<p>I was reading some college review sites, and a lot of students are complaining about how Boston University practices ‘grade deflation’. Apparently, very few people can get A’s, as professors purposely make tests difficult so most get C’s (not even B’s!). Does any current BU student go through this? How much of a problem is it really?</p>
<p>Please don’t say something like “If you work hard you’ll do well” like some people post on CC. I’d like something a little bit insightful. It is dwindling down to the last few days for college SIR’s and I am trying to make a good decision between BU and GW. If it makes any difference, I have been accepted to CAS and intend on majoring in Computer Science/Economics. Thanks for any help you can give.</p>
<p>Here’s an example of a student review I found: </p>
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<p>I understand that this reviewer may have been a little frustrated at the time of the post. But I’m inclined to believe the essence of the review. It would make sense for BU to deflate grades in order to seem ‘competitive’ or like a tough school, when all they are doing is telling profs to make their exams unnecessarily hard. Obviously, since I’m not a student of BU, I would not actually know. That’s where you come in, I suppose.</p>
<p>Wow. Are you sure that person was talking about BU School of Management? If that’s so then I probably go to a different School of Management. That’s not the reality, that’s someone being a bitter loser.</p>
<p>I’m going to have to completely agree with Hanita. I don’t know what school of management that student attended but from being here in my first year, the students here are completely honest with one another. </p>
<p>I have never heard of anyone trying to back stab another student to get a better grade and that whole bell curve thing is only partly true. In our management as a system class, all tests means are curved up to a B- and in several instances, some students have gotten over 100% on the test. While it is true that not everyone gets A’s, that’s because they didn’t study enough or pay attention in class. Additionally, there are some tricky questions on the test but it is nothing that the professors haven’t covered. Should the questions seem out of line, many students end up complaining to their professors and eliminate the questions.</p>
<p>The professors are no where in any sense trying to distant themselves from their students since I feel that many students in my class right now are connected to my professor. While I am not one of them, professors are not out there to get you. They truly want you to understand a concept and are always willing to help you with any kind of problem you may have.</p>
<p>I am also taking Economics as a requirement right now and the two professors that I’ve had want their students to understand the concepts. Of course, they will challenge you with some harder questions but it just requires a little bit more thinking, nothing which you can’t figure out with a friend or some time. </p>
<p>I am only taking intro courses right now so I cannot speak for any of the upper level courses. I hope this helped somehow. I will try to contact some sophomores and juniors when I can and get back to this thread unless someone else beats me to it. </p>
<p>I just think that if you are really concerned about this matter, you should just go for GW. That’s a great school too. Either way, I feel like you’ll be getting a good education. Good luck!</p>
<p>Exactly. And I don’t know what would be more insightful than “If you work hard you’ll do well.” I do work hard and I do well. Are you expecting a magical formula to get you good grades? Because it’s really as simple as that.</p>
<p>I agree with Alectricity and Hanita. I’m not in SMG, but that’s not the experience I hear from people in SMG and that’s not my experience in CAS. If you work hard, you will do well. Just do all your work and study the best you can. That’s all you can do.</p>
<p>I was going to ignore this but the OP did a good job of presenting this tired crap. BU’s grades inflated rapidly in the 90’s, as they did in many schools. Kids don’t realize that the days of a “gentleman’s C” reflected average gpa’s of 2-2.5 at colleges everywhere. When the average gpa at BU was going to hit 3 and was clearly going to rise and rise, the school acted - like most schools - to preserve the value of grades. They did not institute a mandatory grading policy. Each college grades on its own, basically according to the expectations of their field - as in engineering schools generally grade lower so I would expect BU engineering grades to be generally lower on average than those in CAS. Each department then sets its own policies and then professors of course have their own policies with their department’s guidelines. The effect has been to slow grade inflation and so the average GPA is probably a 3.1 or so, whatever is the norm for schools. Some schools have noticeably lower grades - like Georgia Tech or Princeton - and a handful have higher grades, mostly prestige schools like Harvard or Yale where grades don’t matter much.*</p>
<p>For some reason, kids who don’t do well like to blame grade policies. They like to call whatever curve exists as deflation perhaps because it means not everyone gets a B+ or A- or whatever. Other schools also get this rep and almost none deserve it.</p>
<p>*E.g., Harvard kids get into top law schools because they scored high on the SAT and thus score high on the LSAT, not because they get high grades. Law schools adjust grades. Some people argue that H-Y kids score so high that if you back into an expected GPA from the scores that they should get even higher grades. I think that’s BS and also that it’s too bad the system relies so much on test scores. This is somewhat true in grad schools generally: grades and test scores plus internships, etc. If you can score well …</p>
