Grade Deflation... is it really that bad?

FightTheTide11
Sun, 08 Jan 2012 03:28:29 +0000

You’re asking for unbiased opinions. You’re probably not going to get any. It’s a hot issue.
The closest things you’ll find to unbiased information are the statistics here:
[FAQ -Office of the Dean of the College](Grading at Princeton | Office of the Dean of the College)
[Post-graduation data -Office of the Dean of the College](http://www.princeton.edu/odoc/faculty/grading/postdegree/)

Short answer: Princeton students love to hate on grade deflation, but there’s no definitive evidence that we’re any worse off because of it.

Long answer: Ugh.
Grade deflation’s been around long enough now that five full classes of Princetonians have graduated since the new policy was implemented. Things looked bad right around 2008 when employment took a pretty big hit, but that coincided with the recession. The numbers now look a lot like they did before the grade deflation was implemented. If grade deflation was really killing our collective shot at success, something would have been done about it by now. At least I’d like to think that.

People usually use three words to describe academic environments: challenging, stressful, and cutthroat. I’ll address each.

Princeton academics fall somewhere between challenging and really really really challenging, depending on one’s course load. Some people take one course above the typical course load every semester. Some people take death mech and multiple core math departmentals at the same time. On the other hand, some people look for the easiest classes possible, which typically aren’t all that easy. You get out what you put in. This isn’t because of grade deflation. Material here is taught at a fast pace and a complex level.

Princeton academics can be really stressful. Or not so stressful. One major source of stress is having to adjust to the academic talent and work ethic of nearly everyone here. Not all of us are going can be in the first quintile, even though basically all of us were in high school. In fact, half the people here have GPAs below the median. Some people have a lot of trouble coping with that. Some people have parents with unrealistic expectations. Some people have a hard time making the jump in quality of written work (an B paper at Princeton could easily pull an A at a lot of high schools). Some people (like me) look at the clock and realize that it’s four in the morning and that computer program is giving the same error message it was giving seven hours ago. Grade deflation has probably contributed to the general stress level, but I think it’s mostly because people are so used to seeing all As that every B+ or B on the transcript really hurts. It all comes down to making adjustments.

Princeton academics are not (in my experience) cutthroat. When I think cutthroat, I think about people deliberately trying to better themselves at others’ expense. I haven’t seen that here. I’ve heard stories about people trying to beat grade deflation by taking intro classes despite knowing the material to ensure a good grade, but I have no firsthand experience with or evidence of this. What I do know is that people help each other out with problem sets and study together on a regular basis. Princeton’s hard on everyone, but we tend to look after one another.

And if it means anything to you, I have a friend in the MOL department who spent this past semester at Oxford.