College Grade Inflation

trizz75
Sun, 30 Dec 2012 21:16:14 +0000

Maybe its pure coincidence, but I’ve never met a CSOM student who took 4 classes both junior AND senior year. I mean, I don’t have stats but I also don’t live in cave!

I don’t understand how your numbers add up. If you take 108 credits and take 30 credits (15 per semester) for a 5th year accounting program, that only adds up to 138. The Department Chair of Accounting, Billy Soo, strongly recommends CPA-bound accounting majors to graduate with at least 120 credits for this very reason. And, a fifth year of coursework is certainly not required. My friends and I who will be interning with the Big 4 next year we be able to avoid the MSA program altogether because of a mixture of overloading and AP credits that will count towards the 150.

Also, to say that Finance is absolutely harder than accounting is also misleading. Difficulty depends on the individual. Ask anyone at Boston College who has taken the Intermediate Accounting classes (FAST I and FAST II). My friends who have taken the FAST sequence and are finance majors say that it is as hard if not harder than investments, the class most finance majors consider to be the most difficult required finance course. Once again, this is anecdotal evidence, but one of these friends happens to be a finance/accounting concentrator interning with Goldman Sachs next summer. So, I’d say he has a pretty accurate barometer of what is difficult and what isn’t between accounting and finance. My statements are not meant to be research caliber. They are simply trying to help prospective students get an understanding of what BC and especially CSOM are actually like outside of the school published numbers and policies.

A&S majors can take the Excel course! With the relatively large amount free class slots (that I explained above), A&S majors can definitely take this class and get credit for it. Granted, it isn’t required, but if someone wants to really brush up on their excel skills they can certainly do so and still get credit for it.

As for the interview point, pretty much all employers ask for a transcript, and credit count is clearly labeled at the top. It’s kinda hard to miss, especially when you are graduating with a whopping 108 credits!

Maybe we fundamentally disagree, but from a specifically BC context I feel like I have a pretty solid understanding of the trends in CSOM, even if they deviate from the “requirements.” Just because something is a rule/policy doesn’t mean its the norm.

To bring this discussion full circle, most CSOM majors are NOT susceptible to grade inflation. I have little knowledge outside of finance and accounting, but in these concentrations grade inflation is simply non-existent. Of course, there are always rare exceptions.