Grading System @ Cornell?

[ELY]

<p>My son (sr.) is enthusiastic about applying to Cornell especially after touring this month. I have been hearing that the students are very competitive with one another at Cornell and that classes are graded on a curve making it even more cut-throat. Is this true? (He is interested in Engineering.)</p>

[norcalguy]

<p>At most colleges, the science courses are going to be graded on a curve. There’s nothing extraordinary about the grading at Cornell. Average GPA is in the 3.3-3.4 range, which makes it similar in difficulty to other top schools.</p>

[playhacker]

<p>I honestly don’t know how the class will be competitive since everyone doesn’t have it against each other to get better grades, and the school doesn’t even rank students</p>

[ZFanatic]

<p>To get the grade, you gotta beat the curve. To beat the curve, you gotta beat your classmates.</p>

<p>But honestly, I didn’t get that sense one bit when I was here, nor do I have it now. Granted, classes start tomorrow, but still. I highly doubt someone in your class will give you the answers to the quiz, but they will be glad to study with you. </p>

<p>I also doubt that it’s any more competitive than any other top school. But yeah, I’m sure the gents at HYP say “Oh no, I would love for you to get a higher grade than me. Let me mark the first five questions wrong.”</p>

<p>It’s competitive, but not any more so than any other top school.</p>

[richs73cas]

<p>Here’s a link to the Median Grade Reports [Cornell</a> University Registrar: Median Grades](<a href=“http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu//Student/mediangradesA.html]Cornell”>http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu//Student/mediangradesA.html)</p>

<p>[Cornell</a> University Registrar: About Median Grades](<a href=“http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu//Student/mediangrades.html]Cornell”>http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu//Student/mediangrades.html)

About Median Grades</p>

<p>(Adopted by the Faculty Senate, April 10, 1996)</p>

<p>WHEREAS, the Committee on Academic Programs and Policies, has determined that it is desirable for Cornell University to provide more information to the reader of a transcript and produce more meaningful letter grades,</p>

<p>THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Faculty senate adopts the following policies on grade reporting:</p>

<ol>
<li>Transcripts and grade reports for undergraduate students shall indicate, along with the grade earned, the median grade given in the course and the course enrollment. Independent study, honors courses, and individual research may be exempted upon recommendation by the department (or program) and appropriate college committee. Courses with enrollments of fewer than ten students will also be exempt from this policy. This policy shall become effective as soon as technically feasible, but will apply only to classes entering after the effective date.</li>
<li>The Office of the University Registrar shall publish at the end of each semester, a list of median grades and enrollments of all undergraduate courses with ten or more students. This policy shall become effective in Spring 1997.</li>
</ol>

<p>Technical Details</p>

<p>The record of a course on an undergraduate’s transcript now reads, for example:</p>

<p>Hyperspace Travel PHYS 999 3.00 B-
This indicates the course title and number, credits received, and grade. Under the new proposal the record would read:</p>

<p>Hyperspace Travel PHYS 999 3.00 B- (110) (B-)
This indicates, in addition, that the course had an enrollment of 110 and that the median grade was B-.</p>

<p>This procedure will be introduced so that each undergraduate class will have a uniform transcript. For example, if the procedure goes into effect in Fall, 1998, it will affect only students who begin their first year in 1998 or later years.</p>

<p>. . . . </p>

<p>Rationale</p>

<p>Students will get a more accurate idea of their performance, and they will be assured that users of the transcript will also have this knowledge. A grade of B- in a course of substantial enrollment in which the median was C+ will often indicate a stronger performance than, e.g., a B+ in a large course in which the median is A. More accurate recognition of performance may encourage students to take courses in which the median grade is relatively low.</p>

<p>Outside users of the transcript will have more information on which to base their assessment of a student’s performance in his or her courses.

