Grade deflation in my major and school

[DATtaker]

---

Members don't see this ad.

hey, I am a junior at emory's goizeuta business school. I really like business and economics, however the b-school is really trying to improve it's ranking and make its curriculum harder. also, they just put in a bell-curve grading system where no more than 35% of people in a class should have an A- or above and no more than 45% be in the B-to B+ range.

should i really major in business? i may get a higher gpa in another major. but would medical and dental schools (maybe UK and U of L) realize Emory's tough b-school program and grade deflation?

 

[md2be06]

Sorry, but a school where 80% of its students get a B- or better isn't really suffering from grade deflation in my opinion. If anything, that's grade inflation. Med schools aren't all that familiar with the rigors of different business programs, but even if they were, they'd still pay much more attention to the relevant science courses. They're not going to spend much time trying to surmise how much higher or lower your gpa would've been had you chosen a different major.

 

[Milhouse Van Houten]

good call md2be06.
at my school no more than 15% can get an A- or better. once i had a physics professor who said 20% get A- or A, and 30% get B-, B, or B+. that made every student extremely excited. and that was a big exception.

 

[Trek]

Fully concur with MD2Be- 35% As and 45% Bs is HIDEOUSLY inflated, in my opinion. Quit whinin and see how good you have it. --Trek

 

[DATtaker]

so these percentages you guys are giving are for grades in majors classes? not science classes? i know science classes have low set percentages like that.

 

[Kadyra]

Originally posted by DATtaker:
•so these percentages you guys are giving are for grades in majors classes? not science classes? i know science classes have low set percentages like that.•••

At my school there was never a set percentage of who could get what grade. Generally, the grades people got fell into a bell curve anyway. However, if no one got 90% or above in the class (which was rare), the prof would scale it to a bell curve so that about 10% would get A's, 15% would get B's, etc without assigning someone a grade below what they earned numerically. I saw this trend in all departments I tooke classes in: sciences, behavioral sciences, humanities, etc.

So I think the others are right in their thinking that 80% of students in a class possibly having a B- or better is majorly inflated.

 

[BlackPuma]

Originally posted by DATtaker:
•hey, I am a junior at emory's goizeuta business school. I really like business and economics, however the b-school is really trying to improve it's ranking and make its curriculum harder. also, they just put in a bell-curve grading system where no more than 35% of people in a class should have an A- or above and no more than 45% be in the B-to B+ range.

should i really major in business? i may get a higher gpa in another major. but would medical and dental schools (maybe UK and U of L) realize Emory's tough b-school program and grade deflation?•••


wow!!! what a great school...no more than 45% get Bs? wow!!! my school, they promise not to give out more than 45% Cs 😀 haha

 

[Original]

O.K check this out. I finished Ugrad with a 3.8 gpa in math. Then I started grad school and I'm finishing my masters in math with a 3.23 gpa. Ridiculous right? NOT. My department nominated me for the academic excellence in graduate work award and I won despite the 2 million MPH students with 4.0 GPAs. I've been pleasantly surprised that med schools are not in the least worried about my very low grad GPA. If anything, I'd say they are thrilled. Anyway I think you should not change your major. Surprisingly, the adcoms are extremely sensitive to the different applicant-specific factors. Do your BEST and please please please don't change your major.

 

[none]

The curve sounds slightly inflated, but not hideously by any means. Perhaps a 10% reduction in the overall number of B-'s and above would be called for.

 

[kafshar]

I just clicked on the link to see what "grade deflation" was. I was stunned. My undergrad (UCLA) was not like that.... at all.

UCLA grading trend in science classes:

0-10th percentile A
11-15th percentile A-

16-45% (B+,B,B-)

The median (50th percentile) was normally a C+, sometimes a B-. But never better than that.

A majority of people get C's.