<p>@Anial: This is not strictly true. </p>
<p>Apart from core classes and the finance department, there are no grading guidelines applied to Stern classes. This is relevant because many students will choose to double major within Stern (accounting, finance, economics). </p>
<p>For other schools ie CAS, there are predefined guidelines as mentioned but the guidelines may be adjusted DOWNWARDS only. For example, if the highest grade in the course was a 90 and the average was 80, then the A cutoff might be lowered to an 85. Conversely, the cutoff would never be raised above whatever the predetermined range was.</p>