<p>It says only 53% had a GPA above 3.75. That seems a little low for a prestigious school like Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>Where are you getting this from? [Vanderbilt</a> University Overview - CollegeData College Profile](<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1562]Vanderbilt”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1562)</p>
<p>I’d guess the 3.75 number is outdated or blatantly wrong. On the link KathyLis posted, the stats given are of “students on COLLEGEdate interested in vanderbilt”. They are in no way statistics of actual students. I don’t believe vanderbilt publishes average gpa’s because they vary so much by school, but the average class rank was about 3.5% for last years admitted class.</p>
<p>That’s actually a pretty normal GPA for top schools. Northwestern, UChicago, etc. are all around 3.8. Although the link might not be accurate, I’m sure its around the same for actual admits.</p>
<p>Common data sets are sometimes useful: <a href=“https://virg.vanderbilt.edu/virgweb/CDSC.aspx?year=2010[/url]”>https://virg.vanderbilt.edu/virgweb/CDSC.aspx?year=2010</a></p>
<p>Seems to be a similar number to me. My guess is that they take off all of the weighted fluff (many other schools do this too, however, so generally report the non-4.0 weighted stats. on admissions websites, which unfortunately assumes that all schools have the same type of scale, like assuming all have an A+) and rescale GPAs for a 4.0 scale; like finding out the make grade point offered at a school, and comparing that to the one they earned, so 4.3 of 4.7 is recentered to 3.65.</p>
<p>A 3.71 still seems awfully low.</p>
<p>How is that awfully low, especially when unweighted? It may indicate that Vanderbilt students probably come from less grade inflated high schools as SATs are very good, and GPA is 3.71 (this is normal). Some schools have similar SATs w/higher GPAs which indicates perhaps some grade inflation from regions predominantly producing applicants for the school or maybe even different re-weighting of GPAs. Take for example the fact that our average is 3.82-3.86ish, but the SAT scores are a bit lower than Vandy. I would guess that we weight differently, many Emory students experienced more grade inflation than normal, or more of us are grade grubbers (culture differences. I wonder if having more students of particular ethnicity may influence it as well. Also, like 17% are from Ga., and I know plenty of high schools here that overly inflate and weight GPAs).</p>
<p>Look some elites don’t even give an average: [CDS</a> – Office of Strategic Planning & Institutional Research](<a href=“http://www.nd.edu/~instres/home3/CDS.shtml]CDS”>http://www.nd.edu/~instres/home3/CDS.shtml)</p>
<p>[2009-10</a> First-time, first-year (freshman) admission, Common Data Set - Northwestern University](<a href=“http://www.ugadm.northwestern.edu/commondata/2009-10/c.htm]2009-10”>http://www.ugadm.northwestern.edu/commondata/2009-10/c.htm)</p>
<p>As for my grade inflation point: [Emory</a> University | CDS/Profile/IPEDS](<a href=“http://www.emory.edu/PROVOST/IPR/factbookprofile/index.php]Emory”>http://www.emory.edu/PROVOST/IPR/factbookprofile/index.php)</p>
<p>click 2010-2011 data set. How is it that we have identical percentage in top 10% of graduating class, but our average comes out .15 higher and our SATs are again, a bit lower? Also, notice the percentage of students w/3.75 being much higher (12% higher). </p>
<p>My guess is that 3.71 is a “real” number or that many students at Vandy come from tougher grading schools and also test better.</p>
<p>I’m saying it’s low because everywhere you go on CC everyone has a 4.0 and like 29835 ECs.</p>
<p>CC=self-selection (seriously, I’m sure that not all of Vandy or any elite school’s 1300-2000 person incoming class is on CC. And surely not all 15K+ applicants for each of these schools are on here), smaller sample size. and possibly some deception. Some students may report weighted GPAs (as in after AP/IB receives an inflation of however many points to the final course grade, which may translate to a full 2 levels). Also, A+s are apparently somewhat common at schools attended by CCers. I assure you that Vandy students still have like 29835 ECs regardless of their less inflated grades.</p>
<p>Well what did you expect? Did you want everyone to have a 6.4?</p>
<p>Peers of Vandy, such as UNC and UVA, have 90% of GPAs above 3.75. I thought it’d be pretty similar.</p>
<p>I’m not too shocked… I got in this year with a 3.3 UW. LOL.</p>
<p>Those are public. I find public U grades to be inflated. Perhaps it’s because those schools have most of their students from in-state (between 65-90% depending on top 50 or so flagship) AND not as many from tougher private/boarding schools and are instead from public high schools schools which for the most part, in the south (and perhaps some portions of mid-Atlantic/south line like Virginia), aren’t that great, and even when they are solid, most have heavy grade inflation. Notice how UVA/UNC SAT/ACTs for “enrolled” students is far off (mainly the 25%) from Vanderbilt. If it wasn’t so far off (say if they were w/in 30-50 of them in terms of SAT average), I wouldn’t emphasize this fact. Take a look, I wouldn’t consider UGA a peer to any top 20, but it does as well as some of those in the 3.75+ category: [Office</a> of Institutional Research](<a href=“UGA”>UGA)</p>
<p>It’s SATs are way off as UNC: [Common</a> Data Set - Office of Institutional Research and Assessment](<a href=“http://oira.unc.edu/facts-and-figures/data-summaries-and-publications/common-data-set.html]Common”>http://oira.unc.edu/facts-and-figures/data-summaries-and-publications/common-data-set.html) </p>
<p>and UVA: [Common</a> Data Set: Institutional Assessment and Studies, University of Virginia](<a href=“http://www.web.virginia.edu/iaas/datacatalog/cds/admission.shtm]Common”>http://www.web.virginia.edu/iaas/datacatalog/cds/admission.shtm)</p>
<p>And again, I find that many top schools aren’t reporting: Duke, Brown, NU, ND, Cornell are among those not telling the GPA breaks or averages and some like Chicago, WashU and Rice, you can’t find a CDS to save a life (they instead use “factbooks” and brochures, which are known to report stats. differently, normally in manners that make them look more selective). So you have like 1/2 or more of the top 20s choosing not to report this specific portion of the CDS or not having a true CDS at all. I’m willing to bet that many of them fall below UNC/UVA in terms of 3.75+.</p>
<p>Oh look, UNC gets harder workers than Stanford: <a href=“http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cds/2010.html#admission[/url]”>http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cds/2010.html#admission</a></p>
<p>They beat them by 3% in the 3.75+ category, Wow!!</p>
<p>^ That could be affected slightly by the fact that Stanford doesn’t look at freshman year grades.</p>
<p>Does it depend on whether “minuses” are given different GPA. At our highly competive public school they are which means if you have half A’s and half A-'s your UW GPA would be a 3.8. At a less competive school a few miles away you’d have a 4.0. Our Val GPA is a 3.89 and we’ve never had a val with a 4.0 because our top student (the val) is taking all honors and AP classes and has had at least a few A-'s. We get however way more of our kids into Vandy then the school nearby which has only had like 3 kids get in, in the past 4 years.</p>