<p>I go to BU and I am a SMG student and I agree with the claims that there is grade deflation. On day one of class, my finance professor told us that he could only give out a certain number of As in the course because of BU policy. Also, he said that he had to fight for several years to let the class average be a 3.0. Before, BU mandated that it was only a 2.8 or 2.9. Also, he said that he thought the grade policy was horrendous and every year got in trouble for having too high of an overall class average. This professor was not one to give out anything for free either, he didn’t just throw around As like candy. He was strict, expected you to work hard, and was by no means an “easy” professor, but did not think that it was fair to be forced to give out grades just because of what the class average should be. He thought that grades should be given out for the right reasons like exam/project grades and class participation.</p>
<p>I am not alone when I say this, but it is relatively difficult to get an A in several of SMG classes. I am a good student (not perfect I will admit, and I accept some of the grades that I have gotten) but some of my grades are lower than what I think they should be. A lot of my friends who are good students agree.</p>
<p>I don’t know why their are some people without any personal experience in BU’s supposed deflation, but if there are some that say they have felt it, I am inclined to believe some departments/teachers do it and others don’t. Either way, it’s a pity that students in BU have to work so hard to get their A’s, but people in Harvard can rest on laurels and dish out A’s easily. </p>
<p>It really pushes us in a disadvantageous situation. If two people of equal academic standing applied to graduate school and one was B student in BU and the other, an A student in Harvard, its really a no-brainer who to pick. You could argue that the guy in Harvard deserves it for getting into an Ivy league school in the first place, but really BU should be lighter on the grading to ameliorate things for their students.</p>
<p>Well I’ve already registered for BU, so theres nothing left to do but deal with it.</p>
<p>Of course not. There will always be a curve. Those who do the utmost best in the class, the middle ground, and those who do the bare minimum. If everyone worked hard, then that curve will just be shifted. No class can have A’s across the board.</p>
<p>“So are you guys saying that if everyone worked hard for As in a class, not everyone will get As on the report card?”</p>
<p>Exactly. Professors/departments have policies about giving out only a certain amount of A’s, B’s, etc. so that the average GPA will be a certain number. This inevitably means that even if every single student is dishing out genius, insanely high-quality work, only a few of them will receive A’s (i.e. most of them will be screwed over). This is obviously unfair—but the inherent inequity of the system is balanced out by the reality that not all students perform at that high level. The bad side effect of some getting lower grades than perhaps they deserve (or than is perhaps fair, when their work is compared to other’s, at least on subjective things like papers) simply to meet a quota remains, however.</p>
<p>So let’s say I have As in my classes and there are other people who have As in my classes too. How will the professor determine whether I should get an A overall or lower than an A to keep the system balanced? What’s the affect of this “shift curve” pointed out by Gladken?</p>
<p>How easy is it to get 3.5+ GPA with a handful amount of studying?</p>
<p>Whoa, harsh. It’s reasonable to want to be able to get good grades while still maintaining a social life, joining clubs, etc. So it’s a reasonable question.</p>
<p>And about your comment in regards to community colleges: there’s no way you can personally know the caliber or difficulty level of each one, and that sort of generalization can be construed as offensive.</p>
<p>You or your parents aren’t paying $50,000/year for a social life and club memberships. I have taught at two community colleges in MA and the level of education and the expectations of students are very low. If a faculty member tries to raise the level of expectations, he will be invited not to return. </p>
<p>as for your question, it depends on how bright you are.</p>
<p>Your premise that a “B” student at BU is the academic equivalent of an “A” student at Harvard, or that somehow a “B” at BU is the equivalent of an “A” at Harvard may be wishful thinking on your part, but is not true.</p>
<p>We have on one hand a high school student who is woefully misinformed - thinking you need a 4.0 GPA for medical school (when there is a medical school forum on CC, btw) - and who wants to know if he / she can get really good grades - in pre-med, mind you - at BU while not working all that hard. On the other hand, people like TomSr and Odyssey who take the time to provide actual answers to questions that don’t really make a lot of sense.</p>
<p>Bottom line: if your attitude is you don’t want to work hard, then you won’t be going to medical school. Period.</p>
<p>Somewhat correct. I should have clarified. I argue that two students who work equally hard and produce the same quality of work may receive different grades depending on the schools they go to. I used Harvard and Boston U. as an example. Since Harvard is known for high gpa’s (among other things) and Boston U. is known for the deflated grades, it seems plausible that a student would earn an A in Harvard and a B in Boston U. for the same quality of work. Is this entirely true? Probably not, but I believe that it is a logical simulation of the kind of unfair disadvantage grade deflation creates for BU students. </p>
<p>I’ll reiterate my hypothetical situation for fun (and because I’m a senior and I have nothing better to do): these two students of identical academic caliber apply for graduate school. The result? Obviously the one who went to Harvard and got an easy A would be accepted, while the student from BU with his hard-earned, but unimpressive B is placed on the waiting list. Once again, is this always the case? No and I don’t claim that it is. I’m just giving an example.</p>