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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Some brands are deemed more valuable than others (Harvard over Strayer). But why does it matter really? Education seems like it's becoming more of a commodity. The brands are meaningless when it is not based on merit and intelligence. [b]And grades meaningless with grade inflation.[/b][/quote]

This is not consistently true.  Average grades at many selective institutions have gone up because their admissions selectivity has also gone up and thus a greater percentage of students meet disciplinary benchmarks that grades indicate.  What used to get a "C" or a "D" still gets a "C" or a "D" but far fewer students at strong institutions perform poorly now than in the past.  Meritocratic admissions to elite colleges is relatively new; fifty years ago entry into Harvard was explicitly based on social class more than academic achievement. 
(I am a prof who recently worked on an cross-institutional assessment project examining whether there was grade inflation over time in relation to bench-marked standards rather than averages. We only looked at selective schools though, not less selective schools or on-line universities and to be sure there are gray areas, but the overall thrust seems that more of the increase in average GPA is explained by increases in selectivity than grade inflation).[/quote]

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