<p>In 1996 Cornell University decided to publish median course grades on line.
<a href="http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu/Student/mediangrades.html%5B/url%5D">http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu/Student/mediangrades.html</a></p>
<p>
[quote]
Rationale</p>
<p>Students will get a more accurate idea of their performance, and they will be assured that users of the transcript will also have this knowledge. A grade of B- in a course of substantial enrollment in which the median was C+ will often indicate a stronger performance than, e.g., a B+ in a large course in which the median is A. More accurate recognition of performance may encourage students to take courses in which the median grade is relatively low.</p>
<p>Outside users of the transcript will have more information on which to base their assessment of a student's performance in his or her courses.
[/quote]
A Paper published January 2005 by Talia Bar and Asaf Zussman of Cornell's Economics Department, studies the effect of this and observes:
Since then " the rate of grade inflation has doubled and course enrollment has become much more positively related to grades"
<a href="http://www.arts.cornell.edu/econ/azussman/quest.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.arts.cornell.edu/econ/azussman/quest.pdf</a></p>
<p>In 1990 the average Cornell Grade was 3.11; in 1997 it was 3.20; in 2004 it was 3.34. (See Chart in Atlantic Magazine) <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200506/primarysources%5B/url%5D">http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200506/primarysources</a> </p>
<p>Since the purpose of providing this information was to make students more willing to take classes with relatively lower median grades, </p>
<p>Do you think Cornell should abandon posting the median grades in the future to prevent students from grade shopping???</p>
<p>down with those grade reports! I tried grade shopping but it didn't work out for me. I signed up for a class partially based on the fact that the median was a A- last year. This sem. they changed professors and the new median is a B. doh!</p>
<p>yeah, I never really understood why they posted that information... It definitely welcomes the "Grade shopping." I don't think it's good to have the grades up there for the students to view. If the professor wants to share the median grade to his class at the end of a semester, that's fine, but I don't think the grade reports should exist.</p>
<p>They go on our transcripts so graduate admissions/employers can tell how we're performing in relation to other Cornell students... useful and interesting information.</p>
<p>The University could still provide the median grade information and class size information on the transcripts, and not post them on the web. </p>
<p>That would still give the Grad schools and employers a better perspective on a students performance relative to the other students in the classes they took, but it would remove the temptation to current students to use the info to grade shop.</p>
<p>that's what I meant richs... they can provide the info, I just don't think it should be so available.</p>
<p>Look at Grade Inflation.com, as gradeinflation.com, and you will see that Cornell's grade inflation is minor compared to other places. Cornell, was like at around 3.25 in 2001 or so, and according to this data produced by Duke University, you see that other schools at the same time period (2001 or so) had median GPA averages at like 3.35-4.0.</p>
<p>well, in a society of inflation period -- from body weight to human population -- we can safely say that the amount of candidates going to college has been on a sharp uprise, but has not only created more competition, but the average hardcore facts (Grades, scores) of students attending top schools have also rising, so maybe yes maybe no that the actual student body is getting smarter, because regardless of class shopping, every single class has a size limit, and yes, i'm sure there are more students motivated to go to a class that seems easy A, but to tell you the truth, many of those classes are either really small (which screws those ppl who seem lackluster to be in that class b/c the other ppl who actually wanted to be in the class are going to be the ones to get ABOVE the median) or the professor is well-known, the class is well-known, and the students in that class are taking it for that reason and not the grades (Professor Maas, Hazan, Segal, are some HD/Psych professors who teaches class that seem "easy" but that is because they are great professor, and even if the median was lower, many students would still take it, but these professors don't curve their classes, so the fact that they teach "A" classes comes to show you how motivated many of the students are to do well in their classes)</p>