Lower Grades Please Princeton

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
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<p>"PRINCETON BOROUGH - The easy "A" at Princeton University, which was harder to come by in the last school year than in the recent past, may become even more elusive this year. </p>

<p>"The university, determined to combat grade inflation by adhering to stricter, self-imposed grading guidelines that first took effect a year ago, yesterday reported a one-year decline of 5.1 percent in the share of "A's" awarded in its undergraduate courses. </p>

<p>""A" grades (including "A-pluses," "A's" and "A-minuses") comprised 40.9 percent of all grades given in Princeton undergraduate courses in 2004-05, compared with 46 percent the previous year and 47.9 percent the year before that, according to the university.</p>

<p>"Last year's decline in "A's" from 46 to 40.9 percent puts Princeton just short of halfway to its goal of having "A's" make up less than 35 percent of grades in undergraduate courses each year. </p>

<p>"Princeton Dean of the Faculty Nancy Weiss Malkiel said in an interview yesterday that university officials are impressed with the first-year results of the grade-inflation crackdown and will look for further progress this year and beyond. </p>

<p>"This is an established faculty policy now," Malkiel said. </p>

<p>"Departments that were giving very high percentages of "A" grades are making real strides toward bringing their grades down," Malkiel said in a prepared statement, while departments that were already grading according to the new expectations "are continuing to hold the line." </p>

<p>"Many departments are at or very close to the desired standards," Malkiel said. "In others, while there is more work to be done, the progress made in a very short time has been nothing short of remarkable." </p>

<p>"Princeton students and faculty have expressed mixed feelings about the university's tougher grading standards from the onset, and some continued to do so yesterday. </p>

<p>"Philosophy professor K. Anthony Appiah said he doesn't object to the year-old policy, though he didn't take part in the faculty vote that put it into effect."</p>

<p>From: <a href="http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1127203574241680.xml&coll=5%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1127203574241680.xml&coll=5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>people who get into Princeton are freaking smart.</p>

<p>I don't see why they want to cut As to 35%. If all Tigers deserve an A, then so be it.</p>

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<p>same thought here. why are they doing this?</p>

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<p><em>slow clap</em>...</p>

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<p><em>furious clapping!</em></p>

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<p>I think this whole concept of "deserving A's" is stupid. When someone says that they "deserve an A", what are they talking about? Do they mean that their work is at A-level? Well, that completely depends on the class and its grading system. One cannot say that they deserve an A if the grading system doesn't give them one, because what one deserves is defined by the grading system. Grades are relative. There is nothing absolute of universal about them. </p>

<p>Grade inflation correlates with pride. People have projected views of themselves and think they deserve things they don't.</p>

<p>Yes, people who get into Princeton are very smart. So what?! If everyone at Princeton were to get A's, then should no one at state schools be allowed to get A's? Should their grades be DEflated? I don't follow the reasoning behind justifying grade inflation.</p>

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<p>I've said this a million times: People who get into Princeton are smart, therefore the classes should be hard so as to challenge them, therefore the classes should be hard enough that NOT EVERYONE GETS AN A.</p>

<p>I am not paying 40k a year to get an easy A. I am paying 40k a year to get the best education possible and were I to keep a 4.0 all four years, I would be upset. You aren't good at everything. You don't (and won't) get an A in everything. Accept that fact and make everyones lives a bit easier.</p>

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<p>Ahhh another debate on Grade Inflation/deflation/hyper-inflation ...</p>

<p>Remember its not the Students who decide who get A's but the professors. They the most qualified and if they think someone deserves an A because their work is great then so be it. The problem comes in my opinion when there is systematic grade inflation. If 50% get A's then I can believe its fair, but 90% at Harvard a few years ago- now that is just plain BS. </p>

<p>Prettyfish- unless you're talking about Harvard a few years ago which you're not- not everyone does get an A. You're right- classes should be hard enough so that not everyone gets an A.</p>

<p>The way to tackle grade inflation in my view isn't just to place your students on the curve and assign the top 35% with A's etc etc but to make the course harder and harder until you get that distribution you want so that a 90%+ gets you an A etc etc. It might be extremely smart students so you should make the course so that you'll push those students to their limmits! Thats just my opinion anyhow.</p>

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<p>I'm probably one of the few who likes this. Personally, I think an A shouldn't just be for reaching a certain point percentage wise, but it should also be compared to the rest of the class. I think there's something wrong when more than 35% of the class is getting A's.</p>

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<p>I think that people should be graded according to the rest of the class, if the whole class gets an A, then its inflation, but if the whole class gets F's then its wrong too. It should be the class that determines the A's and not the teacher's arbitrarity.</p>