Cornell Median Grade Reports

norcalguy
Mon, 21 Jan 2008 03:16:48 +0000

Actually many schools already list the median grades on student transcripts.

To me, this new policy is the most fair. For years Cornell students had an advantage over students from other colleges because they had access to the median grade reports. Not very many schools publish these reports. In fact, I don’t know of another school that does this. This contributed heavily to Cornell’s grade inflation. I am not a fan of grade inflation because I think it blurs the distinction between truly great students and the merely good students and tends to water down the prestige of the Cornell degree.

Now, listing the median grades on the transcripts will let future employers and grad schools compare your performance relative to the rest of the class. This seems fair in exchange for the privilege of knowing the median grades before you pick your courses.