College Grade Inflation

Sullivan120
Thu, 27 Dec 2012 23:13:12 +0000

@cococarey. Thank you very much for your reply; you bring up a good point. My lower grades have all been in political sciences courses, and I don’t think I would as readily accuse those professors of grade inflation as I would my history or Italian professors. I decided to take on the political science major only after my fall semester freshman year, and I was only able to get out of the first course in the two part introductory sequence with my AP US Government score. So, I started with Bailey’s Fundamentals of Political Science II during this past spring semester. I got an A in that class, but I don’t feel like it was handed to me, and I thought she was a great lecturer. This fall semester I doubled up and took Professor Erikson’s course on the EU in foreign affairs and Professor Behnegar’s course on Shakespeare’s Politics. I got a B in the former and an A- in the latter. I worked quite hard for both those grades and I feel they accurately reflect my respective performances. Erikson’s class is certainly the most challenging one I’ve had a BC.
I just don’t think the standards of my history professors have been nearly as high as those of my political science professors, and often I feel as though the standards by which I judge myself are more stringent. I’ve loved history and known that I wanted to study it at the collegiate level since I was in 7th grade; however, I never found it a difficult subject in school and I was really looking for college to give me a run for my money. And yet, I’ve taken an upper level class each semester since I started at BC and I’ve gotten an A in each one. If I were to have graded myself according to my personal expectations my history marks would probably more closely align with those I earned in my political science courses. Anyway, thank you again for your reply and good luck for the rest of your year as well. I’ll try to appreciate my 3.8 a bit more.