80% Yale Grades A & A-

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
CS and Engineering is the new Ivy

CS and Engineering hand out Cs though. Weed out classes are real!

Primary reasons for weed-out courses (in no particular order and often a combination of several reasons):

1) STEM professors are more focused on research and are not awarded for the quality of their teaching.
2) Need to limit the number of majors in the department due to resources such as classroom/lab space, faculty, etc.
3) STEM professors sometimes make entry-level classes more difficult, i.e., teaching at a graduate level.
4) Early elimination of students who will eventually fail and, therefore, less likely to graduate on time (by six years) or drop out.
5) Need for students to master the material before moving to upper-division courses.

-- STEM dept chair

^This. Starting in August 2024, UMDCP will cut the number of students in CS to less than half the current enrollment, probably due to es such as classroom/lab space, faculty, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This. They got straight As in high school. Why would you expect them to be getting Bs and Cs in college?

Well, everyone who is a starting quarterback in HS is a good athlete but 95% of them will not make the college football roster. College should be the same way.

95% of great students don't get into Yale. Yale knows that grad schools and employers care about GPAs and they aren't about to hamstring their own students. People have said the hardest part is getting in for decades now and it's still true.

Employers do NOT care about GPAs, at least in SWE. They care more about AWS/Azure/Cybersecurity certifications than a degree from Yale.

Do you think Yale grads are competing for jobs were employers care about cyber security certifications? NOVA has classes offering AWS and azure certifications for 1k a piece. Do you really think that a CS major coming out of Yale is going for the same jobs that a kid with a high school diploma and an azure certification can land?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This. They got straight As in high school. Why would you expect them to be getting Bs and Cs in college?

Well, everyone who is a starting quarterback in HS is a good athlete but 95% of them will not make the college football roster. College should be the same way.

95% of great students don't get into Yale. Yale knows that grad schools and employers care about GPAs and they aren't about to hamstring their own students. People have said the hardest part is getting in for decades now and it's still true.

Employers do NOT care about GPAs, at least in SWE. They care more about AWS/Azure/Cybersecurity certifications than a degree from Yale.

Do you think Yale grads are competing for jobs were employers care about cyber security certifications? NOVA has classes offering AWS and azure certifications for 1k a piece. Do you really think that a CS major coming out of Yale is going for the same jobs that a kid with a high school diploma and an azure certification can land?

Well I see quite a few Yale CS grads working at AWS and Azure in SWE along side with CS grads from UVA, VATech and GMU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If these students are so excellent, they should be able to handle coursework that challenges *them.* Not just coursework that would be challenging to an average hs graduate, but something that actually raises the bar a bit instead of giving out a participation trophy.

How do you know they aren't? Have you seen Yale coursework and work product that indicates that it isn't challenging and that the grades aren't earned? Why does it surprise you that the best students in high school are still great students in college?

The number #1 college football team, U. of Michigan, has many talented players but less than 5% of them can play in the NFL. You can argue that Yale should operate the same way in terms of grading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This isn't 1980 anymore. Most smart and talented kids go into STEM majors - mechanical engineering, computer science, neuroscience, biochemistry, applied mathematics, earth science, nanotechnology. Or a harder social science like economics. Most of these majors have introductory courses that are graded on a curve. No one in these majors is graduating with a 3.7.

Harvard, Yale, and Brown are soft schools. And they have been for a long time. The hardest thing about these schools is getting in. None of them excel in STEM fields, certainly not at the undergrad level. When it comes to brain power, I'm pretty confident the students at Purdue and Georgia Tech blow away the film studies majors at Yale.

Oh give it a frickin' rest. I went into Biochem as a female in the 80s, from a STEM family. I am not so impressed by all the STEM worship, having worked with so many that have ZERO communication skills, no EQ and can't write.

I also have two sons that do EQUALLY as well in math/science and English/history/humanities. One was asked to bump up to Calc early--and guess what? he has a complete and total love of history/international relations/policy, etc. He took a few college courses in it over high school summers--all while scoring 5s in every single Science and math AP exam, As in all those classes and near perfect math on SAT and 36 in ACT Sci/Math.

The smartest kids excel in ALL subjects and go where they have a passion.

I have a similar kid (through HS at least) and I, too, don’t get the stem worship. My kid is only a first year, but he loves and is challenged by his college poli sci and IR classes, and finds his linear algebra class easy and boring. I don’t care whether he majors in math or political science, and don’t view one major easier or harder than the other.

+1 some of our greatest thinkers, war strategist were humanities majors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If these students are so excellent, they should be able to handle coursework that challenges *them.* Not just coursework that would be challenging to an average hs graduate, but something that actually raises the bar a bit instead of giving out a participation trophy.

