<p>I guess this is a two part question: 1) Would you or your DD/DS ever ask an adcom about class curves and so-called scaling of grades in front of a group of other parents and families? And, 2) would you expect to get an honest answer?</p>
<ol>
<li>I would ask tour guides, but probably not admissions officers.</li>
<li>I think I would get a bluntly honest answer from a tour guide or student, but I have a feeling that I would get an answer that has basic grading policies (e.g. whether the school has the +/- system) and saying that scaling depends on the department and class from an admissions officer.</li>
</ol>
<p>I think it would be better for the student to ask on the college’s thread on CC, but asking the tour guide doesn’t seem inappropriate.</p>
<p>Do many colleges have consistent practices in this area? At my university, it was common for engineering classes to be graded on a curve – sometimes a very generous curve, but rare for econ classes to be graded on a curve, and I can’t ever remember a curve in geography – all departments in which I took multiple lower and upper division courses.</p>