Originally Posted by Wren
has anyone done a study that if your grades are slightly on the lower side for top schools, so you go to a state school, are the undergrad grades better and therefore get into a better grad school?
Grading may be easier at private schools on average:

Want a Higher G.P.A.? Go to a Private College
BY CATHERINE RAMPELL
New York Times
APRIL 19, 2010

Over the last 50 years, college grade-point averages have risen about 0.1 points per decade, with private schools fueling the most grade inflation, a recent study finds.

The study, by Stuart Rojstaczer and Christopher Healy, uses historical data from 80 four-year colleges and universities. It finds that G.P.A.’s have risen from a national average of 2.52 in the 1950s to about 3.11 by the middle of the last decade.

For the first half of the 20th century, grading at private schools and public schools rose more or less in tandem. But starting in the 1950s, grading at public and private schools began to diverge. Students at private schools started receiving significantly higher grades than those received by their equally-qualified peers — based on SAT scores and other measures — at public schools.

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