Harvard’s got the world’s largest college endowment: $36+ billion.
Why did Willie Sutton rob banks? Because that’s where the money is.
Do you have a source for this?
Courses on courserank are centered around a B+ to a B (3.3 to 3.0)
Which is anecdotally consistent with statements that courses peg the mean at a B to a B+
edit…
according to that grade inflation study that looked at long term grade inflation, Stanford is about in line with the average increase in GPA per year. Much lower than Harvard, MIT, Yale, Duke and Dartmouth.
@aleaiactaest, agreed. I recall having lunch while at Harvard and having several Supreme Court justices sit down in the dining hall at the same time, having lunch (as alumni of my school!). That doesn’t happen everywhere, and it was kind of neat.
If memory serves me right, I saw a study of some sort years ago, which shows that maybe 80% (could have been higher) of Harvard graduates had a GPA of 3.5 or better. In other words, most Harvard students graduated with some form of honors. In fact, the article I read, shows that most of the students in Harvard Undergraduate classes got As!
@passionatepoet,
Your thoughts about being towards the top of the class and a lower ranked uni vs being at the bottom of the class at Harvard is valid. There is an chapter in Malcolm Gladwell’s book “David and Goliath” that talks about this phenomenon. And yes, kiddos may feel sad when they were the academic superstars of HS and then become relegated to the bottom half in college.
BTW, my DD, at Yale, feels that the prestige thing is a little over-blown and over-rated, and feels that she could get an excellent education at other colleges also…colleges that she previously felt that she was too good for when she was in HS. Her mind changed with she actually visits her friends at other colleges and sits in on class with them. The peer rumors in HS and peer pressure in HS is not necessarily the truth.
One of the deans at Harvard recently said the average grade at Harvard was 3.7 There was a 2005 study that said the average grade at Stanford was 3.55 with an upward trend http://www.gradeinflation.com/Stanford.html
@florida26
Ok. So you don’t have a source for your claim about what the Stanford average GPA is.
That study is over a decade old and there were significant changes made since then.
Also that study specifically stated: “Stanford stopped making grading data public in the mid-1990s” so everything after that is just a guess.
Also, this study would mean that in 2020, the average GPA would be 4.02. LOL.
@skyoverme do the world a favor and take a statistics and logic class. Its called inference and linear regression. LOL
Many students try for Harvard because they like what it offers, don’t know where they’ll get in, aren’t 100% sure of their college choice in September of their senior year, and have no idea how much financial aid they’ll end up getting from any school they’re admitted to. (Net price calculators are often way off in the estimates they provide.) So there can be a variety of reasons. But not everyone who gets in ends up going—again, for a variety of reasons. My son got into Harvard, along with several other top schools, and is choosing one of the other schools. Was he tempted by the Harvard name? A bit, yes. But ultimately he (and we) continued what has been a very long process of thinking carefully and thoroughly about what he was looking for in his college education and came to the conclusion that another school—actually, two other schools—would be better for him. Any of these schools, however—including Harvard—would have been fine, regardless of any adjustment he and everyone else there will have to make as they transition from being at the top of their high school classes to some less lofty spot in college.
It’s the number one school. I know I am a top students so I should go to the number one school.
Same logic as if I was considered the number one high school basketball prospect. I would want to go the number one basketball program.
Because of threads like this.
The only thing I remember from the parent orientation after moving D in for her freshman year (not at Harvard) was the university president’s saying “look around; nearly all your kids were in the top 10% of their high school class. When you are all back here for graduation, 90% of your kids WON’T be in the top 10% of their class.” The sniffling sounds of weepy moms & dads turned to gasps.
LOL - a university president earning their money!
That’s the thing I love - my son is not in the top 10% of his graduating HS class, yet we expect most of his classmates in the fall at college will have been. Same thing for me, although moreso because I went to an Ivy.
Why take an entry level job at a Fortune 50 company?
Why work 30 hours straight as a medical intern?
I am really shocked when people don’t get that surrounding yourself with success, and having an official association with that success, is a huge benefit.
Like the old joke:
“What do you call a medical school student who graduated last in his class?”
“Doctor.”
so:
“What do you call a Harvard grad who graduated last in his class?”
“A Harvard grad.”
Because it’s likely the first college kids hear about when they’re little. When I was 7, I didn’t know what Cornell or Vanderbilt or Rice were, but I’d heard of Harvard. Perhaps this is a regional thing, because I’m from the East Coast. But when you’re that little, Harvard comes to represent college in general. When it’s the only college you know about, it’s going to become the college you see yourself at. Lots of kids never let go of that dream.
@florida26 It is you who should do the world a favor and not represent bad and incomplete analysis as fact. It is a disservice to the community.
If you knew anything about linear regression, you would know that you need to understand whether the association between the variables has fundamentally changed - as it did in the mid 90s at the same time they stopped publicly reporting GPAs. It is like saying you can do a linear regression of oil pricing over the last 200 years while totally ignoring the major political shifts underlying oil pricing. Or, as I pointed out earlier, it is the same as saying that by 2020, the average GPA would be over 4.0.
@skyoverme In 2005 the gpa at Harvard was actually lower than Stanford. What is your point that Stanford doesnt have grade inflation? Or are you just trying to be argumentative? The AVAILABLE data indicates that grades at stanford are higher than Harvard. So what difference does that make? You should take the time to learn the difference between a fact and an inference . Maybe if you do get a Stanford education you can avail yourself of some of their statistics classes. They have a top notch statistics department
Very funny and useful overview hungry teenager! Has anyone mentioned HAAAVAAAD SQUARE as being just a swell place to be? All I know is, if I had applied to Harvard and gotten in, I would have gone. As it was, I took a Japanese class as a cross registering student, and dropped it, as it was so difficult, Japanese 1.
because it’s harvard
that’s what I said at my interview, and that coupled with a green mohawk and eating breakfast -> waitlist gg
When my son applied to Yale, their supplemental application had a short answer essay that asked “Why Yale?” The first sentence of his response was “Because it’s not Harvard!” He then went on to enumerate what Yale would offer him that he couldn’t find at the other university to the north where his sister attends. My point: Many students hear the name Harvard, but have no idea what makes Harvard special, unique or different from another college. Student’s really need to do their due diligence. Those who say “Because it’s Harvard” should look beyond the school’s reputation and prestige and investigate why Harvard would be a better fit for them than another college.
@Islmom Harvard IS a top STEM school in just about every STEM field except engineering! (Physics, Math, Biology, Chemistry, Biochemistry…)