School median remains same, but top ranking GPAs higher Forum

[lawyersHATEhim]

I was wondering if anyone could explain a trend over the last three years. The school median has remained at a 3.3, but GPA for better percentile is getting disproportionately higher. For example, class of 2016 had a top 10% GPA of 3.7, but 2018 at 3.8. The trend is constant across 15%, 20%, and 25%. Is the school purposefully inflating better ranked student's GPAs to help with employment of top students? Is this trend likely to continue?

[anonanonny]

My initial thought on this is that the GPA/rankings might vary due to the make up of the different graduating classes. That and maybe your school's grading policy has changed for some courses. My school's policy is changing to be "nicer" for students going forward starting next academic year. I've noticed a similar trend at my school too. And obviously after 1L year students have more opportunity to purposely sign up for classes with a generous curve or even no curve.

[JDilemma]

My School is similar, though, not as severe as yours (if you're saying .1 higher per anum). I've wondered if it's just an indication of the bigger disparity between those students at the top and bottom. For example, if students @ median or bellow used to pull off an A or A- here and there, no longer pull such grades and instead just get another B+ or lower (assuming the A- or A then goes to the higher students). This would also seem to correlate with the trend of many schools allowing their 25th percentiles to slip lower and lower.

I'm no math wizard, but this seems plausible.