Reply to What’s wrong with William & Mary?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Our DD likes the vibe and nerdiness of W&M and it would be a good fit for her, but she want to do pre-health and needs a great GPA. W&M is probably too much of a grind to maintain a 3.5+ she'd need for med school. [/quote]

W&M actually has quite high average GPAs for a public school.  You can see data at gradeinflation.com .  W&M average was 3.33 in 2014.  In comparison, UVA was 3.32 in 2013, and VT was 3.15 in 2015.  Grades tend to go up over time so could be higher now.[/quote]

Yes, but it's really hard to get those high grades. Whereas in many schools regularly attending and doing all your work in most classes (non-STEM) might get you a low B, that is not the case at W&M. Students study a lot to get that 3.33 average (I think that's still the average). They really do give C's and D's to kids who complete all the work.  And when you figure at both W&M and UVA nearly all the students there have weighted HS GPAS above 4.0 and SATs in the top 10% of their class, some of the really strong students work their best and still won't make the grade.  There are fewer people who are slacking off to fill up the low end of the curve at W&M.  So you can't just go by average GPA and assume it's inflation.  Pre-med students are wise not to just investigate average GPA but what are the culture/practice/study habits of those who get below the average GPA at a school.[/quote]

Inflation is simply whether average grades are going up over time, and they are at most universities.  gradeinflation.com shows that.  What it also shows is that grades tend to be highest at the most selective schools, particularly selective privates.  W&M and UVA at 3.33 and 3.32 respectively are pretty close to if not higher than comparable schools like UCLA (3.27), Berkeley (3.29), Michigan (3.37), North Carolina (3.23), and Georgia Tech (3.25).   Highest tends to be schools like Brown at 3.63 (in 2012).

You are going to have to work hard in pre-med no matter where you go.   You should look for places where you feel comfortable, the atmosphere isn't cut-throat, and you feel comfortable with the recommendation policy.  Some schools do that by committee.  You can probably actually correspond with the pre-med advisors at some schools to see what they offer.  Schools have different ways of describing their medical school admit rates, so take those with a grain of salt.[/quote]

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