There is a lot of grade inflation in many secondary schools, both public and private, as well. So the problem of grade inflation isn’t just isolated to top universities.
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Varsity athletes represent 20% of the entire Harvard student population. That is not an insignificant number.
For purposes of this thread, the number is closer to 12%, since the number of recruited athletes in any given cycle is capped by the Ivy League at around 225, although most schools do not use all those slots. Some sports, crew being a prime example, supplement with walk-ons, but they don’t receive the same admissions advantage.
The methodology used by the Crimson to arrive at the 1200 number - how to put this elegantly - sucks. Clearly no stats concentrator on staff.
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The largest component of the LDC group is legacies, and by far the smallest is children of faculty. The LDC hooks can partially compensate for components of the application that are relatively weaker. These relatively weaker areas of application are more likely to be non-academic factors than academic ones for both legacies and children of faculty, on average.
In the ratings above, Harvard defines academics in terms of both grades and scores. Scores in particular tend to be a strong point for legacies, so much so that matriculating, hooked legacies always average higher scores than non-legacies + non-athletes in the Harvard freshman surveys. The most recent survey that listed scores for legacies vs non-legacies is at The Harvard Crimson | Class of 2018 By the Numbers . Score averages are listed below:
Legacies – 2296/2400
Unhooked (not ALDC, not URM) – ~2280/2400
Non-legacies + Non-athletes – ~2250/2400
Athletes – 2068/2400
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All of the Ivies have gone test optional for the past 2 years. Recruited athletes are not required to submit standardized test scores to the admissions office. Many if not most don’t.
As noted in the posts, both the references are from earlier years when tests were required, so test optional was not a factor. I haven’t seen stats on what fraction of ALDC have submitted scores when test optional, but based on the numbers above from previous years, I’d expect a large portion of legacies continue to submit scores, which is the largest component of the LDC group.
To clarify, varsity athletes represent 20% of the student population. Approximately 10% are recruited athletes. The remainder are walk-ons. However, to respond to OhiBro’s post, there is a strong emphasis on sports participation at Harvard. That is why the university supports 42 varsity teams and has so many scholar-athletes.
I would not base an evaluation of “challenge” or learning on grades, inflated or not. Check the curricula for various concentrations, the courses themselves, and the gen eds offered/required. Check books on reading lists (I actually go in the Coop). Personally, I find it absurd to say that Harvard and other top schools are not challenging, based on reports of grade inflation. The grading does not change the content of a course and the proportion of students getting excellent grades is not unexpected given the selectivity of these schools.
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Yes, in general when a larger potion of the class does A quality work, a larger portion of the class receives A’s. At highly selective private colleges, the overwhelming portion of the class does A quality work, and the majority of students usually receive A’s. It’s fairly standard to have average GPAs in the A- range of >3.5. It’s not just Harvard, although Harvard is probably among the colleges with the highest averages, along with Stanford and Brown. Some stats from the Harvard senior surveys are below (self-reported, so probably overestimates actual GPA):
2019 (pre COVID) – Median GPA is ~3.8, 52% of students report >=3.8 GPA, 90% report >=3.5 GPA
2021 (post COVID) – Median GPA between 3.8 and 3.9, 64% of students report >=3.8 GPA, 93% report >=3.5 GPA
While the average GPAs are usually quite high at highly selective private colleges, in my opinion, this does not mean that it is easy to get A’s. At many of such colleges, a good portion of the matriculating class had never received a B grade in their life prior to college. Kids generally are bright, high achieving, and work hard. They do the class work, which often requires a lot of time and effort, and usually master the material.
I have 3 degrees from Stanford, but have also taken classes at numerous other colleges including SUNY, RPI, Syracuse, U Wyoming, and UCSD. How difficult is was to get an A varied quite a bit from class to class, but Stanford was not consistently easier or harder than other colleges. However, I did find that Stanford classes tended to require more time + effort per week, such as more pages of reading. Stanford also sometimes gave the opportunity to take a higher level of classes than offered elsewhere. For example, I’d expect the available highest level of Stanford’s freshman math or freshman physics is more rigorous than the others on the list. However, only a small fraction of students choose to take the highest available level.
Graduation rates have been mentioned which is a different issue. Few students fail out of Harvard or any Ivy+ colleges. There are often other reasons for failing to graduate on time, among the small minority to do so. Graduation rate at Ivy+ colleges probably has more to do with quality of financial aid and wealth of student body than it does with degree of grade inflation or academic difficulty of classes.
