epic grade inflation Forum

[BarCliff]

Not to mention engineering majors.

The average GPA for my major is a 3.00. With my 3.4 I'm >top 10%, but on law school apps I'm less than 25th percentile for everything.

It's horse shit, honestly.

[forza]

Not to mention engineering majors.

The average GPA for my major is a 3.00. With my 3.4 I'm >top 10%, but on law school apps I'm less than 25th percentile for everything.

It's horse shit, honestly.

Go into engineering?

[Dialogue]

Does it only show one's own class rank? If someone were ranked at the top of the class, could he/she still figure out the median?

[Dialogue]

Not to mention engineering majors.

The average GPA for my major is a 3.00. With my 3.4 I'm >top 10%, but on law school apps I'm less than 25th percentile for everything.

It's horse shit, honestly.

That sucks.

[Lady Heather]

The median LSAC UGPA at my school is 3.2, if I round up.

[eshort]

My school hasn't even had enough law applicants to show that data!

Edit: to show the GPA data; LSAT is on there

[Lysis]

Does it only show one's own class rank? If someone were ranked at the top of the class, could he/she still figure out the median?

It gives you a percentile rank, the college mean, and a percentage distribution table for GPA (i.e., the percent at 4.00 - up, percent 3.80- 3.99, 3.60- 3.79 etc). Also the number of candidates it's basing the stats off of, LSAT mean and distribution.

[Lady Heather]

Actually, I rounded up my college's LSAC UGPA mean.

Lucky bastards who attend[ed] grade inflated schools....

[Pearalegal]

Seems fair to me. Pretty much everyone who goes to Michigan or Texas or BC would go to Harvard or Yale if they could (excluding the fact that some people like to watch and be a part of the sports scene and the fact that some people wouldn't want to be the dumbest person at their school).
If anything Harvard and Yale should have a 3.7 or 3.8 average.

This entire post didn't make sense to me. First off, weird sampling of schools and I doubt an average student at any of them would be the "dumbest" person at Harvard or Yale.

I think you might have too high of an opinion regarding the general level of intelligence at Haaarvard and Yale. They're smart kids who did well in high school and standardized testing.

[Borhas]

I have about a 3.7 from my UG. on my LSDAS report it says this GPA is 56th percentile for my school. I didn't realize the grade inflation was that bad here - to what extent is that going to cheapen my GPA in the eyes of adcomms? will they still look at it as a legit 3.7, or have a tendency to laugh it off?

my 3.31 is at 56% too, and I thought my school had serious grade inflation

http://gradeinflation.com/

Average is about 3.5 at Yale and Harvard. Pretty absurd.

No not absurd. A 3.5 at Yale and Harvard would have 10 LSAT points higher on average than a 3.8 in some low tier state school. Yet, law school seems that the 3.5 is inferior even though it's harder to get that 3.5.

If anything, top UGs are grade deflated, using LSAT as adjuster.

LSAC needs to have a school adjustment factor for GPA.

that's just not a convincing argument...

I mean where do you even get 10 pt higher LSAT thing. (you mean LSAT mean I presume)

I highly doubt classes are grade harder at any of the Ivies... BUT schools like MIT and Cal Tech... there is probably actual grade deflation

[Lady Heather]

Seems fair to me. Pretty much everyone who goes to Michigan or Texas or BC would go to Harvard or Yale if they could (excluding the fact that some people like to watch and be a part of the sports scene and the fact that some people wouldn't want to be the dumbest person at their school).
If anything Harvard and Yale should have a 3.7 or 3.8 average.

This entire post didn't make sense to me. First off, weird sampling of schools and I doubt an average student at any of them would be the "dumbest" person at Harvard or Yale.

I think you might have too high of an opinion regarding the general level of intelligence at Haaarvard and Yale. They're smart kids who did well in high school and standardized testing.

I didn't apply to Harvard or Yale or any school like that because my family wouldn't/couldn't afford to pay for them thar spensiv skools.

[brooklynpatriot1]

Damn, I have a 3.6 and I'm top 20%

[forza]

YALEZ R XPENSIVZ.

PLUS SRS BSNS.

[09042014]

http://gradeinflation.com/

Average is about 3.5 at Yale and Harvard. Pretty absurd.

Seems fair to me. Pretty much everyone who goes to Michigan or Texas or BC would go to Harvard or Yale if they could (excluding the fact that some people like to watch and be a part of the sports scene and the fact that some people wouldn't want to be the dumbest person at their school).
If anything Harvard and Yale should have a 3.7 or 3.8 average.

Both Michigan and Texas have much better engineering programs than Harvard, and I don't even know if Yale has one, if it does, it sucks. So 18 year old me would have picked Michigan or Texas over either even if I was a billionaire.

[somewhatwayward]

I highly doubt classes are grade harder at any of the Ivies... BUT schools like MIT and Cal Tech... there is probably actual grade deflation

the classes may not be graded harder, but the competition is stiffer.

[thechee]

I think law schools take grade inflation into account. My reason being, I've been amazed by how many people with high gpas/low LSATs get into T14s from my UG. A non-urm friend of mine got into UVA with a 160/3.85+, another guy got into Penn with a 168/3.85+, and yet another at Michigan with a 166/3.6.

If 30%+ of LSAT takers at your school score a 168 or above, and the 75th gpa is 3.6, adcoms realize that there is stiff competition for grades.

A while ago (late 90s I think) Boalt compiled a list of how their admissions office views grades from different UGs. This gets circulated on TLS from time to time. This index is weighted based on LSAT and GPA percentiles:

"This is the Boalt Hall study. Colleges at the top have less grade inflation than those at the bottom. Keep in mind that these numbers are somewhat outdated...

