What exactly is grade deflation?

[courtney1996]

I am a community college student trying to select a university to transfer to. I'm most interested in attending UC Berkeley because it is close to where I live, but it seems to be notorious for grade deflation. I was just wondering how grade deflation works? I haven't been able to find too much information on what it is.

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[Turkishking]

I am a community college student trying to select a university to transfer to. I'm most interested in attending UC Berkeley because it is close to where I live, but it seems to be notorious for grade deflation. I was just wondering how grade deflation works? I haven't been able to find too much information on what it is.

How many A’s are given. I think normal distribution for a bell curve is 10% A’s. On the contrary, I think grade inflation would be 35% A’s in a given science class. But for grade inflation, really look at the average gpa for students under science degrees. If it seems high, that’s grade inflation. I do know Harvard as massive grave inflation.

 

[theKingLT]

I am very curious if there's any sort of numerical database of grade breakdowns for science courses in various undergrads across the country. I've always heard people talk about school x is notorious for grade deflation, but never any numerical evidence. Keep in mind though that grade metrics don't tell you that much on course difficulty if that's what you're worried about. At my large state university most premed courses have 10% or less A's, but it's more due to the massive amounts of "pre-med" students who don't put the work in than actually difficult clases. At least in comparison to schools with more stringent academics like Berkeley or ivy leagues. I guarantee all those people at Harvard getting the "inflated" A's could still easily get A's at the state universities with <10% A's per class

 

[Cyphix]

It's a fluid term. On one end of the spectrum, "grade deflation" is an actual school policy. For example, Princeton used to have a rule saying that no more than 35% of grades in a department can be an A (they disbanded this a few years ago). On the other end of the spectrum, it's more of a school/professor trend that grades are "curved" to lower than average -- such that the mean class score on an Intro Biology test gets a C- rather than a B-.

One thing to be wary of -- many students overestimate the extent to which Admissions Committees "correct" for grade inflation/deflation when judging candidates. Oftentimes, your GPA is what it is in the eyes of the AdComs -- labeling schools as having "easier" or "harder" grading is often based in hearsay rather than real data, so it's difficult to take it into account in the decision-making process.

 

[Dr. Meliodas]

For example one lab course at Hopkins has 20 people per lab section. Only 1 person per section will get an A regardless of what your numerical number is. For example I know of some who had a numerical 92 average at the end of the course and that grade wise equated to a B- because of the curve. It is extremely disheartening and sad. A grade of (B-) is a 2.7 🙁

 

[TheVisionary]

I am very curious if there's any sort of numerical database of grade breakdowns for science courses in various undergrads across the country. I've always heard people talk about school x is notorious for grade deflation, but never any numerical evidence. Keep in mind though that grade metrics don't tell you that much on course difficulty if that's what you're worried about. At my large state university most premed courses have 10% or less A's, but it's more due to the massive amounts of "pre-med" students who don't put the work in than actually difficult clases. At least in comparison to schools with more stringent academics like Berkeley or ivy leagues. I guarantee all those people at Harvard getting the "inflated" A's could still easily get A's at the state universities with <10% A's per class

This site is sketchy in terms of some broken sources, but www.gradeinflation.com exists. It's really hard to say if differences in some schools are due to different grading policies or different student bodies. Seeing such a high gpa at harvard and low ones at JHU/Cornell in recent years suggests differences in grading to me though. It's interesting to see that grade inflation over time is pretty consistent, even at state Us and other schools with low average GPAs.

 

[efle]

This site is sketchy in terms of some broken sources, but www.gradeinflation.com exists. It's really hard to say if differences in some schools are due to different grading policies or different student bodies. Seeing such a high gpa at harvard and low ones at JHU/Cornell in recent years suggests differences in grading to me though. It's interesting to see that grade inflation over time is pretty consistent, even at state Us and other schools with low average GPAs.

It's differences in grading. A couple years ago Princeton had to end its anti-inflation policy, which said a class can only award 1/3rd A and another 1/3rd B grades. No doubt they ended it because they were losing too many admitted students to Harvard where over 50% get an A- or A.

Not that I think grade inflation is a bad thing. I think the weed out that occurs at places like Hopkins or Berkeley is completely unnecessary.

Berkeley has a nice example website with grade distributions in classes:

Grades

For example here is their General Chemistr

Being average gets you a 2.7-3.0 sGPA in prereqs.

 

[theKingLT]

Not that I think grade inflation is a bad thing. I think the weed out that occurs at places like Hopkins or Berkeley is completely unnecessary.

Agreed. I had no clue to consider grade deflation/inflation when applying to undergrads, and had I chosen schools differently I could've been very upset to find out I'm competing against some of the best students in the nation for those 10% A's while a couple schools over you just have to be above average. The weed out is only necessary at large schools of lower admissions caliber where there are thousands of new pre-meds every year who would never last through med school. Overall I just think gpa in general is overrated in applications, but ADCOMs also have admissions down to a science, so maybe it's a better predictor than I like to give credit.

 

[TurtleyReady4Med]

It can come in different forms. My university had a lot of it. For example a 93 in some classes was considered a B+. Another way is keeping the averages of tests at a C and having no curves to increase grades.