Caltech, Princeton, and UChicago remained pretty level headed (both faculty and most students) through all of this. Notice that the first two schools are notorious for not having grade inflation.
And the third. I'm a UChicago alum and my premed friends were always complaining about having to compete against beneficiaries of Ivy League grade inflation.
Yes, the grading was brutal. But, when I did manage to earn a good grade, it felt really really good.
Unlike high school where an A meant nothing at all. My dad (Air Force) called such things "PX ribbons", meaning you could buy them at the base exchange. The only one he ever valued was his DFC.
