4 ms·

If you ever want to go to e.g. law school, yes it does. Part of the reason for grade inflation is that it helps with those sorts of admissions down-the-line. U

by blagie 4y ago

If you ever want to go to e.g. law school, yes it does. Part of the reason for grade inflation is that it helps with those sorts of admissions down-the-line. US News looks at median GPA when evaluating law schools, which has a bunch of trickle-down effects, one of the major ones being that law schools weigh GPA very strongly. That problem is not exclusive to law schools.

sandworm101 4y ago
>> Law schools weigh GPA very strongly. They say that, but they don't. When someone is rejected they will say it was because of a low GPA. But people are accepted based on their LSAT scores. Do well on the LSAT and your undergrad GPA is almost meaningless.
- lkfsfldkjfslk 4y ago
  During my three years of working in law school admissions, GPA was a primary factor at my school and all the peer schools I knew about. Each school would set a target median LSAT and GPA for the year's class because they were weighted heavily in the US News rankings. Applicants with both scores at or above the target median would get scholarships, applicants with one number at or above the median would be presumptively admitted, diverse applicants with solid numbers were admitted to fill out the class once LSAT and GPA were set, and then there would be a half-dozen or fewer judges' kids, politicians' kids, etc.
  - blagie 4y ago
    <-- This is exactly the process. I've seen scatter plots of LSAT and GPA for admitted students to many law schools, and discussed the process with people in admissions. I get the comments about better processes for admitting better / more diverse / healthier / whatever students, and it's trivial to come with them, but so long as US News wags the dog, that ain't happening. Corollary: If your LSAT score is good enough, GPA is irrelevant for admissions. If your GPA is good enough, LSAT is irrelevant for admissions. Both need to be high for scholarships.
1980phipsi 4y ago
Law school or really any graduate school. It's kind of laughable that we still rely on GPAs. The solution would be to convert college grades into a kind of item response theory measure of fitness for each student (equivalent to like the degree of difficulty of test questions). You could do it within a school so that you can create a better measure of ability that controls for difficulty of majors or individual classes. You could create one nationally as well, though getting data combined together would be a pain. Something like SAT/ACT/GRE scores might help when comparing between schools. Or grades of students who transfer schools.

by blagie 4y ago

sandworm101 4y ago

>> Law schools weigh GPA very strongly. They say that, but they don't. When someone is rejected they will say it was because of a low GPA. But people are accepted based on their LSAT scores. Do well on the LSAT and your undergrad GPA is almost meaningless.

lkfsfldkjfslk 4y ago
During my three years of working in law school admissions, GPA was a primary factor at my school and all the peer schools I knew about. Each school would set a target median LSAT and GPA for the year's class because they were weighted heavily in the US News rankings. Applicants with both scores at or above the target median would get scholarships, applicants with one number at or above the median would be presumptively admitted, diverse applicants with solid numbers were admitted to fill out the class once LSAT and GPA were set, and then there would be a half-dozen or fewer judges' kids, politicians' kids, etc.
- blagie 4y ago
  <-- This is exactly the process. I've seen scatter plots of LSAT and GPA for admitted students to many law schools, and discussed the process with people in admissions. I get the comments about better processes for admitting better / more diverse / healthier / whatever students, and it's trivial to come with them, but so long as US News wags the dog, that ain't happening. Corollary: If your LSAT score is good enough, GPA is irrelevant for admissions. If your GPA is good enough, LSAT is irrelevant for admissions. Both need to be high for scholarships.

1980phipsi 4y ago

Law school or really any graduate school. It's kind of laughable that we still rely on GPAs. The solution would be to convert college grades into a kind of item response theory measure of fitness for each student (equivalent to like the degree of difficulty of test questions). You could do it within a school so that you can create a better measure of ability that controls for difficulty of majors or individual classes. You could create one nationally as well, though getting data combined together would be a pain. Something like SAT/ACT/GRE scores might help when comparing between schools. Or grades of students who transfer schools.