<p>[GPAs</a> gone wild – baltimoresun.com](<a href=“http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.grades25mar25,0,339426.story]GPAs”>http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.grades25mar25,0,339426.story)
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<p>No wonder it’s so popular. </p>
<p>Interesting, considering the comment made by the Brown student who went “undercover” to Liberty U, wrote a book and is quoted saying that the rigor of the academics at the latter caused him to work a lot harder there than he did at Brown.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting the article. I will forward it to my child who is somewhat concerned about what they call “grade deflation” at her school, although to me it looked as “fair grading”.</p>
<p>When the Brown Daily Herald recently came out with that statistic, my daughter (a Brown student) was with a large group of her friends. They did an impromptu survey, and figured out that 2/3 of their grades were not As. Either my daughter hangs out with the only B students on campus, or that survey has problems.</p>
<p>Sorry, but this sort of article gets me riled. First, good professors are serious about the courses they teach and give demanding reading lists, stimulating lectures, etc. And a lot of the professors at top colleges are good or even great. If students choose to skip the reading, yawn through class and ignore the discussions and office-hours provided, it is, after all, their time and money and they make that choice. </p>
<p>The suggestion in the article is that getting relatively higher grades than in previous years is sending a bunch of giddy, slacking students straight to the beer pong table. Please. Kids who want to party have been partying in college for generations. Nothing new there. But the problem I have with this article is the conclusion that it’s the university’s fault that kids are partying too much and it’s the grading curve that is the reason. Say what?? When do we expect students to take responsibility for learning? As for the increase in grades, over the past twenty years the level of students accepted to selective colleges is astonishingly higher, and one would expect them to achieve higher grades. These kids didn’t get into Brown or Cornell or Harvard or wherever by cruising.</p>
<p>The comments about Brown are incredibly misleading. Brown offers the option of taking grades S/NC–satisfactory, no credit. So, it’s not that Brown students get As in two-thirds of the classes they take; it’s that they get As in two-thirds of the classes they take for grades. </p>
<p>Some Brown students who are heavily “into” other activities-- acting is one example-- elect to take all or all but a few classes S/NC. At other schools, those students would take the classes for grades and get Bs or Cs in them. It doesn’t make the grading at Brown easier–you’re just compairing apples and oranges.</p>
<p>And, I do NOT think there is ANY link whatsoever between academic rigor and the grading policy. You can have tests like that infamous one at UGeorgia–“how many halves in a basketball game?” etc. and grade harshly or you can pile on the work and have a class fulll of engaged students who do it all and succeed in the class.</p>
<p>High tuitions justify high GPA’s and high GPA’s justify high tuitions. </p>
<p>Is this really news to anybody?</p>
<p>This is my perspective-any grading curve that gives me anything below an A/A- is grade deflation. Any grading curve that gives me an A/A- is “fair.” ;)</p>
<p>Jizzy-go be a prick somewhere else.</p>
<p>And give me ONE good reason I shouldn’t maximize my own grades. I won’t fail because I’m willing to swallow my pride if it works to my benefit.</p>