What do you think about grade deflation and grading on a curve at colleges?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will discourage my kids from going to schools with grade deflation if they are interested in med school. My cousin and his best friend were both in the top 10 of students at their high school and both had SAT scores over 1500. My cousin got into Princeton but knew he wanted to go to medical school so went to Brown, while his friend chose Princeton. Cousin got straight A's at brown, went to med school and is now a doctor. His friend struggled to get B's in pre-med at Princeton and realized his gpa was too low to apply to med school. I think it was around 3.4. Cousin said his friend told him he regretted going to Princeton.

One of my D’s pre-med classmate transferred to Caltech. After Caltech did a number on her GPA, she’s no longer considering medical school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will discourage my kids from going to schools with grade deflation if they are interested in med school. My cousin and his best friend were both in the top 10 of students at their high school and both had SAT scores over 1500. My cousin got into Princeton but knew he wanted to go to medical school so went to Brown, while his friend chose Princeton. Cousin got straight A's at brown, went to med school and is now a doctor. His friend struggled to get B's in pre-med at Princeton and realized his gpa was too low to apply to med school. I think it was around 3.4. Cousin said his friend told him he regretted going to Princeton.

One of my D’s pre-med classmate transferred to Caltech. After Caltech did a number on her GPA, she’s no longer considering medical school.

Interesting. She could’ve gone to a college that literally no one has ever heard of and gone to med school (I know people who went that route).

[Anonymous]

2.5 was the established, and stated, median for each and every business prerequisite in order to apply to the major. Entirely based on the where a student fell on the curve, not on mastery of the material.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2.5 was the established, and stated, median for each and every business prerequisite in order to apply to the major. Entirely based on the where a student fell on the curve, not on mastery of the material.

My college had one-door entry, and you could major in whatever you wanted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Cornell is known for low grades. They put the class average on transcripts for reference. It's fine but did take my straight A MCPS kid a semester to get over her gpa. She knew the straight As were inflated.

Cornell needs low gpa cuz it accepts HS students in the top 1-10% range. Typical ivies accept top 1-2% so these schools don’t need to deflate. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia are already academic performers.

None of the ivys have an acceptance rate that high but even discounting that I have no idea why you think that means they need to deflate grades.

https://www.thoughtco.com/ivy-league-schools-class-of-2020-4122267

Not talking acceptance rate. I am talking HS ranking from which students are selected. Cornell selects top 1-10% HS kids. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia probably accept top 1-2% HS kids in the country. With H, Y, P, C, students are presumed to be top students no matter what their college GPA is. Not so with Cornell. This could be one reason why they need to show the “rigor” of their GPA.

+1

So how does that work when Iowa State accepts the top 70% of students (making that up). Do you think the average grades there should be a D? Some departments (like Comp Sci) at Cornell are ranked higher than Harvard Yale Columbia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Needed big time. Medicore/average work is a C+/-.

Back when I was in high school, our math teacher graded in a brutal 7 point scale. 93 was an A-. You didn't get an A+ unless you got above abut a 97. You were already a D student at 70. Grade inflaltion is the single biggest problem in universities today. It is time we go back to demanding excellence. Hardwork is nice, but students need to be taught that that isn't enough. Hardwork also needs to be accurate and precise. If someone works hard but constantly makes mistakes, we shouldn't reward them for it.

The scale you are talking about it widely used

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cornell is known for low grades. They put the class average on transcripts for reference. It's fine but did take my straight A MCPS kid a semester to get over her gpa. She knew the straight As were inflated.

Cornell needs low gpa cuz it accepts HS students in the top 1-10% range. Typical ivies accept top 1-2% so these schools don’t need to deflate. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia are already academic performers.

None of the ivys have an acceptance rate that high but even discounting that I have no idea why you think that means they need to deflate grades.

https://www.thoughtco.com/ivy-league-schools-class-of-2020-4122267

Not talking acceptance rate. I am talking HS ranking from which students are selected. Cornell selects top 1-10% HS kids. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia probably accept top 1-2% HS kids in the country. With H, Y, P, C, students are presumed to be top students no matter what their college GPA is. Not so with Cornell. This could be one reason why they need to show the “rigor” of their GPA.

