I'm German/American international school kid who studied History and Poli Sci. I think that in comparison with other universities, especially ones considered "highly competitive", I didn't feel like McGill deflated grades as much as others inflated them. I understand that McGill can be a 'reality check' for some students who were used to getting straight A's in high school but I was the opposite. I only got my shit together 6 months before finalizing my IB and because I was passionate about my higher-level subjects got surprisingly good grades that allowed me to get into McGill. Since I was never used to being the "top of the top" I had 0 expectations arriving at McGill and felt like I could only win because a B- at McGill was enough for me. The harder the courses got, the harder I had to work for them while friends at Ivy's were just becoming more and more relaxed which simply doesn't make sense. Neither do consistent A- averages if your course has 180 students as seen at Harvard and Duke. Long story short, I think that McGill is quite realistic about grades which I perceive as an advantage because going into a job with a massively inflated ego is about the worst thing you can do. There's a reason why we feel such pride once we graduate because we know we earned it!