<p>*…Science students get worse grades than non-science students. </p>
<p>No comprehensive data for the distribution of grades around the nation by discipline exists, but in 1998 the
College Board surveyed a representative sample of 21 selective institutions to find out how students who
took Advanced Placement courses in high school were performing in college. The data show that, when
students who got AP credit and were taking second-level college courses (as opposed to intro classes)
were compared, non-science students got much better grades.</p>
<p>In English courses surveyed, 85 percent of those high-achieving students that were surveyed received
A’s or B’s. That’s compared to 54 percent of those students in math courses.</p>
<p>Paul Romer, an economics professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, who has
studied the issue, wrote in an article for Stanford Business that “the grades assigned in science courses
are systematically lower than grades in other disciplines, and students rely heavily on grades as signals about the fields for which they are best suited.” Thus, he concluded, students usher themselves out of the
science track.</p>
<p>Data from the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles show
that, in 2004, about 9 percent of freshman students nationally planned to major in engineering, and 2
percent planned to major in physical sciences. Those numbers are pretty typical for the last two decades,
and what is also typical, according to National Science Foundation data, is that it is not uncommon for fewer than half of those intended majors to stay the course.</p>
<p>It seems that the attrition rate in the physical sciences and engineering is chronically higher than in
social and behavioral sciences. According to the NSF, only about 4.5 percent of bachelor’s degrees were
awarded in engineering in 2004, and only about 1 percent in the physical sciences. Conversely,
depending on the demographic, generally between 8 and 15 percent of freshmen intend to major in
social and behavioral sciences, for which degrees made up 16 percent of the 2004 total.</p>
<p>Romer isn’t the only one that thinks unequal grading practices drive students from science. Ronald G.
Ehrenberg, director of Cornell University’s Higher Education Research Institute and an economics
professor there, recalled a student who got an 85 on a test, which was above the mean, coming up to him
and saying, “I’m dropping your class, because the best I can do is an A-, and I’m going to Stanford Law
School.” Part of the problem Ehrenberg said, is that students who want to keep law school as an option
will tend away from quantitative courses because it’s clear to them that disproportionate grade inflation
in the humanities and less quantitative social sciences will give them a boost.</p>
<p>With Web sites like ratemyprofessors.com, students can instantly find out how “easy” other students
think a certain professor is. A 2002 Cornell Higher Education Research Institute study showed that
grades in Cornell’s science courses are generally several tenths lower than other courses, and a 2005
institute study found that, presented with information on the grading, students will flock to the easier
courses, driving grade inflation even more.</p>
<p>In 1996, worried that they were giving lower grades than professors at competitor institutions, faculty members decided that Cornell should publish the median course grades for every course, every semester,
so that faculty members could see the distribution of grades, and, presumably, adjust if a particular
course’s median grade is too low. Not surprisingly, students started turning to the list, and according to
the 2005 institute study, the list started looking different in a hurry, as students migrated en masse to
easier courses. By spring 2005, the list shows that, of over 1,300 courses, fewer than 20 had median
grades of B- or lower.</p>
<p>Weeding Out: Several experts suggested that the culture of scientists has kept science grades down,
while science students at many institutions have watched longingly as humanities grades have drifted up
and away like a helium balloon.</p>
<p>“There’s a difficult culture here,” said Daryl Chubin, director of the American Association for the
Advancement of Sciences’ Center for Advancing Science & Engineering Capacity. “The culture of
science says, ‘not everybody is good enough to cut it, and we’re going to make it hard for them, and the
cream will rise to the top.’ ”</p>
<p>Ehrenberg said that some scientists are starting to drop the “weed out” mentality, but Chubin still sees
decade old themes. “I took a Ph.D. in 1973,” Chubin said, “and people were saying the same thing then.
‘Look to your left, look to your right, some of you will be gone.’ </p>
<p>There’s a joy of attrition;
demonstrating your manliness, back then it was all manliness, by failing students.”*</p>
<p><a href=“http://opas.ous.edu/Committees/Resources/Articles/Why_Leaving.pdf[/url]”>http://opas.ous.edu/Committees/Resources/Articles/Why_Leaving.pdf</a></p>