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WE:General Management (Education)
Re: Grade inflation
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13 Nov 2011, 16:03
Thanks "hello"! Your answer was helpful. The signaling thing is certainly true, especially in an environment of limited information. You surely have more certainty in what you're getting with an applicant from an Ivy League school than someone from a lower-ranked school... and in a situation of asymmetric information, that means a lot.
My question is a bit more nuanced though - what if the applicant has very strong numbers (GPA/GMAT) in a challenging major from a state school? Then is the 'state school' still a negative thing? The reason I ask this is because every public school has its small group of students who did very well in high school (GPA/SAT, activities, etc.) but came to the state school because of financial reasons. For example, I shared an apt with 6 students at a state school, all of whom were upwards of 1550 on the SAT and had turned down Princeton, Penn, and Columbia, because they liked the fact that they essentially got full-ride at the state school.
So, I agree with the overall point - a given student from an Ivy will be stronger than a student from a public university. My question is though, if everything else is strong (I'm saying 3.9+, 750+, strong work ex at blue chip places, for example), is the state school still seen as a blemish on the record?