I have read in several places that Stanford inflates the grades of students. Does this really happen or is this an urban legend? P.S. this may have been discussed ad nauseam before-if so please forgive me.
Rampant. Almost Harvardesque. I know a couple kids there now and none have ever gotten a B.
Unless the university, the college/school, or the department has an explicit policy on grading distribution, grading is entirely determined by the instructor. When instructors have 100% academic freedom in determining grades, systematic inflation or deflation is less about instructors, and more about the average quality of students and the nature of majors (e.g., humanities vs. STEM).
I teach at a top 50-100 state flagship university. My students are rather bi-polar in the sense that I have many good students (A’s and B’s) and many weak students (D’s and F’s). But I bet at Stanford the situation is very different, and I will not be surprised that if the average GPA at Stanford is much higher than that at my university due to the lack of fat tail.
I think it is unfair to accuse the lack of C’s or D’s at Stanford just because almost every student at Stanford cares about his/her grade and actually puts into vast efforts for the study.
Wow I spoke to my son last week and he is a freshman there. He said the classes were much easier than he anticipated and (shockingly he has all A’s). So should I be concerned that he’s actually learning? What is accomplished by giving them A’s in every class.
Grade inflation at Stanford. Yes. At Harvard? Yes. Average grade is an A. I think grade inflation doesn’t help anyone, and it certainly doesn’t help learning when you think you already know everything.
I think we are talking about the median/average grade of A- here, not A.
In contrast, if we are talking about grade deflation at this tier of universities, such as Princeton before it abandoned its grading distribution policy, the median/average deflated grade was B+.
Is there any proof that there is actual grade inflation and that the average student isn’t getting an A because they’re an A student? To me, inflation is giving an A (or whatever the higher grade is) to a student that doesn’t deserve it.
Scores of literally “perfect” students are denied from Stanford each year. The best of the best get in to these tippy top schools. I’d bet my last dollar that they’d be perfect 4.0 students at just about any university.
I’d bet my last dollar as well.
Grade inflation is only a bad thing if everyone gets an A regardless of effort. If 90% of the kids are getting As, and I don’t care if they are all perfect little geniuses that got into H or S, chances are pretty good that some of those kids are mailing it in. You should have to do the work and do it really well to get As. Otherwise why go to class at all or why even show up on campus. If getting in was all that mattered, let’s just give them all a plaque that says you were smart enough and unique enough in HS to get accepted to HYPS.
In our public HS school, we sent a few students each year to HYPSM. These few students almost always took a few courses from the state flagship university where I teach when they were high schoolers because the state paid for it. You know what? They almost always earned A+ (occasionally A) at the state flagship university that is ranked 50-100 nationally. But when these students went on to HYPSM, quite a few of them ended up at A-, or even in B range although they had put into multiple times of efforts compared with when they were taking courses with the state flagship university.
What I am trying to say is that if a kid wants to constantly earn A and A- at HYPSM, it requires vast efforts. When you observe that most of them have around A- grade, it simply means that most of them want to have decent grades and are willing to put in efforts.
i can’t speak to HPS, or for that matter courses other than CS and Math, but I can assure you that DS (at Y) is not mailing it in, except difficult p-sets that take many hours of work before they’re mailed.
Grade inflation refers to the increase in average GPA at the same school over time. Here is the data for Harvard
Year GPA
1889 2.46
1914 2.4
1915 2.4
1950 2.55
1963 2.7
1966 2.8
1967 3.0
1975 3.05
1985 3.17
1986 3.21
1987 3.23
1988 3.24
1989 3.28
1990 3.30
1991 3.30
1992 3.31
1993 3.31
1994 3.33
1995 3.36
1996 3.38
1997 3.38
1998 3.40
1999 3.42
2000 3.41
2001 3.39
2002 3.41
2003 3.42
2004 3.43
2005 3.45
2014 3.64
2015 3.65
@Mastadon By your standard, almost all universities in the US have grade inflation. Then why should we single out Stanford?
Here is some data for Stanford
Year GPA
1917 2.48
1918 2.45
1919 2.56
1920 2.46
1921 2.47
1922 2.48
1923 2.49
1924 2.50
1925 2.50
1926 2.49
1927 2.53
1928 2.55
1929 2.55
1930 2.51
1931 2.55
1932 2.56
1933 2.55
1934 2.52
1935 2.48
1936 2.48
1937 2.52
1938 2.52
1939 2.57
1940 2.53
1941 2.53
1942 2.55
1943 2.60
1944 2.60
1945 2.57
1946 2.58
1947 2.60
1968 2.98
1973 3.37
1975 3.28
1978 3.28
1980 3.27
1982 3.24
1986 3.30
1988 3.34
1990 3.37
1992 3.40
1994 3.42
1995 3.34
2011 3.57
@Mastadon The pattern of increasing GPA is not unique to Harvard or Stanford. It is also the case for public universities: http://www.gradeinflation.com
During the 1983-2013 period, the average GPA for public schools increased from about 2.75 to 3.1; i.e., about an 12.7% increase. The average GPA for private schools increased from about 2.95 to 3.3; i.e., about a 11.9% increase.
Thanks @Mastadon . Without actually looking at the underlying work that generated these grades, it’s hard to reach a conclusion. What is true though is that at least into the1980s, Stanford was a good, but largely regional school. It was selective, sure, but nothing like it is today. And while there were plenty of smart kids there, I am pretty sure far fewer of them cared as much about their grades as the current cohort, most of whom have been caring about their grades since they learned grades existed. All to say, that upward trend may reflect the change in the students over time rather than a lowering of standards.
@prof2dad - We should be careful about singling out colleges - it is happening across the board in High Schools and Colleges.
Some are a little more guilty than others.
Princeton attempted to stop it several years ago, but I think they have given up.
MIT seems to have inflated less than Harvard and Stanford.
The data for individual schools is at the end of this link.
@Mastadon When over time (say the past 100 years) there is a large increase in average GPA across the board (say from C to A-), the relatively small variations (say from B+ to A-) across schools do not actually mean too much. This is particularly so when some schools have more students in the STEM area (say MIT) whereas some schools have more students in humanities (say Yale) and when it is well known that grading in STEM tends to be stricter than in humanities. Personally, I would not say Yale is more guilty than MIT.