1995-2000. I remembered incorrectly ā average GPA of seniors is a 3.3. </p>
<p>Perhaps more interestingly, on page 35, the graphs indicate that the modal grades for everyone but freshmen are Aās.</p>
<p>Thanks. I wasnāt questioning the figure. In fact, Iām inclined to believe that all of these schools with reputations for grade deflation (Cornell, MIT, Uchicago, etc.) are not as grade deflated as students purport. I say this as a Cornell alumnus and as someone who has seen similar figures for Cornell and UChicago.</p>
<p>Yup, 50K a yr. for schools that kick the butt out of you, makes you feel down and low, making you realize your best is not good enough, and that your grades suck. Money well spent right there. Its almost like, please, I would like to pay for my own demise. lol</p>
<p>
Well, youāre going to realize it sooner or later, might as well make it sooner.</p>
<p>An outstanding undergraduate science or engineering education ought to make you feel awful ā it makes it easier to get to grad school or the professional world and feel stupid and awful day in and day out. (And realize that Iām at the point in grad school where Iām only being a little bit tongue-in-cheek hereā¦)</p>
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<p>Swarthmore absolutely does not have grade deflation. Nor is the grading impossibly difficult. Itās a championship caliber course, played from the back tees, but grading is not unreasonable.</p>
<p>The average GPA is somewhere in the B+ range. The top 15% of the graduating class was in Phi Beta Kappa and a 3.7 just missed the cut line. So, figure that 15% of the students had a 3.75 or better GPA (and a lot of respect from their classmates!)</p>
<p>For the record, Reed also has no grade deflation (nor inflation). The average GPA for all Reed students in 2006ā07 was 3.1 on a 4.0 scale. This figure has scarcely changed in the past 23 years. During that period, only six students have graduated from Reed with perfect 4.0 grade averages. (info from Reed website)</p>
<p>Norcalguy, shhhhhhh! The rumors of Chicagoās ādeflationā are inflated, for the most part. So our GPAs are over-valued by those who think that Chicago is some kind of grading death trap.</p>
<p>Somebody else has pointed out (probably CayugaRed) that thereās more variation in grading scales between professors and subjects than there is between schools.</p>
<p>^^ Maybe Iām working on a different definition of grade deflation. In current times, having absolutely no grade inflation = grade deflation. Itās all relative.</p>
<p>As recently as two years ago, grade deflation meant actually lowering grades:</p>
<p>[Princeton</a> leads in grade deflation - USATODAY.com](<a href=āhttp://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-03-27-princeton-grades_N.htm]Princetonā>http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-03-27-princeton-grades_N.htm)</p>