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Can someone comment on the accuracy of CSO GPA ranges.

I've heard that:

1) the lower range is abnormal and should not be considered as a benchmark to where you should apply; that lower number can represent the lowest number the firm offered a callback to but not an offer (obvious exception being if the numbers are what the firm actually offered)

however

2) the actual numbers the firms do give offers to is not represented accurately by the ranges the CSO gives; some graduate said they were slightly inflated?

Can someone shed some light on this?

It depends on what the numbers they release are, and when they are from. If lots of the data is from pre-2008, then the numbers may be conservative. What is the lower end of the range at your school? Does your school give you the absolute lowest GPA that has been offered? Well, that could be a URM Olympian for all you know, which isn't super helpful. On the other hand, if your school releases numbers for everyone who got an offer, then the average will be inflated (just as with law school, the stats of accepted/offered students are higher than the stats of those who actually matriculate/summer): some random V100 might hand out offers to everyone with a 3.7, but those kids with 3.7s are likely going elsewhere. Your question probably has to be school specific since different schools release different data sets that need to be interpreted differently.

So OP here. Just realized that my school gives ranges that are not exhaustive (meaning not everyone who possibly could have gotten offered) but are for the most part complete.

The ranges are of those who got an offer with the firm to summer there from a 25th, median, and 75th percentile.

No one can possibly answer this with anything other than conjecture unless you identify your school.

GW gives 25/50/75 of screeners from only 2013. Basically, a pathetically small sample & not the data I really care about. I ran my list by CSO and she was like "seems good." Not sure how to fell about that....

Our school counts the absolute lowest GPA that has received a callback/offer and considers that firm within a certain GPA range. It's pretty useless. It makes it look like all but 5 firms have low GPA reqs

Anonymous User wrote:Our school counts the absolute lowest GPA that has received a callback/offer and considers that firm within a certain GPA range. It's pretty useless. It makes it look like all but 5 firms have low GPA reqs

If they did that, but separated out URM, K-JD, and other shit, it might be useful.

dixiecupdrinking wrote:No one can possibly answer this with anything other than conjecture unless you identify your school.

Duke. And apparently though it's data over last 5 years and the 25th-50-75 percentile of those who received offers from a firm and the GPA.

But it's not exhaustive and they only list firms with a GPA of those 25-50-75 percentiles if the firm gave out 5 or more offers and only a median GPA if lower. and they don't give a GPA out if the firm has only offered less than 3 in the last 5 years.