Interesting Article about Grade Inflation

[TheUltimate12]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

.

 

[235788]

I always thought it was the other way around. Apparently it is harder to get A's at a state school.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_...with-the-easiest-and-hardest-grades/#comments

I think it depends on the institution, there is inflation across the board. I bet it could even be further pinpointed to specific departments (history/anything communications/psych at my UG)

 

[matto]

http://www.gradeinflation.com/ is the cited source...

Correlation != Causation

All sorts of things could have caused this. I'll put forward the theories of people getting better at teaching things over time. Dialectic success in academics!

 

[235788]

http://www.gradeinflation.com/ is the cited source...

Correlation != Causation

All sorts of things could have caused this. I'll put forward the theories of people getting better at teaching things over time. Dialectic success in academics!

I disagree! You shouldn't be able to study the night before a test and get an A, like in some classes. Teachers get questioned for giving bad grades and blamed for students lack of achievement. We learned about this pretty cool phenomenon in a blow-off sociology class called teacher-student non-aggression pact, which was funny because the class was a perfect example of it.

 

[lxz]

My undergrad institution is on the "With Toughest Grades" list. It's true. lol

 

[BigBear123]

Depends on the school. I'm sure a big part of the reason that it is "tough" to get an A in a low-ranked school like CSU-Fullerton is just because a lot of the students don't really try at all (ie same phenomenon as in CCs). If we're talking about MIT or Princeton though, that's a completely different story. So, take this article with a grain of salt!

 

[matto]

I think wikipedia is my revised theory explaining these data. There are many better explanations for the data observed of course, all of which are just as statistically relevant.

Standards in Universities have increased and students are rising to the challenge of getting good grades because they want to suceed (the MCAT standardizes the knowledge retained). How have those been trending and what could that mean?

(wild guess: mcats have gone up and thus their scores are now inflated too)

All the data say is that GPAs have increased over the past 20 yrs. If anyone wants to claim that any set of schools has inflated grades, they're gonna need a stronger case than that... MIT is surely harder, that I can agree with.

 

[Kickback]

Lulz, I checked my schools average GPA ... it's GPA is 2.98. I go to a public engineering school, surprise surprise 🙄

 

[dmf2682]

Too bad the adcoms don't care. You can tell where I went from my avatar. According to that website we led the east in having the toughest grades

 

[Sophocles]

The bad thing about generalizations is that people tend to take them out of context (given, this is kinda an oxymoron). I would love for someone to go to Columbia's premed program and say that they didn't have to try to receive a B/C.... But someone reads this article and presumes that most private universities are easier than state universities. Oh, and I'm from Miami and I know first hand that FIU is a joke of a school. I don't know who conducted this study and what the parameters were but I don't completely agree. Not to say that grade inflation/deflation doesn't occur, but this should be handled on a case by case basis; regardless of whether the institution is a state public school or a private one.

 

[flatearth22]

Why shouldn't schools with smarter, harder working students (read: students with higher incoming SAT scores and GPA's along with impressive EC's) have higher average college GPA's?

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

I think the average GPA for all universities in the U.S. is around a 3.05-3.14? That's what I last heard.

 

[mishaS]

Too bad the adcoms don't care.

This is true. Medical schools don't look into these sorts of things, it would be too impractical. It didn't matter that I had an easy time only having to get the minimum score necessary to ride the curve to an A, at my very unselective alma mater; all that mattered was that I had a great GPA. This is why the MCAT, the great equalizer, is so important.

 

[alexandertg6]

This is true. Medical schools don't look into these sorts of things, it would be too impractical. It didn't matter that I had an easy time only having to get the minimum score necessary to ride the curve to an A, at my very unselective alma mater; all that mattered was that I had a great GPA. This is why the MCAT, the great equalizer, is so important.

this is why I wish I had gone to a "lower tier" school which doesnt have a mission to maintain its average GPA around 2.7 >.<... my 3.55 is much harder earned and much less impressive than a 4.0 at a less difficult school.

 

[gmcguitar4]

I think the average GPA for all universities in the U.S. is around a 3.05-3.14? That's what I last heard.

I would say average is between 2.5-3. That's how they do grading in curved classes right? The curve of the US should be no different.

 

[gettheleadout]

Why shouldn't schools with smarter, harder working students (read: students with higher incoming SAT scores and GPA's along with impressive EC's) have higher average college GPA's?

+100

I was about to say exactly this. Also, before anyone advocates it, grading on a curve a la "only X percentage of course will receive A's" is an invalid method of measuring content mastery.