Hopkins or Cornell

[Anonymous]

Admitted to Johns Hopkins CAS and Cornell CALS. Both schools are strong options for premed, but which one is more GPA friendly and less likely being weed out.

[Anonymous]

Stupid basis for choosing.

[Anonymous]

They are really different schools, despite both being excellent. Humans learn best, and get the best grades when they are happy and engaged with their community. Send your kid to the one where they think they will find "their people" and be happy.

[Anonymous]

Hopkins has plenty grade inflation now.

Cornell grade deflation is really really bad. Intro courses (biology, gen chemistry) are large classes and curved to a C+. Weed out tons of premed each year even before Orgo.

[Anonymous]

Choose Hopkins. Has the med school about 20min away, has smaller classes, much less competition for getting research spots and getting to know professors.

Plus CALS at Cornell is considered by others at cornell as the public school, easier to get into, looked down on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hopkins has plenty grade inflation now.

Cornell grade deflation is really really bad. Intro courses (biology, gen chemistry) are large classes and curved to a C+. Weed out tons of premed each year even before Orgo.

This is not true. At all. Faculty is not allowed to give half the class Cs. There are specific restrictions on the % of Cs. The Cornell stem intro courses are curved to a B. (Hopkins is around B+). The curves get more friendly in second year. The median Cornell GPA is around 3.6 by the end of 4 yrs. Mean or average is 3.44 based on the recent article in the paper but the median is 3.6.

[Anonymous]

DC's friend is at Cornell. Grade deflation is very real, intended to weed out any popular professional track. Straight-A students at high school often shocked with their first Cs and Ds in their life.

[Anonymous]

Hopkins!

The curves at Hopkins are much easier. You only need 85 to get an A in orgo. Hopkins alos provides tons of peer tutoring programs like pilot and learning den to help you succeed.

Baltimore is a much nicer place too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Choose Hopkins. Has the med school about 20min away, has smaller classes, much less competition for getting research spots and getting to know professors.

Plus CALS at Cornell is considered by others at cornell as the public school, easier to get into, looked down on.

Um, no. I mean I guess if you are the kind of person who likes looking down on others, maybe you seize on the excuse that it's marginally easier to get into the Ag school than A&S and engineering to feel superior, but none of the A&S students/grads in my family ever felt that way. CALS offers lots of majors not offered elsewhere in the University (or at many other elite schools for that matter). Someone interested in being a vet or the very many students from farming families there are of course going to choose CALS. And for those with overlap (like pre-med), why would anyone from NYS want to pay tens of thousands of extra dollars to attend A&S over CALS?

But to weigh in on OP's question: the schools are so, so different and predicting a student's academic success (let alone whether they even will stay pre-med) so, so hard that it really doesn't seem like grade inflation or not should be remotely near the top of one's determining factors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopkins has plenty grade inflation now.

Cornell grade deflation is really really bad. Intro courses (biology, gen chemistry) are large classes and curved to a C+. Weed out tons of premed each year even before Orgo.

This is not true. At all. Faculty is not allowed to give half the class Cs. There are specific restrictions on the % of Cs. The Cornell stem intro courses are curved to a B. (Hopkins is around B+). The curves get more friendly in second year. The median Cornell GPA is around 3.6 by the end of 4 yrs. Mean or average is 3.44 based on the recent article in the paper but the median is 3.6.

Agree. My daughter is there. There is SO MUCH MISINFORMATION on this forum that on topics I'm not familiar with, I'm likely going to be duped by posters who have ulterior motives (like having kids on Cornell waitlist). Sheesh...

[Anonymous]

Engineering is known for harsh grading but DD in cas and intro bio is curved around b/b+ (she got a+ so it’s possible to do well). Hasn’t taken chem which is notoriously tough but hears class is curved around b.

While grade deflation is consideration (and I would hardly call b’s deflation), agree with other posters who recommend going where your kid will be happiest and thrive. Medicine is a long, hard path and learning to embrace challenges is an important mindset.

[Anonymous]

Agree with the PPs that relative grade deflation/inflation should not be a consideration given the significant differences between the schools (size, weather, location, setting, greek life, sports, etc.). Your kid will get better grades if the fit is better.
For what its worth, my pre-med kid just graduated Cornell CAS a semester early with above a 4.0 (Cornell gives some A+ grades) -- so it is definitely possible to navigate the pre-med scene at Cornell.

[Anonymous]

Hopkins average GPA is 3.7, 3.8. For premed, this is a lot more friendly. They don't intend to weed out anyone.

[Anonymous]

Happy to hear this about both schools that kids are navigating the grading curves. Since it has been determined that kids do best where they are happiest, can you share what it is about Cornell or Hopkins that makes your kid happy ? Thinking of both for my DC, current junior that wants a school string in both STEM and Humanities ( if DC can get in)

[Anonymous]

(Frothing at mouth) But, but, but one’s an IVY!