Better school or better grades?

doubleplay
Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:28:24 +0000

How do we not get into grade deflation/inflation, considering it’s at the heart of your question?

Anyway, my son had a friend who he “outshined” in hs. Friend goes to UCF, son UF. Friend has apparently done extremely well, and therefore son feels that UCF must be easier than UF. I, OTOH, don’t believe this. At least with the evidence presented. Who’s to say friend isn’t trying a lot harder now than he did in hs? Or that friend isn’t just a whole lot more interested in school now that the courses are taught at a higher level, the teachers “better”, etc.?

That’s not to say that there isn’t bound to be differences in schools with HUGE disparities in grade and score selectivity. But in many cases, we’re talking relatively minor disparities (how can one say that kids with 1200-1400s SAT are much smarter than ones with 1100-1300s?).

AND, to top it off, many times when you think you’re going to do better because a class is supposedly easier, you do worse because you don’t try as hard.

I’d go where you feel there is the best fit.