Reply to Another Cornell death this fall

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Another Cornell death this fall"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m the OP. My kid is a sophomore. It’s not faux outrage. My kid just left home this afternoon to go back.

I’m Worried given my kid is stressed about a class.

Median grade in a stem bio prelim was a 69. Just fyi. The median for some of the stem classes is just crazy. Has As in 2 Econ classes so it’s not that.[/quote]

Yes engineering/STEM classes are brutal, always have been.  I can recall (at a T10 school) having a calculus course (calc 4 so not freshman) where the average was 18% (yes you read that right).  Top score on a midterm (30 students) was 36, someone else had a 32 and then it dropped to 25 and on the way down.  [b]I had a 31 and got an A in the course.[/b]  But it was frustrating to attend class, study and do the work and sit in a midterm and literally have no clue what you were doing and wheterh you were goign to pass or fail.  And I was "at the top of the class", so I have to imagine the stressors for those with 12/15% in the course felt like.  
[/quote]

This is not limited to Cornell. Many top schools have median scores or 30-70% out of 100 based on some professors enjoying giving a very challeng ing test, but then they curve that median grade to a B or B+ at Cornell, or a B+ or even and A- at other schools. Many freshman do not understand how college grading works. Below the median often still earns a B- or even a B. As another posted, the median in humanities courses at Cornell is A-. It is not accurate to blame Cornell grading for a mental health tragedy. There was a recent year where NCState had 5 suicides in a few months. This happens everywhere, most unfortunately. It is a mental health crisis with this age group. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics