<p>
[quote]
Some of the 279 students
who took it in the spring semester said that the teacher, Matthew B.
Platt, an assistant professor of government, told them at the outset
that he gave high grades and that neither attending his lectures nor
the discussion sessions with graduate teaching fellows was
mandatory.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>No wonder there's so much competition to get into an Ivy. How do YOU spell "diploma mill?" </p>
<p>The academic work at Harvard appears, in the experience of those I know, to be very difficult. Core Courses, or Gen Ed courses as they are now called, may be less rigorous, because they are taken by students who do not have any experience in the subject area. I do not know if this government course was Gen Ed, but it sounds like it might have been. </p>
<p>The professor did not word this very effectively. He could simply be stating his attendance policy here. In other words, he is saying that he does not formally detract from grades for absences, as some professors do. However, obviously, not attending lectures or discussion would adversely affect grades over the course of the term.</p>
<p>As long as Harvard is dealing with student ethics, I think that another question might be, how should students deal with take-home exam questions that are very unclear? It sounds like many went to their TF’s and got help clarifying the question, assistance which was then passed on to other students. I can easily see this happening, with students not thinking any wrong was done.</p>
<p>Students at Harvard often meet in study groups and come up with group study guides. I wonder how much of a role these study guides played in this situation, including guides from previous years that were posted online. Again, this is a murky area. Obviously, study groups should not be held after the exam was given out.</p>
<p>How do you spell putting a ridiculous spin on something in order to ride one’s own personal hobbyhorse?</p>
<p>Thank you, compmom, for applying some reason to the matter.</p>
<p>The article also says that the course was popular because it had the reputation of being über-easy. </p>
<p>So much for the myth about the wonders of the intellectual environment. </p>
<p>Deresciewicz confirmed again.</p>
<p>Consolation - did you click on the article? The professor is quoted saying he gives out A’s. It is dissapointing to read about that kind of behavior at an Ivy.</p>
<p>Well it’s often said that the hardest part is getting into some of these colleges and universities. I’ve never believed that the ranking of the colleges of USNWR had much to do with the rigor or life of the mind. I’m sure Harvard is no walk in the park academically but i also wouldn’t call Harvard a diploma mill.</p>
<p>
So the “wonders of the intellectual environment” don’t exist? Anywhere? I don’t see how the article proves this. Is the point that no university is perfect or beyond reproach? Really, who didn’t know that already?</p>
<p>I’d be careful not to judge a school by one media frenzy. One class, one rotten professor doesn’t bust any myths about intellectual challenges, for me. And all schools have sets of easier classes- we can all recall this from our own college days. We don’t know enough yet about the backstory here. The very fact that there were 279 in the class suggests this is a low-level course.</p>
<p>I would interpret the prof’s statement “I gave out 120 A’s last year and I’ll give out 120 more” differently. His meaning could have been that the course is not graded on a curve but rather on some objective standard of knowledge acquisition. If all 120 students could meet that standard, then they would all have earned As. </p>
<p>My own attendance policy is similar to his - I don’t put myself in the position of having to evaluate whether a particular student absence is serious enough to be “excused.” At the same time, I strive to make the class interesting and useful enough that students want to attend, and I put a lot of emphasis on class discussion/participation and building community among the students. </p>
<p>It does sound like he got dinged by his superiors the previous year for giving out all those A grades - or else he realized that he needed up up his game to meet the level of his audience - and that’s why he tinkered with the course. He may need some training in exam construction, but without further evidence, I’m uncomfortable with calling him a “rotten professor.” Yet.</p>
<p>I happened to stumble upon a copy of the course syllabus online. <a href=“http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic839683.files/Intro%20Congress%20Syllabus%202011.pdf[/url]”>http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic839683.files/Intro%20Congress%20Syllabus%202011.pdf</a></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>According to dozens of HS classmates, friends, and colleagues who graduated from Harvard, one can skate by depending on the major. Two fields with a widespread perception of this among Harvard College alums I’ve met are Social Studies and Government. </p>
<p>That doesn’t necessarily mean that those majors are devoid of any hard or rigorous courses. Instead, it means there’s a perception that the “slacker contingent” at Harvard tends to gravitate towards those fields and select courses according to their inclinations. </p>
