<p>Why do people like Cornell? I'm having some reservations because I hear there is grade deflation. This worries me because I want to go to grad school (med/law?) and therefore I would need a high GPA.</p>
<p>i don’t think there is grade deflation but there certainly is no grade inflation</p>
<p>I applied early decision to cornell because unlike the other engineering schools I applied to, Cornells is the only one with A very diverse student body(other colleges in Cornell). Also I fell in love with the campus and gorges. The weather is perfect too, with moderately hot in the summer but mostly cold year round, especially in the winter. I like the cold. Plus it’s just such a great school</p>
<p>^ oo those are the many reasons why I like Cornell also (diversity, campus, cold weather). The deflation scares the crap out of me, but I guess I will just be prepared to work super hard.</p>
<p>I don’t believe there is grade deflation at Cornell either. Not sure the source of your concern. I also believe grad schools as well as employers understand the distribution of grades at different schools.</p>
<p>^ not really. When your applying to law school, they want the higher gpa. They will take a 3.9 from a state school over a 3.5 from yale no question, but thats law school. For engineering, assuming you want to be an engineer, your research and recc’s will matter a whole lot more than your gpa. So for academia and engineering, I think cornell is an awesome option because of the research opportunities and the reputation of probably the most intense engineering program in the country, from what I’ve heard.</p>
<p>@behappy^ that’s false. grad schools are not understanding of the fact that cornell is deflated. they only care about your gpa, not what school you come from.</p>
<p>Concretepencil - that’s not true. I’ve been told point-blank by grald school admissions people that they take into account the difficulties of earning a gpa at a school like Cornell and such over other schools. Obviously it depends on the field too, but everybody would go to community college if only gpa mattered.</p>
<p>Cornell CAS alum here heading to a top ten law school. My advice: yes, you will indeed need a high GPA (think 3.6+ GPA), no matter what college you go to, if you want to crack top 10 law school acceptance. That said, you should be careful of what you major in and what courses you take. Not all majors or courses are hard at Cornell; some courses at Cornell are actually pathetically easy. (Think Asian studies, PAM, some courses in AEM, Sociology, etc) And, some other classes are brutally hard, such as physics, computer science, upper-level math, engineering, etc. For each semester, you should try to take a balanced course load: 1-2 required courses for your major and other electives or courses that suit your interest and are manageable both content-wise and in terms of workload.</p>
<p>In addition, your LSAT score matters much more than GPA to get into a top law school. I’ve seen people with middling GPA who got into top law schools with 170+ LSAT, but never heard of a reverse scenario.</p>
<p>Lastly, I would discourage anyone who is not 100% sure that s/he wants to practice law away from attending law school. Remember: Finance/ Consulting > Law.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It depends on what type of grad school you are talking about. For law or medical school, where you attended undergraduate matters very little. GPA + test scores (LSAT or MCAT) constitute ~95% of the game.</p>
<p>Now, PhD programs are very different beast altogether: they care more about your research record, course selection, and letters of recommendation than GPA or test scores. Not sure if attending Cornell over a state school will give you much leg up, all else equal.</p>
<p>Let’s just be clear: there is no grade deflation at Cornell relative to peer institutions.</p>