Does percentile matter (or do schools only care about absolute GPA)?

Some schools tend to have crazy grade inflation (where the average is close to 3.6) and others tend to have the average closer to 3.0.

Does the percentile matter (say top 20%)? If so, is there a place to put this on the app?

Won't be applying for b-schools until a few years from now - but just curious.

 

Well, if you are coming from a US school, chances are the AdCom knows more or less (more or less!) how the grading system works at your school. But you definitely can and should use percentile to your advantage, if you have something impressive. I mean if your 3.3 translates into 95th percentile (I have no idea where this could be true, but say hypothetically), the Adcom will not likely know that, so it's always helpful to give them a small reminder.

 

Thanks for replying, Admissionado! Do adcoms actually factor in the level of grade inflation at different colleges? Apparently there is a 0.15 percentage point difference between the average GPA at Michigan and Emory (source: http://www.gradeinflation.com/ ). Same case for UVA, UCLA and Berkeley.

Also, at least at my school (top 10-15) - the average GPA varies widely among majors (some are close to 3.0 while others are close to 3.8).

Just wondering if this is considered or not (perhaps some sort of normalization?).

 

Well, it's not like Adcoms have a list of each average at each school in each department. But yes they do know more or less which schools grade hard, and which departments are tougher. But don;t write stuff in your essays like "Aha! at my school the average is .15 points lower, which means I'm smarter than people at school X" :) It looks nitpicky... But if your percentage is fantastic, or your ranking, then yes, by all means...

 

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