<p>Also, I took a look at the Intro to Congress syllabus. Doesn’t seem to be anything more than an intro course for new majors and non-majors hoping to fulfill a core/distribution requirement. Reading load also seems on the light side for a course at Harvard…or most schools in its academic range and slightly below.</p>
<p>No doubt we do not have all the facts. Nevertheless, with 279 students, that is one BIG class. Even the subsections must have been fairly large (for discussion classes) if there were only 10. The course apparently is very dependent on the teaching fellow, too. Open book exams? All this smacks of a poorly taught, poorly managed course. </p>
<p>I don’t recall ever having an open book exam in college. For some subjects, maybe they are appropriate. However, a Core (foundation) course would not have covered a subject like “Introduction to Congress”. Instead, it might have explored the historical and philosophical foundations of the Constitution, through close readings of primary source materials such as the Federalist Papers or the Spirit of the Laws. To achieve a decent level of engagement, it would have had 15-20 students. It never would have had a TA (I had ONE in all four years). Most likely, it would have had a fairly senior professor asking Socratic questions about the readings at every class. Admittedly, that meant sitting through sometimes less-than-enlightening responses from bloviating first-year males. In other respects, it would have been no less rigorous than a more advanced course. </p>
<p>Harvard surely offers many excellent classes. However, if I thought the Core/Gen Ed classes were so big and poorly run, especially in a field of high interest, I’d scratch the school off my list. Anyone who has the credentials to get into such a selective school should expect better.</p>
<p>
Many of my classes allowed me to bring in a sheet of notes and formulas. Didn’t help much usually.</p>
<p>I also had a take home final in Complex Analysis. That didn’t help much either.</p>
<p>I had an open book exam in my Shakespeare class so that we could actually quote from the plays. I thought it made it much, much harder since I did not figure out a way to usefully identify quotes in advance when I had no idea what the questions would be. It was not a take home exam. A take home exam, in my opinion is just a final paper(s) with time limits on the honor system. I’m not a fan, but I don’t think they are evil or signs of lazy teaching. If you think how you synthesize facts is more important than how you memorize facts there’s a lot to be said for them.</p>
<p>Open book exams usually are hard, that’s why it’s open book in the first place.</p>
<p>Davidson College has take home exams. The Honor Code is a big deal at Davidson.</p>
<p>This proves nothing. It’s meaningless. There are some easy classes at all schools, and always have been. Do they still call them “guts”? Rocks for Jocks, Nuts and Sluts, Physics for Poets, and so on?</p>
<p>And just an interesting historical fact back in the day (1950s) Radcliffe students used to take exams separately from Harvard ones even though they attended classes together by then. The reason was that Radcliffe had an honor code and took them unproctored while Harvard students had to have proctors. I don’t think it’s the end of the world for there to be some easier classes at a college and I hate grading on the curve. If everyone does a terrific job as far as I am concerned every one of them should get an A.</p>
<p>Stradmom, sorry, I was going for the idea it’s one problem class that hit the media. I also agree that what should be important is what’s learned, what’s taken away from the class, not the quantity of A’s. </p>
<p>I think, as someone suggested, it’s easy to recall anecdotes about H being easy- but we should consider the high skill levels of those admited. It’s like the brilliant pre-med kids in a notorious weeder school who tell CC the math-sci “easy.” Or?</p>
<p>
I had several open book exams. Also take-home exams and “essay exams” (an untimed essay synthesizing and extending the course content rather than a 3-hour exam with several shorter questions). </p>
<p>I don’t have a problem with most of what the article says. 120 As in a class of 279 students seems perfectly normal to me. (Many colleges have average GPAs in the 3.3 - 3.4 range.) Attendance being optional is the norm too. (It means that students are not explicitly penalized for missing a class; it does not mean that students can expect an A without doing the work.) Sharing lecture notes is quite common and usually not a problem either. (What else would you do if you missed a class because you were sick or out of town?) Instructors or TAs clarifying poorly-phrased exam questions is standard as well.</p>
<p>The only problems I have are with TAs allegedly walking students through exam questions and students allegedly collaborating on exams. </p>
<p>Maybe the course was easy. But that’s not something I can judge from the attendance policy or the number of As awarded. (In fact, some of my easiest classes ever had a mandatory attendance policy. The professors’ expectations were so low that they didn’t even trust us to show up to class otherwise. Assignments and exams reflected those same low expectations.)</p>