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The grades don't tell you whether it has been dumbed down or not. The material being taught does.
I don't about Harvard in particular, but high grades have become the norm in higher education. It is almost to a point where getting an "A" means you passed, and anything else means you failed. An A no longer means you did superlative work, it just means you got the general idea of what was being taught. My ex-wife worked at a college while she was getting her graduate degree herself, and this unwritten policy was the same both where she was doing the grading and where she was getting graded.
She was actually told by the administration at her school that a professor who turned out students with poor grades would be assumed to be a bad teacher and that the amount of students getting good grades affected how the school itself was seen in the collegiate system. She was basically unofficially ordered to inflate grades.
And it was the same in the classes she was taking. I personally got two A's. She was really busy with some community work she was committed to, so I wrote two papers for her. I stepped into the middle of a graduate class and got A's twice. Not because I'm super competent, because I'm not. I had no brilliant insights and I had very little knowledge of the subject. Certainly not graduate level knowledge. I just studied the class materials enough to put out a couple of papers that showed a minimal competence of the subjects, and got A's on both of them.
And this is why I force my online students to come onto campus to take exams (and to show their ID). This is the third time I've heard someone confess to this type of illegal activity on City Data alone.
Makes the grade inflation problem seem much less significant.
And this is why I force my online students to come onto campus to take exams (and to show their ID). This is the third time I've heard someone confess to this type of illegal activity on City Data alone.
Makes the grade inflation problem seem much less significant.
In engineering major, it is no secret that some girls ask their boyfriend to do the project.
I took some undergraduate chemistry classes a few years ago at a private university. 100 students in the two pre-med chemistry classes. Four of us consistently scored 90% (A- or above) on the tests. The average grade for the entire class was less than 69% (D+ or less) on each test, per the instructor. When grades were posted, there were miraculously numerous Bs and quite a few more As, a 21+ grade curve.
I concluded high GPAs don't mean much anymore. Students get a "participation ribbon" for paying tuition.
Grade inflation at Harvard is not a new issue, although I guess it's been making the news lately. It's well known joke amongst students at other Ivies that a C at their school would be an A at Harvard.
Probably true. However, the "C" student in the Ivies would probably get an "A" at most state colleges. I always found that peculiar when we would have Ivy League graduates applying for med school with 3.6 GPAs or under (one knew that would not cut it). Why in the world did they not go to an easier school and get a 4.0? I had a 4.0 at our state college. However, I doubt I would have had that same GPA at an Ivy, Notre Dame, Stanford level school.
Probably because an Ivy school is way more impressive than most state colleges. Maybe this person tried hard and still got 3.6 GPA . I dont see why you couldnt get into med school with that. Even in a foreign country.
The grades don't tell you whether it has been dumbed down or not. The material being taught does.
I don't about Harvard in particular, but high grades have become the norm in higher education. It is almost to a point where getting an "A" means you passed, and anything else means you failed. An A no longer means you did superlative work, it just means you got the general idea of what was being taught. My ex-wife worked at a college while she was getting her graduate degree herself, and this unwritten policy was the same both where she was doing the grading and where she was getting graded.
She was actually told by the administration at her school that a professor who turned out students with poor grades would be assumed to be a bad teacher and that the amount of students getting good grades affected how the school itself was seen in the collegiate system. She was basically unofficially ordered to inflate grades.
And it was the same in the classes she was taking. I personally got two A's. She was really busy with some community work she was committed to, so I wrote two papers for her. I stepped into the middle of a graduate class and got A's twice. Not because I'm super competent, because I'm not. I had no brilliant insights and I had very little knowledge of the subject. Certainly not graduate level knowledge. I just studied the class materials enough to put out a couple of papers that showed a minimal competence of the subjects, and got A's on both of them.
I can't believe you just publicly stated that you helped your wife cheat.
And it was the same in the classes she was taking. I personally got two A's. She was really busy with some community work she was committed to, so I wrote
two papers for her. I stepped into the middle of a graduate class and got A's
twice. Not because I'm super competent, because I'm not. I had no brilliant
insights and I had very little knowledge of the subject. Certainly not graduate
level knowledge. I just studied the class materials enough to put out a couple
of papers that showed a minimal competence of the subjects, and got A's on both
of them.
So, you're a cheater and a liar.
Good to know.
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I had a 4.0 at our state college. However, I doubt I would have had that same GPA at an Ivy, Notre Dame, Stanford level school.
