Women should embrace the B's in college

[bluebayou]

<p>

I wonder if there is a difference in women choosing STEM majors between colleges with and without grade inflation.

</p>

<p>I would submit that there is probably little difference. Even in colleges known for high mean GPA’s, intro STEM courses still have curves. Instead of a bunch of C’s, the grade-inflated colleges award a bunch of low B’s. </p>

<p>In contrast, into Psych can offer 50% A’s (or more).</p>

<p>That being said, I would be surprised if the % of women in physical sciences was not much lower to start and lower to finish. (Bio majors are closer to parity.)</p>

[ucbalumnus]

<p>Re: grade inflation in different majors</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/tcr2010grading.pdf”>http://www.gradeinflation.com/tcr2010grading.pdf&lt;/a&gt; claims that, relative to natural sciences, engineering and social studies GPAs are about 0.2 higher, and humanities GPAs are about 0.3 higher.</p>

<p>

@frazzled2thecore

I think any discussion of grade deflatioon and attrition from STEM majors also needs to address pervasive academic sandbagging in intro classes. Students are entering these classes with vastly different levels of preparation at most schools and especially at elite schools that do not offer different levels for students who come in with different backgrounds.

</p>

<p>Actually, Harvard offers a multitude of math courses at different levels for entering frosh, according to <a href=“Harvard Mathematics Department Administration and Finance”>http://www.math.harvard.edu/courses/index.html&lt;/a&gt; :</p>

<p>Ma-Mb: slow calculus, like high school AB, equivalent to 1a
1a-1b: regular frosh calculus
18, 19a-19b: sophomore math for social studies majors
21a-21b: regular sophomore math
23a-23b: sophomore math with proofs
25a-25b: honors sophomore math with proofs
55a-55b: honors sophomore math with proofs and more</p>

[frazzled2thecore]

<p>OTOH, I have been told by a handful of parents that gen chem as taught as the default class at elite universities and in honors sections only at state flagships is equivalent in difficulty to the class offered only to the tippy-top students at their HYP schools just a few decades ago. (It is often refered to as “p-chem lite” by students, according to frazzled kids.) At state flagships, students place into this class through testing and many pre-meds take regular chem even if they might have placed into the higher level, probably ratcheting up the curve. Even at elite schools, students enter this course with vastly different backgrounds and might get discouraged if they are struggling to keep a B or even a C, while the student next to them brags about how easy they are finding the class. (That student just might have extraordinary “natural ability” but might also just be a student with vastly superior preparation.)</p>

[ucbalumnus]

<p>bernie12 has done a course by course comparison of some courses and described the results in posts in this thread:
<a href=“Schools that are considered to be on Ivy League level for undergrad? - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1619090-schools-that-are-considered-to-be-on-ivy-league-level-for-undergrad-p1.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[romanigypsyeyes]

<p>Is it possible that the women did poorly because they found it uninteresting and subsequently switched? Purely from personal observations but ime, women who are uninterested in a subject will switch majors whereas men will tend to stay the course.</p>