GPA/Institution Considerations

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I think a Berkeley education is not much different than a HYP education...It's not like Berkeley is a random state directional school. In fact, Berkeley owns HYP in certain areas (chemistry)
 
An ivy league school has much less of the competition and carnage of a large state school. Each year, I think 700-800 students from Berkeley apply to medical school...

Chemdude said:
I think a Berkeley education is not much different than a HYP education...It's not like Berkeley is a random state directional school. In fact, Berkeley owns HYP in certain areas (chemistry)
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With all of this banter regarding grades, I'll say this: I find that the people with the highest GPA's are usually not the most intelligent. The most intelligent usually have marks that are high or above average, but not perfect or exceptional. Most classes, especially science classes, really only approach basic concepts, principles, themes, events and ideas. Striving for perfect grades in these classes is really more monotony and diligence than exercising high intelligence and creativity and can be excruciatingly boring if the subject is not interesting or engaging.

None of the most brilliant people I knew at Yale received an honors distinction, yet they have gone on to become exceptional scholars, artists and entrepreneurs. On the other hand, those with the highest marks tended to follow very prescribed careers in banking, consulting, medicine and law.

To the OP: Just try to get the best numbers that you can. None of what these guys are arguing about matters. You probably know where you fall intelligence-wise and just be comfortable with that because that will probably not change in your lifetime. You'll be fine with a slightly lower GPA from Dartmouth but not a lower MCAT. Just get the best numbers that you can. That's how the game is played and that's all you need to know.
 
ScronCron said:
An ivy league school has much less of the competition and carnage of a large state school. Each year, I think 700-800 students from Berkeley apply to medical school...



With all of this banter regarding grades, I'll say this: I find that the people with the highest GPA's are usually not the most intelligent. The most intelligent usually have marks that are high or above average, but not perfect or exceptional. Most classes, especially science classes, really only approach basic concepts, principles, themes, events and ideas. Striving for perfect grades in these classes is really more monotony and diligence than exercising high intelligence and creativity and can be excruciatingly boring if the subject is not interesting or engaging.

None of the most brilliant people I knew at Yale received an honors distinction, yet they have gone on to become exceptional scholars, artists and entrepreneurs. On the other hand, those with the highest marks tended to follow very prescribed careers in banking, consulting, medicine and law.

To the OP: Just try to get the best numbers that you can. None of what these guys are arguing about matters. You probably know where you fall intelligence-wise and just be comfortable with that because that will probably not change in your lifetime. You'll be fine with a slightly lower GPA from Dartmouth but not a lower MCAT. Just get the best numbers that you can. That's how the game is played and that's all you need to know.
Click to expand...

I feel like every single alum who shows up on the front page of our school website or school newspaper graduated summa cum laude... Literally, everyone who makes a big impact on the world had an amazing GPA during their undergrad... It makes me feel like if I don't get summa cum laude, I don't have a shot at all to become a big name.
 
Penner said:
I feel like every single alum who shows up on the front page of our school website or school newspaper graduated summa cum laude... Literally, everyone who makes a big impact on the world had an amazing GPA during their undergrad... It makes me feel like if I don't get summa cum laude, I don't have a shot at all to become a big name.
Click to expand...

Just be observant, engaged, rigorous and conscientious with the problems that interest you and things will fall into place. If you don't become a big name, it'll likely be because you didn't have something big to offer society and the world, not because you didn't get amazing grades.
 
I posted this in this other thread:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=731720

School, average GPA, USNews rank, 75th percentile SAT score (as explained in the other thread, this was the only thing I could find to compare academic caliber of student bodies)
  1. UVA , 3.21, 24, 2150
  2. UCLA, 3.22, 24, 2110
  3. Johns Hopkins, 3.24, 14, 2230
  4. Berkeley, 3.27, 21, 2190
  5. Princeton, 3.28, 1, 2360
  6. Rice, 3.3 (9 years ago, likely to be closer to 3.4 now), 17, 2270
  7. Vanderbilt, 3.32, 17, 2270
  8. UChic, 3.35, 8, 2320
  9. Cornell, 3.36, 15, 2250 (1.5x(CR+Math))
  10. Emory, 3.38, 17, 2220
  11. Northwestern, 3.41, 12, 2280
  12. WUSTL, 3.41, 12, 2300 (SAT writing score not listed, so I just did 1.5x(CR+Math))
  13. Dartmouth, 3.42, 11, 2330
  14. Columbia, 3.42, 8, 2320
  15. Georgetown, 3.42, 23, 2250 (1.5x(CR+Math))
  16. UPenn, 3.44, 4, 2290
  17. Duke, 3.44, 10, 2290
  18. Harvard, 3.45, 1, 2350
  19. Yale, 3.51, 3, 2370
  20. Stanford, 3.55, 4, 2300
  21. Brown, 3.61, 16, 2310

Schools excluded (data not available or over 10 years old): Caltech , MIT, Notre Dame, Carnegie Mellon.

If you ask me, Georgetown is more grade inflated than UPenn, Harvard, Duke, and probably on par with Yale.

Princeton has the 5th lowest average GPA of the top 25, and the second highest SAT score of the top 25. If this is "grade inflation," then every decent school in the freaking country inflates its grades (not saying only the top 25 are decent).
 
asdf
 
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If you compare the grading policies, course retake and withdraw policies with many of these schools average GPAs, you can easily see that there is systematic grade inflation. Look at the disparities between Stanford University and UC Berkeley.
 
web2linc said:
If you compare the grading policies, course retake and withdraw policies with many of these schools average GPAs, you can easily see that there is systematic grade inflation. Look at the disparities between Stanford University and UC Berkeley.
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strong old thread bump. gjdm
 
What's in it for schools to consider all GPAs as equal? Do some med schools weight GPAs and others not?
 
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Penner said:
35% A's and A-'s (so about 15% get A's, 20% get A-'s). Princeton's average GPA is 3.28, guess what UC Berkeley's is?
http://gradeinflation.com/Ucberkeley.html

So you're saying UC Berkeley's grades are inflated?

What school do you go to, let's look up your average GPA.
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unfkning believable, thats like a give away. at my suny, oretty much any science class is top 7% get a next 8% get A minus.
 
This thread has got to be the most dbag ridden place ever. All of you are pretty. Who gives a flying crap where you went to undergrad because it matters very little after
 
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