The New Grade Inflation: Amherst & Berkeley

Maybe not, but it looks like some are more costly than others. “Data acquired through a public records request of the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education show that from 2010 to 2016, non-resident students accepted to the Amherst campus had lower high school grade point averages (GPAs) and SAT scores than their in-state counterparts,” the Pioneer Institute announced today. “For the fall of 2016, in-state accepted student GPA and SAT averages were 3.97 and 1265, respectively, compared to 3.78 and 1242 for those from outside Massachusetts.’

“In 2014, UMass established a target of one-quarter of undergraduate students on the Amherst campus being from out of state by the fall of 2017. By the fall of 2016, 26.4 percent of entering freshmen were non-resident students.”

“UMass isn’t the only state university system dealing with the appeal of attracting higher numbers of non-resident students who pay more to attend. A state audit that revealed that the average high school GPA of students accepted to the University of California’s flagship Berkeley campus was lower for out-of-state than in-state students. The university can now accept non-residents if their academic qualifications are higher than the average of accepted resident students.”

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