Grade inflation at colleges

[Anonymous]

Wow. Interesting read. http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/the-history-of-college-grade-inflation/

[Anonymous]

A friend told me she was at a presentation at her high school for parents and students who are interested in college. Being in Fairfax County, it was enthusiastically attended. The principal held up a poster with "the scarriest thing imagineable" on it, the letter "C". The parents all nervously chuckled, the kids were smiling. The principal said, "people, this is AVERAGE, and it's OKAY". It has come to the point that getting a C is essentially failing, at least this is what parents, kids, and colleges are seeming to believe. It's sad. Not everyone can be excellent or above average.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone can be excellent or above average.

Well, apparently almost 80% of college students can be ... at least according to the 40-60 year-old professors grading them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A friend told me she was at a presentation at her high school for parents and students who are interested in college. Being in Fairfax County, it was enthusiastically attended. The principal held up a poster with "the scarriest thing imagineable" on it, the letter "C". The parents all nervously chuckled, the kids were smiling. The principal said, "people, this is AVERAGE, and it's OKAY". It has come to the point that getting a C is essentially failing, at least this is what parents, kids, and colleges are seeming to believe. It's sad. Not everyone can be excellent or above average.

A 3.4 GPA from competitive FCPS and good SAT/AP scores, AP classes, tons of extras, will get you into GMU in VA at best (and GMU/CNU/VCU are getting harder and harder to get into). So C's on a report card (as it affects your GPA) will weigh heavily in your college choices. Not, not everyone can be excellent or above average, but adjust your college admission expectations as well. (University of Delaware, for one, had extra space on its application for applicants to explain any C's).

[Anonymous]

Geez, this is like steroids and sports or cheating and academics. It is becoming the norm. The bubble will burst soon and ruin it for everyone.

[Anonymous]

The sad thing for our kids now is that C's were good enough for UVa a generation ago. My neighbor went there and got in with a 2.3 in the mid-1970's. He had a 1400 on his SATs.

[Anonymous]

Check out the first graph to see where the shifts occurred. B grades have remained relatively constant over time. This first big shift occurred in the 1966-74 period (40 yrs ago!) when A and C grades basically swapped position. And then the proportion of A and C grades remained relatively constant for 25 years, until the mid-1990s when the proportion of A grades began creeping up a bit more (at the expense of C grades). So while it's amazing to see that 75+% of college students are getting A and B grades, don't put the blame on recent generations. It really looks like this shift began when the Baby Boomers were in college in the late 60s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A friend told me she was at a presentation at her high school for parents and students who are interested in college. Being in Fairfax County, it was enthusiastically attended. The principal held up a poster with "the scarriest thing imagineable" on it, the letter "C". The parents all nervously chuckled, the kids were smiling. The principal said, "people, this is AVERAGE, and it's OKAY". It has come to the point that getting a C is essentially failing, at least this is what parents, kids, and colleges are seeming to believe. It's sad. Not everyone can be excellent or above average.

A 3.4 GPA from competitive FCPS and good SAT/AP scores, AP classes, tons of extras, will get you into GMU in VA at best (and GMU/CNU/VCU are getting harder and harder to get into). So C's on a report card (as it affects your GPA) will weigh heavily in your college choices. Not, not everyone can be excellent or above average, but adjust your college admission expectations as well. (University of Delaware, for one, had extra space on its application for applicants to explain any C's).

Very accurate assessment. A top 25 school requires an A- average and a 2100 SAT. A top 10 school requires a solid A average and a 2300 SAT at a minimum.

[Anonymous]

The sad thing for our kids now is that C's were good enough for UVa a generation ago. My neighbor went there and got in with a 2.3 in the mid-1970's. He had a 1400 on his SATs.

A 1400 back then was really good -- because there were only two scores instead of three (no writing section). That would be the equivalent of a 2100 today, assuming the student also got a 700 on the writing section. And that's not even accounting for the "grade inflation" that's occurred in the SAT. A 1400 back then is probably more like a 2200 or 2300 today.