<p>D is home for the holidays having survived her first semester in college. Grades are coming in online and we're pleased she has done very well so far.</p>
<p>But I'm not sure how to evaluate an A these days. From your collective experience--about what percent of kids get A's in freshman courses? </p>
<p>Back when I was in college, getting a B was already doing pretty well and only about the top 10 or 20% got A's but I suspect there's been some grade inflation since then.</p>
<p>I agree Pye that an A today ain't what it was back in the day. Even at Cornell, where grade inflation is claimed to have been kept in check, the median grade in most classes is B+ or better.</p>
<p>From what I've heard from friends of my kids and my kids--it depends on the college. Some have gotten straight A's with very little work, others have studied their tails off and been lucky to pull a 3.0.</p>
<p>The issue is a thorny one. There is a school of thought that says there is no grade inflation when one takes such factors as the quality of the student body, fewer courses outside area of interest, etc. into account.</p>
<p>Anyway, it's going to vary by school.</p>
<p>It depends on the college and especially on the particular courses/major. Many engineering courses make it very tough to get an A while some other GE type courses or majors (like PoliSci) can make it very easy to get an A.</p>
<p>its going to vary school by school, major by major....im a a top 20 engineering school, and its tough to even pull a 3.0 (average is 2.78)...whereas some of the other majors at my school a 3.5 is average...
then again, at a local college, a 3.5 is the average overall...soo, it depends really</p>
<p>It definitely depends on the college. For my S's concentration, a 3.0 is considered as qualifying one to write an honors paper for graduation with that distinction.</p>
<p>In my limited experience, it is fairly easy to get an A-; a straightforward A is harder to get. All As even more so. Two siblings at Harvard made news when they graduated with straight As (several years apart). This was when Harvard was being described as having grade inflation.<br>
I agree, however, that yesterday's B has become today's B+.</p>
<p>As others have said, it depends a lot on the school. It also depends on the particular class and professor. At my school, if you're taking classes at the appropriate level (not too easy or advanced) you can pull off a C as long as you put in a little effort. If you work hard throughout the term, you can get a B. If you concentrate mainly on that class or work like crazy, you can probably pull off an A for most classes. On the other hand, I have friends at other schools who expect As, maybe a B+ for a tough class. My sister's school curves most classes to a B-, but I know students at other schools who say classes are curved to a B+. An A in a poetry class may be easier than an A in organic chemistry, in part because science and math classes are far more likely to put grades on a curve. As Marite said, too, I think it's significantly easier to get an A- than a straight A.</p>
<p>Interesting question. They ease of grades seems to vary greatly even between departments. My D (unknowingly) ended up taking a class in the engineering department of her college in addition to classes from the music department, english department, and a class in chemistry. I was surprised to learn that the ONLY grades given in her chemistry class are A or B (I'm not sure if there are grades of these)...and I'm pretty sure I understood that correctly because I questioned her about it. On the flip side, there will apparently be very few A's in the class in engineering.</p>
<p>This may make some sense. In my view, there are certain subjects in which what is tested is mastery of finite material...e.g., biology, organic chemistry or other quantitative classes. In theory, if everyone in the class mastered the material, then everyone would deserve and get an A. In classes which require abstract or sythetic thought, mastery of finite material is not tested and grading is not as clear cut.</p>
<p>My older son has taken classes at two unis. One uni is notorious for it's grade deflation. A's are rarely given out. At the other uni, the professor took attendance one day in November--the first time in the semester. When asked why, the professor said it was his way of determining who wouldn't get an 'A'. Son also got an A on all of his work at that uni. Funnily, he prefers the grade deflating uni now. He felt like the other 'A's came too cheap.</p>
<p>Varies uni to uni.</p>
<p>HubbellGardner referred to my daughter's school the other day as Davidson -lite. It appears that the similarities do not end with the student body.:eek: Davidson , notorious for grade delation would have to go a long way to beat what is happening at Rhodes. Zero A's in one seminar class of 15, 1 maybe 2 in another seminar class of 15 but the biggest surprise to me was the two science courses where over 50% made a C+ or worse. (Gee. That seems harsh but one prof was really complimentary to the class on a job well done.????)</p>
<p>The mean and median grades were around a 72. I think one class had 75 kids, and one had 50+. Both were lab sciences. D doesn't know the final breakdown but she thinks at midterm about 15% of the classes had A's. </p>
<p>Even though D did extremely well in both science classes she felt she worked pretty dang hard for them.</p>
<p>According to my daughter, an A at Harvard is still a significant mark of excellence and not easy to come by. The standard "good job" grade is a B or B+.</p>
<p>Almost all of D's friends have found college alot harder than they anticipated, no matter if they went to local public university or away to a more selective school. D ended up with 3.6 but really had to work her tail off to achieve that. Last time she had received a B was in elementary school for penmanship :)</p>
<p>At the large state U my older son goes to the "weeder" courses - prerequisites in which a student must get a designated minimum grade in order to qualify to declare a major as an upperclassman in a certain departments - are graded on a strict curve, which the department mandates must average to a "C". Other courses seem to be more flexible.</p>
<p>We just finished finalizing grades for the class I TA'd this semester and this was the break-down...</p>
<p>20% - A
20% - AB
20% - B
20% - BC
10% - C
5% - D
5% - F</p>
<p>The average for the class was ~2.9 for General Geology.</p>
<p>Of course, it varies widely with class and with level (i.e. lower level vs. upper level).</p>
<p>My first college, Antioch, had no tests and no grades. The people who worked hard did it for the love of learning. And Antioch grads did and still do well in acceptances to grad schools and med school.</p>
<p>Hey curmudgeon, you daughter really needs to better research those courses she is taking. :) Well, maybe not her but most of her classmates. The average freshman gpa there is about 3.0 with 28% having a gpa of 3.5 or better and 57% having a gpa of 3.0 or better!!</p>
<p>But here is the interesting stat. Rhodes questioned its freshman class during orientation about their grade expectations. 80% of males thought they would have a freshman year gpa of 3.0 or better and 48% actually did. A big disconnect there. But only 65% of females thought they would reach that 3.0 level and 63% actually did! Ah the cool rationality of the female. </p>
<p>But with these statistics it is safe to say that Rhodes is effectively holding the line on rampant grade inflation.</p>
<p>Cool stats wheatthin. Where'd you get them? Are those from that grade inflation site? If so, aren't those badly outdatred? Or hopefully you have a better source and I'm betting you do. (In fact I'm almost certain.;) ) </p>
<p>I have another grade type stat I found interesting about the class of '05. Less than 10 graduating seniors graduated magna, and less than 10 summa. (At least that's what I calculated from the graduation data. I counted.) And then look at the number of science kids in that group. Talk about rare air.</p>
<p>curmudgeon, no it was actually from a WWW.rhodes.edu site.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rhodes.edu/academics/2009.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.rhodes.edu/academics/2009.asp</a></p>