Can anyone beat my school's grade inflation?

[Cool Hand Luke]

Oh, some high schools offer concurrent enrollment. They let you take college classes during regular class hours.

[TDPookie1]

Wait.  I don't understand the high school thing.  What does that have to do with your college GPA.  Did some of you take classes in high school at a college, or classes offered by the high school that were college credits?  Me no get.   

Calculus was offered in my HS, but it was not required, if you took it, it was still a high school class and counted towards your HS GPA.  I never heard of a HS offering a class in geology or some other college science?   

We were talking about classes we took at colleges while we were still in HS.  These count towards our LSAC GPA because they were college classes; it doesn't matter that we took them in HS.  I didn't get HS credit for them, but I got college credit for them when I started at UCI.

[LaidBackinTexas]

Just to offer a bit of perspective on the grade issue -

I went to LSE in london last year, considered by most to be the #3 school in the UK, equivalent to maybe a Stanford or Chicago - at least in prestige?  Regardless, the level of student there was very comparable to those I have class with at the University of Texas - probably even lower when compared to my honors classes.  Perhaps it is only because so many of the best students out of Texas want to go to UT, but it seems to me that those obsessed with the Ivy/State dichotomy are largely mistaken.  I'm not trying to bash those at Ivy's or good liberal arts colleges, but as far as law school is concerned it is more or less meaningless.

[casino]

does grade inflation really matter?  i mean, even if grades are inflated a bit at ivy league schools, i would have a tough time believing one would be penalized for going to an ivy league.  if anything, i would think any degree of grade inflation would be offset and then some by the quality of the school's reputation. 

if an academically weak college with a poor reputation was notorious for grade inflation, that would obviously be a different issue, but, that is not the case.

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[LaidBackinTexas]

I was just sitting in class thinking that I needed to qualify my statements.  Obviously the average student at an Ivy is better than an average student at a state school - minus perhaps Berkeley, Virginia, and Michigan which I would suggest might be just as good as the Cornell's and Brown's of the world.  But the top students at most state schools would likely equally excel at the top schools. 

Also yes, I sounded a bit defensive about my own background and so exaggerated reality aa bit.  Obviously a 3.5 at Cornell and a 3.5 at Florida will be viewed differently, however a 3.5 at Cornell will almost certainly not beat a 3.9 at Florida, or even a 3.6 or 3.7...

Casino has it right overall " if anything, i would think any degree of grade inflation would be offset and then some by the quality of the school's reputation."

[jeriatric_ceasa]

I was just sitting in class thinking that I needed to qualify my statements.  Obviously the average student at an Ivy is better than an average student at a state school - minus perhaps Berkeley, Virginia, and Michigan which I would suggest might be just as good as the Cornell's and Brown's of the world.  But the top students at most state schools would likely equally excel at the top schools. 

Also yes, I sounded a bit defensive about my own background and so exaggerated reality aa bit.  Obviously a 3.5 at Cornell and a 3.5 at Florida will be viewed differently, however a 3.5 at Cornell will almost certainly not beat a 3.9 at Florida, or even a 3.6 or 3.7...

Casino has it right overall " if anything, i would think any degree of grade inflation would be offset and then some by the quality of the school's reputation."

In general I think I agree with you.  The way I look at it that top few people at state schools could probably do well at any school.  I know a lot of people who for monetary or other reasons went to a worse school than they were qualified to go to.  It's the second tier state students, lets say those in teh top 25% instead of the top 10% where i would expect the dropoff in quality.  So hence I would say a 3.5 at a good school should be looked upon more favorably than 3.5 at a lesser school, but not more favorably than a 3.8 at a lesser school.   

[M2]

I dont think this is necessarily true...
A lot of people get into "good" schools like Harvard based on family status and wealth alone...

As for the average student...im not really sure.
The point is though that because of grade inflation there is no way to find out.

For example...some top tier schools do not give Ds and Fs... So maybe the average C student at one of those schools isn't as bright as the average C student at a "regular" school. At aregular school that same student could be a D or F student.

[jeriatric_ceasa]

What schools dont give D's or F's?  I had never heard that.  I've only heard of schools that allow you to replace those sorts of grades if you retake a course. 

Yeah, legacy admits piss me off.  The system is stupid and should be abolished.

Maybe its a bit naive, but i like to think that high school performance in some way correlates with college performance.  If that were true than the average student at a "better" school would almost certainly be better than the average student at a "lesser" school.

I look at things more with percentiles than with exact grades as a way of factoring out grade inflation.

PS...I would say a "C" student at a "good" school is probably either a total jerkoff or an idiot.

[casino]

the really smart kids in high school normally were really smart kids in college.

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[TDPookie1]

What schools dont give D's or F's?  I had never heard that.  I've only heard of schools that allow you to replace those sorts of grades if you retake a course. 

Yeah, legacy admits piss me off.  The system is stupid and should be abolished.

Maybe its a bit naive, but i like to think that high school performance in some way correlates with college performance.  If that were true than the average student at a "better" school would almost certainly be better than the average student at a "lesser" school.

I look at things more with percentiles than with exact grades as a way of factoring out grade inflation.

PS...I would say a "C" student at a "good" school is probably either a total jerkoff or an idiot.

I agree re percentiles, but you kind of hit a similar problem:  My GPA is 93rd percentile for my school (UCI).  Another LSDer had a 3.97, and that was 93rd percentile at her school (she didn't say which school it is).  It's hard to compare those two.  Sure, there seems to be grade inflation at her school.  But just as we've said before, she probably goes to a top quality school, so the 93% of people that have a GPA lower than hers at her school are overall not the same as the 93% with lower GPAs at my school.  Granted you have legacy admits at Harvard and such, but there are also people who got in on their own merits.  And among legacy admits, at least some of them are probably bright enough to be there as well, especially since they might have gone to all the best prep schools on their way to Harvard.

My solution: everyone should just go to the same school.  That way it'll be easy to compare our GPAs.