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It sure does bother the Harvard deans and others cited in the articles above. And I am curious why this happened. The clear implication is that it wasn’t this way before.
What I am getting at is why is there grade inflation at Harvard. Stating it another way, is there some other purpose behind making a C “the new F”? Does it, in any way, relate to ALDCs ?
This graph “What GPAs do Seniors Have” vividly shows the trend to the wider senior class (presumably both ALDCs and non-ALDCs): The Harvard Crimson | The Graduating Class of 2021 By the Numbers
I appreciate that the general issue of grade inflation throughout colleges and lower level schooling is beyond the scope of the purpose of this thread, which is to discuss the academic credentials/performance of ALDCs at one top school. Is it just that kids are smarter today than a few decades ago? Or they are “working smarter, not harder”? Or that a rising tide lifts all?
To tie it back to the OP, is it to help keep the steady stream of ALDCs matriculating each year? I noted that Princeton apparently moved away from grade inflation, but there were many complaints, so they moved back to it. It’s no good to be the odd “top school” out, perhaps?
I am seriously confused as to the motivations behind it and whether there is a tie-in to ALDCs and, even more likely, the apparent fact mentioned on this thread that “everyone does it.”
MIT, a peer school down the road from Harvard, supposedly has an average GPA which is closer to a B. Does that make studying at MIT significantly more challenging than at Harvard?
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Perhaps it does, maybe it doesn’t. But, if those numbers (or letters) are right, it’s a more realistic distribution, even among super high-performing students.
But I am keeping the focus on ALDCs at Harvard. I don’t know whether MIT has such a focus on ALDCs that Harvard apparently does. And I guess this all came out of the Harvard litigation, which MIT didn’t experience. So, I don’t know what emphasis MIT places on ALDCs. Just a hunch, but for a school like MIT, I wouldn’t think so for at least the As or the Ds, but I am no expert at it.
You can view some numbers for MIT at Grades | Division of Student Life . In the most recent, post-COVID average for fraternity/sorority was 4.74/5.0, which probably involves a GPA boost related to remote learning. Prior to COVID, the averages were ~4.5/5.0. That’s well above a B, but probably lower than Harvard and lower than most private colleges of similar selectivity.
The are many contributing factors for why MIT has a lower average GPA than most colleges of similar selectivity, but one factor is that average grades tend to be lower in fields that emphasize objective problems sets than fields that emphasize subjective papers.
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The official MIT position is that there is no preference given to legacies. There is an active thread on College Confidential which in part laments how little preference recruited athletes receive from the MIT Admissions Office.
It is an open secret among recruited athletes at many schools that athletes help each other by telling teammates which majors choose, which classes to take, and which professors to avoid. Many also receive free tutoring service. There could also be other ways in which they help each other. I’m not familiar with the other special interest groups.
I really don’t think concern for ALDCs is the reason why Harvard and other schools have grade inflation.
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Friends help friends choose majors, classes, and profs…this happens at all schools and isn’t limited to recruited athletes.
I’m pretty sure all the highly rejective colleges offer free tutoring across subjects, writing centers, study skill sessions and the like to all students, not just recruited athletes.
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The level of support is different.
The athletics office organizes tutoring for the athlete and the tutor goes to the athlete.
There are stated and unstated rules about what majors are acceptable.
Entire groups of athletes often take the same class.
Rather than a generalized discussion of grade inflation, I’ve started another thread on the topic to avoid letting this thread stray away from the specific topic of the academic performance of ALDCs at Harvard.
I’m sure ALDCs perform fine at Harvard. You don’t need to be the #1 student to benefit from the stellar education they offer. Moreover, ALDC applicants (with the exception of athletes) are admitted with a very similar academic profile to other Harvard admits so why wouldn’t they do well? The grade inflation issue is totally separate and is prevalent just about everywhere regardless of the type or the level of selectivity of the school.
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As a case example regarding difficulty of grading, the student who prominently conned his way into Harvard appears to have performed either well or respectably there, even when being evaluated on his own merits. Of course this story in general raises doubts about Harvard’s processes. Among notable examples of the absence of diligence and ordinary sense on Harvard’s part, this student, who purported himself to be a transfer aspirant from across town (at MIT), succeeded in arranging an admission interview in Maine, where he actually was enrolled at Bowdoin College.