Want a higher GPA? Go to a private university.

[AOII Angel]

One of the things that no one has noticed in the article, however, is that they took into account SAT scores. They compared equivalent students from public and private schools by SAT scores. These students had statistically significant differences in their GPAs between public and private universities. Individual students may vary, but when you compare cohorts, this adds a lot of weight to this evidence.

[agzg]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

One of the things that no one has noticed in the article, however, is that they took into account SAT scores. They compared equivalent students from public and private schools by SAT scores. These students had statistically significant differences in their GPAs between public and private universities. Individual students may vary, but when you compare cohorts, this adds a lot of weight to this evidence.

I don't think so. Anecdotally, I think everyone knows that slacker who had really great SAT scores but just didn't care enough to do the work required for good grades in college. Or that student that didn't do so great on the SAT but aced the ACT, or didn't do great on either but worked their tail off for the grades they recieved.

I'm not saying grade inflation doesn't occur at both, but I had similar grades at both my private college undergraduate and public college grad school, and I busted my butt for all of them. There was a mixed bag between people that had undergrad from private and public schools and we all seemed to be pretty equal among us. Of course, I don't know what their grades were in undergrad.

Also, if you don't do well on the entrance testing for many grad and post-grad schools, you're still not going to get in, especially in highly specialized professional situations like Law School or Med School. The GRE and MCAT and LSAT aren't just there to look pretty.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by agzg

I don't think so. Anecdotally, I think everyone knows that slacker who had really great SAT scores but just didn't care enough to do the work required for good grades in college. Or that student that didn't do so great on the SAT but aced the ACT, or didn't do great on either but worked their tail off for the grades they recieved.

I'm not saying grade inflation doesn't occur at both, but I had similar grades at both my private college undergraduate and public college grad school, and I busted my butt for all of them. There was a mixed bag between people that had undergrad from private and public schools and we all seemed to be pretty equal among us. Of course, I don't know what their grades were in undergrad.

Also, if you don't do well on the entrance testing for many grad and post-grad schools, you're still not going to get in, especially in highly specialized professional situations like Law School or Med School. The GRE and MCAT and LSAT aren't just there to look pretty.

That's why anecdotal stories don't mean much. If you look at a cohort of students with the same SAT scores who go to different private or public universities, they tend to have statistically similar GPAs across the public universities and higher across the private universities. That is why they use the SAT scores as a control. It equalizes the students. With a large group of students, these outliers (ie. the slacker with a great SAT score, the obsessive studier who didn't do so well on the SAT) equal out. That's why they don't look at individual students.