How do you know they aren't? Have you seen Yale coursework and work product that indicates that it isn't challenging and that the grades aren't earned? Why does it surprise you that the best students in high school are still great students in college?

The number #1 college football team, U. of Michigan, has many talented players but less than 5% of them can play in the NFL. You can argue that Yale should operate the same way in terms of grading.

Why are you comparing education to sports? There are limited positions in the NFL or any paid sport, which creates an artificial limit of 5%. The majority of students are not graduating and going into narrow/limited fields. Why should Yale operate the same way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If these students are so excellent, they should be able to handle coursework that challenges *them.* Not just coursework that would be challenging to an average hs graduate, but something that actually raises the bar a bit instead of giving out a participation trophy.

How do you know they aren't? Have you seen Yale coursework and work product that indicates that it isn't challenging and that the grades aren't earned? Why does it surprise you that the best students in high school are still great students in college?

The number #1 college football team, U. of Michigan, has many talented players but less than 5% of them can play in the NFL. You can argue that Yale should operate the same way in terms of grading.

Is the Michigan head coach grading his players? I don’t think so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This. They got straight As in high school. Why would you expect them to be getting Bs and Cs in college?

Well, everyone who is a starting quarterback in HS is a good athlete but 95% of them will not make the college football roster. College should be the same way.

95% of great students don't get into Yale. Yale knows that grad schools and employers care about GPAs and they aren't about to hamstring their own students. People have said the hardest part is getting in for decades now and it's still true.

Employers do NOT care about GPAs, at least in SWE. They care more about AWS/Azure/Cybersecurity certifications than a degree from Yale.

Do you think Yale grads are competing for jobs were employers care about cyber security certifications? NOVA has classes offering AWS and azure certifications for 1k a piece. Do you really think that a CS major coming out of Yale is going for the same jobs that a kid with a high school diploma and an azure certification can land?

Well I see quite a few Yale CS grads working at AWS and Azure in SWE along side with CS grads from UVA, VATech and GMU.

Cool, what about Alexandria City High grads with certificates? OP said those were more valuable than a degree from Yale

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If these students are so excellent, they should be able to handle coursework that challenges *them.* Not just coursework that would be challenging to an average hs graduate, but something that actually raises the bar a bit instead of giving out a participation trophy.

How do you know they aren't? Have you seen Yale coursework and work product that indicates that it isn't challenging and that the grades aren't earned? Why does it surprise you that the best students in high school are still great students in college?

The number #1 college football team, U. of Michigan, has many talented players but less than 5% of them can play in the NFL. You can argue that Yale should operate the same way in terms of grading.

Teams don't grade players and coaches tend to lie to NFL scouts about their own player's personalities. Mack Jones is a patriot because Nick Saban sold Belichick on him

[Anonymous]

It's because Yale wants these kids to get into med school, law school, prestigious PhD programs, MBB consulting, PE, and BB IBs.

Yale doesn't benefit by trying to replicate a grinder culture (like JHU, MIT, or CIT) and handing out a ton of Bs and Cs.

If you hand out 80% As, Yale grads are likely to get into the most prestigious institutions. Which means higher earnings and more donations back to the school.

The virtuous circle.

[Anonymous]

Yale is a JOKE

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yale is a JOKE

But, the joke's on you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yale is a JOKE

But if you want to go into finance, it's awesome. Get your undergrad degree and then you're done with schooling for life. No need to do an MBA, it's a horrible ROI (like -$600K to your net worth). Wall Street is filled with guys who did 4 years of drinking at HYP and rose through the finance ranks.

That's who is benefitting from 80% As at Yale.

[Anonymous]

I don't know all Yale students, but I had 8 of them at my house a couple of months ago and as far as I recall every single one was double majoring, a few with an extra certification thrown in for good measure (no minors at Yale.) It's just really really common there and allows kids to get a balance of liberal arts and more professionally-oriented degrees. I'm sure if look around long enough you'll find the kid coasting on their film studies degree, but my dd sure doesn't know anyone like that. The culture of the school is to be super involved, overextended, stressed out, but really committed to all the academic and EC stuff on your plate

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yale is a JOKE

But if you want to go into finance, it's awesome. Get your undergrad degree and then you're done with schooling for life. No need to do an MBA, it's a horrible ROI (like -$600K to your net worth). Wall Street is filled with guys who did 4 years of drinking at HYP and rose through the finance ranks.

That's who is benefitting from 80% As at Yale.

Why not just go to Bucknell where you can do some REAL drinking and still benefit from the Wall Street pipeline?