Quote:
Originally posted by: Mavdog
While I believe that it is almost impossible to not be intelligent and be successful in school, it's all too common for someone intelligent not showing success in the classroom.
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I agree with you for the most part about the relationship between intelligence and GPA. I will say, however, that GPA when used across schools or even disciplines in the same school becomes irrelevant. Grade inflation is so prevelant in liberal arts and many of the best institutions.
I attend the University of Pennsylvania, which most people probably haven't heard of, or think 'penn state'. It's a lesser known member of the Ivy League ranked #4 nationally as recently as this year (U.S. News). What I'm trying to show is that many of my friends majoring in history/etc... experience large amounts of grade inflation.... it is possible for every kid in those classes to get an A on their paper (which I believe is the best way but...). Combine this with the grade inflation and everybody has a very pretty 3.x or higher GPA.
Now let's move to my domain: the engineering school. Here certain number of C's, D's, and F's must find their way into the grade book (according to grading policies) and we are all graded against one another. Take the average -> set it to a C -> hand out grades according to your position above or below... if a classmate performs poorly, that's good news for me!
My point (after talking about nothing for 15 min) is that GPA MEANS NOTHING. Especially at an Ivy League where you're not majoring in Math/Science. The fact that Bush received low marks at Yale is alarming to me as a conservative, but let's not take that and compare to somebody else - it's irrelevant.
- Brian
[edit] B.C. is by no means a 2nd tier institution. Comparing academic achievement is certainly a difficult task. One would like to compare school acceptances and performance there, but so many factors (family connections etc...) can nullify all of that information.