+1

So how does that work when Iowa State accepts the top 70% of students (making that up). Do you think the average grades there should be a D? Some departments (like Comp Sci) at Cornell are ranked higher than Harvard Yale Columbia.

I am talking generally speaking. I am pretty sure Cornell Hotel hospitality major ranks higher than CalTech or MIT’s hotel hospitality. Big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Needed big time. Medicore/average work is a C+/-.

Back when I was in high school, our math teacher graded in a brutal 7 point scale. 93 was an A-. You didn't get an A+ unless you got above abut a 97. You were already a D student at 70. Grade inflaltion is the single biggest problem in universities today. It is time we go back to demanding excellence. Hardwork is nice, but students need to be taught that that isn't enough. Hardwork also needs to be accurate and precise. If someone works hard but constantly makes mistakes, we shouldn't reward them for it.

The scale you are talking about it widely used

No it's not. 10 point is frequently used. Many departments also make the curve scaled to a B/B-. Pure grade inflation.

[Anonymous]

Everyone on this thread thinks their grading was so so so brutal and everyone else’s is bad!

[Anonymous]

In the 1990s, I went to a school where a C was still the average. I only knew a few people who had a 3.5 or 3.6. Now these kids all have 3.8 or 3.9s, at least a 3.7. I once looked at the average gpas at a few middle tier medical schools and even there the average gpas of accepted students were like 3.7, which means that half if the students have over this!!! Do professors give out As like gumballs now or what is going on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the 1990s, I went to a school where a C was still the average. I only knew a few people who had a 3.5 or 3.6. Now these kids all have 3.8 or 3.9s, at least a 3.7. I once looked at the average gpas at a few middle tier medical schools and even there the average gpas of accepted students were like 3.7, which means that half if the students have over this!!! Do professors give out As like gumballs now or what is going on?

Yes. Exactly. No one can handle the fact that they're a C student. Your average, run of the mill student is a C student. These days, average has been scaled up to a B/B-. Students at the university level lose their minds when they don't get an A for the first time in their lives when they take a course with zero grade inflation.

[Anonymous]

I think grade deflation has everything to do with US News rankings. All schools want the highest GPAs and highest test scores. Same for grad school. Until the universities and grad schools release the grip of USNWP, students should just sit tight and enjoy the easy ride.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the 1990s, I went to a school where a C was still the average. I only knew a few people who had a 3.5 or 3.6. Now these kids all have 3.8 or 3.9s, at least a 3.7. I once looked at the average gpas at a few middle tier medical schools and even there the average gpas of accepted students were like 3.7, which means that half if the students have over this!!! Do professors give out As like gumballs now or what is going on?

Yes. Exactly. No one can handle the fact that they're a C student. Your average, run of the mill student is a C student. These days, average has been scaled up to a B/B-. Students at the university level lose their minds when they don't get an A for the first time in their lives when they take a course with zero grade inflation.

Yes, how in the F are thousands of students pulling 3.8s when they have to take Organic Chemistry, physics, and biochem in addition to math and humanities courses? Do we really have this many well-rounded geniuses in our midst?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think grade deflation has everything to do with US News rankings. All schools want the highest GPAs and highest test scores. Same for grad school. Until the universities and grad schools release the grip of USNWP, students should just sit tight and enjoy the easy ride.

Except college grades are not factored into USN rankings, so your point is invalid.

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/how-us-news-calculated-the-rankings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think grade deflation has everything to do with US News rankings. All schools want the highest GPAs and highest test scores. Same for grad school. Until the universities and grad schools release the grip of USNWP, students should just sit tight and enjoy the easy ride.

I think there are other factors. As tuition rose over the years to $$80,000+ per year, education is now consumer driven. And good education is no longer the province of Ivy plus it once was. Students can get the same level of education, if not better, at SLACs. As education became consumer driven, students and parents slowly demanded better “service” from colleges and universities. Some colleges and universities even offer hotel service with Club Med amenities. It’s not surprising grades have crept up over the years.