The non-grading system at Reed

<p>I am in love with Reed except the important aspect of their grading system. I really want to go to grad school as well as law school at some of the top places, but I think that the fact that grades are not on the A-F scale that this would hurt my chances. I also think that knowing where I am academically is important and that their system won't allow for this as much.</p>

<p>Any insight??</p>

<p>(1) They DO grade on the A-F system. But grades are not the main focus of the evaluation of your work; the quality of your work is. Teachers tend to write comments on your papers, you meet with them to discuss your papers, etc. Obviously, in some subject areas there are clear "right" and "wrong" answers and you know if you're right or wrong.</p>

<p>(2) You CAN find out your grades if you need to. Also, if you're doing what's called "honors" work at most other colleges, you will receive a "president's letter" at the end of the year. And if you're screwing up, you will also be given notice. You have a "grade conference" with your academic advisor periodically.</p>

<p>(3) I didn't find out my GPA til after I graduated, when I got my first transcript. There were few surprises, and those were small ones.</p>

<p>(4) If you think about the percentage of Reed graduates who go on to earn graduate degrees, you'd realize that the grading system isn't an impediment to future academic success. Students do have standard "transcripts" to send to grad schools. And of course, they submit the results of standardized tests.</p>

<p>(5) IMO, not using grades as the standard shorthand way to communicate how well you are doing had a very beneficial effect. It changed the tenor of the conversation between students. Instead of what might happen at my current place of work, where one student might ask another "What did you get from Professor Nerdstrom?" the exchange was more likely to be something like: "What did Professor Nerdstrom think about your argument about X?" That fostered discussion of ideas.</p>

<p>While surfing a comparable small liberal arts college's web site, I saw that 46% of the students had received straight A's for the semester. The college's faculty was having a debate about grade inflation. Coupled with Reed's de-emphasis of grades, Reed has had no grade infaltion for over 20 years. A given GPA from Reed is generally better than the same GPA from most other schools, and grad schools know it.</p>