a grade inflation UCLA,Cal vs HYPS

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Los Angeles
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<p><a href="http://www.stanforddaily.com/tempo?page=content&id=17862&repository=0001_article%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.stanforddaily.com/tempo?page=content&id=17862&repository=0001_article&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>If you do your homework and get above the average on the midterms and finals, you’re not going to get lower than a B,” said senior Dan Blatnik, an electrical engineering major. “But at the same time, it’s really hard to get an A. I don’t think professors mind handing out B’s, and I bet they have a system in place so that the number of A’s comes out roughly the same every time.”</p>

<p>The prospect of a grade inflation policy also raised concerns about possible effects on the academic atmosphere at Stanford</p>

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<p>From Harvard Prof</p>

<p>Excerpt</p>

<p>Grade Inflation: It's Time to Face the Facts
By HARVEY C. MANSFIELD</p>

<p>This term I decided to experiment with the grading of my political-philosophy course at Harvard. I am giving each student two grades: one for the registrar and the public record, and the other in private. The official grades will conform with Harvard's
inflated distribution, in which one-fourth of all grades given to undergraduates are now A's, and another fourth are A-'s. The private grades, from the course assistants and me, will be less flattering. Those grades will give students a realistic, useful assessment of how well they did and where they stand in relation to others.
A longtime critic of grade inflation, I have seen my grades dragged gradually higher over the years, while still trailing the rising average. I could not ignore the pressure to meet student expectations that other faculty members have created and maintained, but I did not want just to go along silently. The two-grade device is a way to show my contempt for the present system, yet not punish students who take my course. My intent was to get attention and to provoke some new thinking.</p>

<p>I certainly got attention. I was pleased at the degree of interest from around the country, both in the news media and from the general public. The grades that faculty members now give -- not only at Harvard but at many other elite universities -- deserve to be a scandal.</p>

<p>At Harvard, we have lost the notion of an average student. By that I mean a Harvard average, not a comparison with the high-school average that enabled our students to be admitted here. When bright students take a step up and find themselves with other bright students, they should face a new, higher standard of excellence.</p>

<p>The loss of the notion of average shows that professors today do not begin with their own criteria for the performance of students in their courses. Professors do not say to themselves, "This is what I can require; anything above that enters into excellence." No. With an eye to student course evaluations and confounded by the realization that they have somehow lost authority, professors begin from what they think students expect. American colleges used to set their own expectations. Now, increasingly, they react to student expectations -- even though, by contrast to stormy times in the past, students are very respectful.</p>

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<p>From Daily Bruin</p>

<p>At private universities across the country, grade inflation is rampant. Average GPAs at private schools like Stanford range from 3.4 to 3.6, while at public institutions, such as UCLA, Berkeley and UNC, the averages range from 3.0 to 3.2. </p>

<p>UCLA needs to bring back class rankings to preserve the value of our hard-earned grades. Class rankings would demonstrate that a 3.0 at UCLA, where the average GPA ranges from 3.1 and 3.2, is much more respectable than a 3.0 at Stanford, where the average GPA was recently brought down from 3.6 to 3.4. </p>

<p>The general trend of private universities to inflate grades harms UCLA students in the job market and when applying to graduate schools. </p>

<p>"Grade inflation can eat a fat one," says UCLA history major Tina Shull, who is currently applying to history Ph.D. programs.Tina has a 4.0 GPA in her major, and understandably doesn't want her GPA to be confused with a 4.0 from an expensive private school, where professors give out As as if the entire university were on a football scholarship. </p>

<p>So why are good grades at private universities so easy to get? Well if you were paying $35,000 a year for your education, wouldn't you feel ripped off if you graduated with a 2.9 in return? When asked why GPAs tend to be higher at private universities, USC student Alice Chang explains, "Private school students pay more, so they care more." I see. USC kids buy their grades. What a surprise. </p>

<p>Private universities treat their students like consumers. The consumer must be satisfied, and how better to satisfy them than giving out easy As. Alumni are the cash cows of private universities, and these cash cows will keep giving if they graduate satisfied with their university experience (translation: GPA). </p>

<p>While grade inflation is a national phenomenon, former Harvard dean Henry Rosovsky and University of Pennsylvania lecturer Matthew Hartley say it is "especially noticeable" in the outrageously expensive Ivy League. The expectation of private school students that they are entitled to a high GPA is so ingrained that one Harvard professor, Harvey Mansfield, has a two-grade policy. Professor Mansfield hands out a merit-based grade which is shown only to the students and an inflated grade which gets recorded on transcripts. </p>

<p>Can you even imagine a UCLA professor handing you an unofficial C because you deserve it and an official A because you want it for your transcript? Of course not. UCLA and similar public schools haven't succumbed to the grade inflation disease. </p>

<p>"Having a high GPA at a state school is a bigger accomplishment than having a high GPA at a private school," says Vidya Prabhakaran, former president of Yale College Council. Okay, maybe private school students are aware of this, but do you really believe employers know? I doubt it.</p>