</p>

<p>Link to a Paper Studying if the Reporting of Median Grades has led to Grade Inflation
<a href=“http://www.arts.cornell.edu/econ/bar/Quest.pdf[/url]”>http://www.arts.cornell.edu/econ/bar/Quest.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Technical Difficulties kept the median Grades from being reported on Transcripts, until 2008 . Transcripts for Students entering after 2008 will report the median grade and enrollment in the class.</p>

<p>Here’s a Cornell Sun article on this issue.
[Getting</a> the A | The Cornell Daily Sun](<a href=“http://cornellsun.com/node/34307]Getting”>http://cornellsun.com/node/34307)

Among those who point to the superior performance of Cornell students is Prof. Thomas Silva, plant biology, who teaches Green World/Blue Planet in the fall. A science course for non-science majors, Green World/Blue Planet reported a median grade of A+ for Fall 2007. Silva explained his grading simply: His students do well on his tests.</p>

<p>Because professors closely guard their autonomy when it comes to class grading and instruction, any real standardization of median grades across the University is practically impossible. In 1965, though, the Cornell faculty adopted a standardized grading system of sorts — outlining, albeit in general terms, the qualifications for A, B or C work and so on. Since then, the number of As distributed has risen from 17.5 percent of all grades to 40 percent in 2000, according to Sun archives.</p>

<p>Now, all those As could spell trouble for students who draw easily toward leniently-graded classes. With median grades appearing on academic transcripts, grade inflation could come back to haunt future classes of Cornellians. But worry not, says Prof. Paul Chirik, chemistry: This could be a good thing after all.</p>

<p>“The first reaction of students could be: this is a bad thing,” Chirik said. “But this will provide the person reading that transcript with calibration. Med schools know that a B- in Chem 207 really means something.”

</p>

<p>[S.A</a> Votes Against Median Grades for Transfers | The Cornell Daily Sun](<a href=“http://cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2009/02/27/sa-votes-against-median grades-transfers]S.A”>S.A Votes Against Median Grades for Transfers - The Cornell Daily Sun)

The Student Assembly passed a resolution — by a vote of 17 to 1 — yesterday that seeks to ensure that current transfer students will not be subjected to the University’s new policy of publishing median grades on transcripts. Andrew Brokman ’11, S.A. Transfer Representative, had proposed Resolution 26, which “requests that the registrar clarify the Median Grade Policy, so that it is in conformity with the Faculty Senate Resolution.” It states that students who will graduate any date earlier than June 2012 should not have the median grades on their transcripts. Last year, the University an*nounced that it would begin putting the median grades of courses on students’ transcripts. The policy was created in 1996 by the Faculty Senate, yet was only implemented in 2008 when it became technologically possible.

</p>

[keyboard29]

<p>Yeah, interesting quote from Chirik in that article - "“The first reaction of students could be: this is a bad thing,” Chirik said. “But this will provide the person reading that transcript with calibration. Med schools know that a B- in Chem 207 really means something.” .</p>

<p>He forgot to reveal the fact that med schools don’t even see what the class is curved to…</p>

<p>Oh and question about Orgo 3570. It says it’s curved to B-/B. Any clue what that means? To get an A- would be .7/.8 standard deviations above the mean?</p>

[keyboard29]

<p>Hrm seems I can’t edit my post. Is B-/B just a curve to a B? Each year’s Median grade report for 357(0) has said B.</p>

[Lindz812]

<p>Engineering is hard enough, social engineering is near to impossible.</p>

<p>Princeton has a similar but not identical policy to Cornell. The Daily Princetonian printed an editorial on 12/2/09 called On Grade Deflation. The comments are interesting.</p>

[nd09]

<p>To answer your concern about med schools not knowing what the class is curved to, I believe the median grade is listed next to your grade on your transcript.</p>

[faustarp]

<p>I guess if the grades are not normally distributed then you could have a mean that’s different from the median. it seems like given the number of people in the course, though, they probably shouldn’t be too skewed in one direction or the other. I don’t want to conjecture any further so that no one is like “oh I saw on CC that they do” whatever when I really don’t know.</p>

<p>I have taken plenty those notoriously curved courses (the gen chems, the orgos, the intro bios) AND a stats course (lol) and I still don’t get where the grades come from half the time. it’s even more confusing because at the end of Fall 2009 our 3570 prof was telling us how, because of some committee or department thing, they were obligated to somehow change the curve of orgo so the grades were better or something. it was extremely vague, so I’m not trying to obfuscate here - that’s basically what he stood in front of the class and said…that and a little bit of negativity about American grade inflation.
all I know is that I was definitely below the mean (by any possible calculation) and I still got a highly unexpected B-.</p>

[keyboard29]

<p>Med schools recalculate Cornell grades and never really look at the median grades because we’re on a 4.3 scale, and they convert to 4.0.</p>

[norcalguy]

<p>The only grades med schools recalcuate are A+'s (A+'s are worth 4.3 at Cornell and 4.0 to med schools). Everything else is the same. A B+ is still 3.3, an A is still 4.0, etc.</p>