The following is UC Berkeley's rankings of
the toughest schools to get an "A"

Swarthmore 89.5
Williams 89.0
Duke 88.5
Carleton 88.0
Colgate 88.0
J. Hopkins 87.5
Chicago 87.0
Dartmouth 87.0
Wesleyan 87.0
Cornell 86.5
Harvard 86.5
Middlebury 86.0
Princeton 86.0
Bates 85.5
MIT 85.5
Haverford 85.0
Pomona 85.0
Virginia 85.0
Amherst 84.5
Reed 84.5
Vanderbilt 84.5
Wm & Mary 84.5
Bowdoin 83.5
Tufts 83.5
Vassar 83.5
Bryn Mawr 83.0
Hamilton 83.0
Oberlin 83.0
Rice 83.0
U. Pennsylvania 83.0
Clrmt. McK. 82.5
Yale 82.5
Brandeis 82.0
Northwestern 82.0
Colby 81.5
Michigan 81.5
Notre Dame 81.5
Wash. U. 81.0
Barnard 80.5
Columbia 80.5
Stanford 80.5
Brown 80.0
Georgetown 80.0
Smith 80.0
Wellesley 80.0
Emory 79.5
U. North Carolina 79.5
Whitman C. 79.5
Rochester 79.0
UC Berkeley 78.5
UC San Diego 78.5
Illinois 78.0
SUNY Bing 78.0
Texas 78.0
Trinity U. 77.5
Boston College 77.0
UC S. Barbara 77.0
Wisconsin 77.0
Florida 76.5
U. Washington 76.5
Santa Clara 76.0
Geo. Wash. 75.5
UC Davis 75.5
UCLA 75.5
Colorado 75.0
Michigan State 75.0
Boston University 74.5
Cal Poly SLO 74.5
Massachusetts 74.0
Penn State 74.0
Iowa 73.5
Purdue 73.5
SMU 73.5
SUNY Albany 73.5
BYU 73.0
Minnesota 73.0
Ohio State 73.0
Oregon 73.0
UC Irvine 73.0
Indiana 72.5
NYU 72.0
SUNY Buff 72.0
SUNY Stony 72.0
Mills 71.5
American 71.0
Arizona 71.0
Loyola Mary. 71.0
Maryland 71.0
Fordham 70.5
Kansas 70.0
Syracuse 70.0
USC 70.0
Arizona St. 69.5
CS San Diego 69.5
Catholic U. 69.5
Oklahoma 69.5
Pacific 69.5
Hofstra 69.0
UC Riverside 68.5
Utah 68.5
CS Chico 68.5
Miami 68.0
New Mexico 68.0
San Diego 68.0
CS Northridge 67.0
Pepperdine 67.0
CS San Fran. 66.0
CS Sacramento 65.0
Hawaii 64.5
Denver 63.5
CS Fullerton 63.0
CS Hayward 63.0
CS Long Beach 63.0
CS San Jose 63.0
CS Fresno 62.5
St. Mary's 61.5
CCNY 59.0
CS LA 58.5
Howard 57.5
San Francisco 57.5"

[gahthelaw]

ugh i am so jealous of everyone with good grade inflation. i'm ~top 5% at my school with my paltry 3.6x.

[Dialogue]

Mean GPA is 3.3 at my ug, though it is obviously a little deceptive to make an institution-wide claim.

[vanwinkle]

I just showed up to say that Relative Baby is the awesomest thing ever.

Carry on.

[Borhas]

it's kind of weird to see engineers griping about their GPA... come on guys your degree is actually worth something, that's not to be taken lightly

[Borhas]

I highly doubt classes are grade harder at any of the Ivies... BUT schools like MIT and Cal Tech... there is probably actual grade deflation

the classes may not be graded harder, but the competition is stiffer.

competition would effect how your GPA stacks up against others at the same school but it doesn't really effect what your GPA would be in the first place.

[hoopsguy6]

http://gradeinflation.com/

Average is about 3.5 at Yale and Harvard. Pretty absurd.

No not absurd. A 3.5 at Yale and Harvard would have 10 LSAT points higher on average than a 3.8 in some low tier state school. Yet, law school seems that the 3.5 is inferior even though it's harder to get that 3.5.

If anything, top UGs are grade deflated, using LSAT as adjuster.

LSAC needs to have a school adjustment factor for GPA.

This has to one of the dumbest fucking thing I've ever read in my life.

Harvard's 3.5 mean and 166 average LSAT can suck my state school 3.8/176.

edit: and the median GPA at my school is 3.0.

[tomhobbes]

State school represent!

3.35 GPA mean at my school, btw, with a median around 3.4.

[DoubleChecks]

http://gradeinflation.com/

Average is about 3.5 at Yale and Harvard. Pretty absurd.

No not absurd. A 3.5 at Yale and Harvard would have 10 LSAT points higher on average than a 3.8 in some low tier state school. Yet, law school seems that the 3.5 is inferior even though it's harder to get that 3.5.

If anything, top UGs are grade deflated, using LSAT as adjuster.

LSAC needs to have a school adjustment factor for GPA.

This has to one of the dumbest fucking thing I've ever read in my life.

Harvard's 3.5 mean and 166 average LSAT can suck my state school's 3.8/176.

edit: and the median GPA at my school is 3.0.

hey thats about my school's! haha and its also a T1 public...CLEARLY we HAVE to go to the same one then

[oneforship]

Harvard's 3.5 mean and 166 average LSAT can suck my state school 3.8/176.

edit: and the median GPA at my school is 3.0.

Congrats. You were the smart kid at a school of idiots/slackers.