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<p>Thats a bunch of phooy. </p>

<p>Those schools have much harder working students who generally did better in HS. Wouldnt it make sense that their overall GPA for the school would be higher than at a college with lower standards?</p>

<p>I dont mean to say anyone that goes to a regular school doesnt work hard, but if you look at the prof's article he wants to put the top kids against each other so an "average" at their school would be a 4.0+ at any lower college. And by no means is the coursework at these schools "easy," they just have kids who work much harder and know their stuff.</p>

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<p>Sure, grade inflation is somewhat justified. But to what extent is the question.</p>

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<p>Not quite. Check this article.</p>

<p><a href="http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=11774&repository=0001_article%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=11774&repository=0001_article&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>You got Stanford kids comin’ to your program? Man, good luck with them — I heard they’re a bunch of whiners and moaners.”
Yes, my friends, such were the words spoken by some Harvard </p>

<p>professor to one of our charismatic Australian professors a few weeks before we flew into Australia.</p>

<p>Apparently in Australia, they don’t believe in the wonderful, cushy system we have come to love at Stanford called grade inflation.</p>

<p>No, our professor told us, not everyone can get an “A.” In fact, if you complete an adequate job, you can hopefully get a “C,” and if you manage to get above average, you can cheerfully accept a “B.”</p>

<p>All hell broke loose. “What about my precious med school applications?” some of us screamed. “How am I going to get into law school with a bunch of ‘C’s on my transcript?” others cried out.</p>

<p>That night, the phone lines were busy as our perplexed Australian professors spoke to the folks back at Stanford. “Don’t worry,” they told us in the morning. “Your grades will be ‘adjusted’ to Stanford standards at the end of the course.”</p>

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<p>SR</p>

<p>Economics </p>

<p>I'm disappointed by everything at Harvard. The grading systems here are bull. The classes are huge. You can actually sleep and get a B+ or an A. If you're looking for an intellectual environment, you won't find it in the classroom and the classmates are often arrogant. If I had to pick up again an university it would not be Harvard.</p>

<p>English Major </p>

<p>I see a lot of comments here making excuses for Harvard, that every school has its bad points, that every situation is what you make of it, that the opportunities are here if only you spend all day and night chasing them down, blah blah blah blah.</p>

<p>The bottom line is that a school costing this much and maintaining the image of itself that Harvard does should offer a high standard of education, faculty accessibility, resources, and support for its students.</p>

<p>Harvard does none of this. It is failure in all four of these categories. Classes are large and impersonal, professors uninterested in teaching and undergraduates, and resources and support for undergrads virtually nonexistent.</p>

<p>I spent my weekends at other schools, hanging out. I even went to classes at places like BU, Princeton, and UCLA. Harvard could seriously be one of the worst schools on the face of the earth.</p>

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<p><a href="http://www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/article.aspx?ref=120978%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/article.aspx?ref=120978&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The Unofficial Guide to UCLA from a Harvard Student</p>

<p>Excerpt</p>

<p>Academics </p>

<p>UCLA is about hard work, but not for the sake of knowledge. It’s about working harder than everyone else, because at UCLA, curves don’t help—they kill. Remember that 94 percent you got on a math test last year? That could easily be a C at UCLA. Don’t share notes, don’t study together and don’t even think about helping your friend with that problem set. Enthusiasm runs high, but be prepared to keep it to yourself.</p>

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<p>This is from U Penn</p>

<p><a href="http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/02/28/4404052e115c9%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/02/28/4404052e115c9&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>In awarding 54 percent A's, Penn's College of Arts and Sciences surpasses every other Ivy League school. The College is Penn's only undergraduate school to say it actively monitors grades.</p>

<p>At Brown University, where 46.7 percent of undergraduate grades last year were A's, the number isn't just higher than Princeton's -- it's still growing. The percentage of undergraduate A's given has increased 7.5 percentage points over the past 10 years.</p>

<p>But Brown is starting to investigate ways to combat this.</p>

<p>Brown's College Curriculum Council began discussing the addition of pluses and minuses to grades last month. Currently, the school gives only the unadorned A,B, C, D and F.</p>

<p>Though this hotly debated issue hasn't yet been resolved, some proponents of the addition believe that it has the potential to reduce grade inflation because professors could more correctly assess student achievement.</p>

<p>Harvard University also has seen an increase in the percentage of grades in the A range.</p>

<p>Last year, 48.7 percent of grades at Harvard were A-minuses or higher, with a record high 3.424 median course GPA. The median GPA in undergraduate courses has increased at the university almost every year since the 1985-86 academic year's median of 3.164.</p>

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<p>I've got to go.( be back in two years.)</p>

<p>Final thought</p>

<p>west vs east</p>

<p>Stanford =Harvard of the west</p>

<p>Berkeley = Yale of the west</p>

<p>UCLA=Princeton of the west</p>

<p>USC =Columbia of the west</p>

<p>UCSD= Cornell of the west</p>

<p>Caltech=MIT of the west</p>

<p>and I think west is winning.</p>