<p>Hunt notes,“in my opinion, the admissions race at the Ivies is so tough now that the vast majority of students there have these traits, too. Harvard takes kids with top grades and scores who are also top achievers in other areas, usually multiple other areas. That’s why I don’t think grade inflation at Harvard is a big deal.”</p>
<p>Response: Sorry, I don’t agree. Having tough admission standards based on GPA and SATs scores shouldn’t provide an automatic B+ to most kids throughout the four years of school. These factors are only a few of the major factors that make up a top notch student. Moreover, every school, even Harvard, has its student body performance that can be measured using a bell curve. Not everyone there is an A- college student. They may have been that way for high school,but not necessarily in college. Too many other factors control academic performance. </p>
<p>In fact, I have met a number of national merit scholars and finalists. Their academic performance also can be shown to fit into a bell curve. They are not all as successful as one would think and certainly aren’t 91% fabulous! If truth be known, they perform, overall, a bit better than most college students but not as well as their scores would lead many folks to believe.In fact, of the three NMF that my daughter knew in college, not one got over a 3.5 overall in their GPA at a state school. This may not be a valid statistical sample,but it does give an indication that there is MUCH more to college performance than high SATS and high school GPA regardless of how tough the admission standards are.</p>
<p>Frankly, I agree with what Princeton did, which was to limit the amount of A’s in each class to no more than 35%. I think all the top schools should follow suit. In fact, I think all schools should adopt a form of bell curve to its grading standards: 10% A’s, 20% B’s, 40% C’s and rest D’s and below. I do understand that money is king and, thus, schools want retention, especially for rankings. Thus, they can have fewer D’s and F’s. However, 91% A’s and B’s is unacceptable to me anywhere, even Harvard.</p>
<p>I guess we will agree to disagree.</p>