Less A`s?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
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<p>I read a Newsweek article about Princeton. It was really short (more like a column), but it stated how professors were giving out less As. Is that true for all undergraduate departments? The dean had to send out 3,000 letters to many companies and corporations about it.</p>

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<p>Is it true that they're going to give out less As overall than before? Yeah, to combat grade inflation. But remember, some departments (physical sci/engineering) already had low grade inflation, so they won't be hit as hard as the humanities.</p>

<p>I didn't know the dean sent out letters to places. Anyone have a link to verify this?</p>

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<p>I heard the Dean speak at the Freshmen Parents weekend and she did indeed say that Princeton had sent out tons of letters explaining the new grading policy. She also indicated that the policy is sent out with each offiicial transcript.</p>

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<p>Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh ::twitches::
Please forgive me, I don't mean to be rude, but it's "fewer A's" not "Less A's". The difference between "less" and "fewer" is that "less" pertains to qualitative things, like "less blue" and "less heavy", while "fewer" is used with quantitative subjects (i.e. "fewer books", "fewer As").
[/Grammar rant]</p>

<p>OT: I hope the Dean is sending out letters explaining the policy. That will (a)make Pton look better than similar universities with crazy grade inflation and (b) counteract lower GPAs a little. Now, if only the Dean sends letters to Grad schools (esp med schools). I'm not considering pre-med, but I feel badly for those at Princeton pursuing such a degree. As far as I know med schools are taking the GPA at face value.</p>

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<p>THANK YOU! Reading this thread, I was beginning to twitch myself.</p>

<p>Another way to think about it: Use "less" if you are talking about the concept as a whole. Use "fewer" if the things in question can be counted out one by one. E.g. Less money. Fewer dollars. Money is the general concept, but dollars can be counted out individually.</p>

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<p>JTC, you and I could be great friends. Grammar is one of my quirks. :-D</p>

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<p>oops. i just caught that.</p>

<p>yeah, sorry about that. i don<code>t like it when people mix "your" and "you</code>re" and the like... i don`t know what i was thinking when i wrote that.</p>

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<p>I don<code>t know what you were thinking either, k</code>```````chen*!* =)</p>

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<p>Your silly!</p>

<p>hehe</p>

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<p>I did read that Princeton's planning to start grading on curves more because it's been accused of giving out way too many A's.</p>

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<p>Just search on "grade deflation" on this board and on the Daily Princetonian website. Also go to the Academics page of the Princeton site. There is a ton of info out there on this topic. In theory, A-range grades are being limited to 35% of overall grades, although there are some professors who give no more than 20% and others who choose to ignore the guidelines. Many students appreciate the challenge but object to the quotas.</p>

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<p>I was twitching too. Not quite as egregrious as "I'm going to go and lay out in the sun," however.</p>

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<p>DD is going to fit right in. On her top 10 list of annoyances, people who pluralize possessive nouns.</p>

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<p>Well, I agree with your dd, OhMother, but there is an emerging stylistic school of thought that endorses that form in the interest of avoiding sexist language. It is not always, therefore, a sign of ignorance. ;)</p>

<p>We must all be nuts here lol.</p>

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<p>I am not sure the whole Princeton’s grade deflation is a good thing. Don’t get me wrong, it is a step in the right direction. But, it seems they are going against the flow. As I understand, Harvard maintains its grade inflation for quite some time- giving out A’s to almost 50-60% of the class. It can be argued that Harvard students are the top of tops, so the half of the class is excellent deserving A’s. Students from other tough grade schools like MIT, Caltech, may groan and moan, accusing that H is giving out so many easy A’s . So far, it seems work nicely for H students- high GPA does help them getting into Law and Med schools. With every other factors being equal (i.e., equivalent LSAT, MCAT, EC’s), Harvard’s 3.9 sure looks whole lot better than Princeton’s 3.5 :p</p>

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<p><em>grumbles</em></p>

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<p>Why did Princeton have to do this?</p>

<p>It's just going to divert people away from going...</p>