Grade Inflation: Every Kid's An A Student Now!
It's Lake Wobegon, the college version!
At The Hill, Robert Trowbridge takes on grade inflation -- and the kids attending schools that don't practice it competing for jobs with kids attending schools that do:
A much bigger and wider scandal rages on college campuses these days than rich parents' bribing schools to admit their kids: grade inflation, which overstates academic achievement and misleads employers when these kids graduate. G. K. Chesterton once observed that something can be so big that many do not see it. Getting into college unfairly through bribes and getting a job unfairly through grade inflation both are immoral and unjust.A March 30 article by Thomas Lindsay in "Forbes" cites data that should alarm us, "A 5-plus year nationwide study of the history of college grading finds that, in the early l960s, an A grade was awarded in colleges nationwide 15 percent of the time. But today, an A is the most common grade; the percentage of A grades has tripled, to 45 percent nationwide. Seventy-five percent of all grades awarded now are either A's or B's. The National Association of Colleges and Employers reported in 2013 that 66 percent of employers screen candidates by grade point average.'"
The Forbes article continues: "The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation also has studied college grading. The foundation confirms the alarming findings cited above. It found that in l969, only 7 percent of students at two- and four-year colleges reported that their grade point average was A or higher. Yet in 2009, 41 percent of students reported as same. During the same period, the percentage of C grades given dropped from 25 to five percent."
Now here's the problem by way of my own experience: when I was a vice president at Hillsdale College a parent asked if the college "had grade inflation." I said no -- to which he responded: "That's unfair. My kid goes to your school and gets B's; he goes to the college down the road and gets A's. Which kid do you think employers will hire -- the A student or the B one?" My college, he argued, should impose grade inflation to keep student competition for employment on equal grounds.
Personally, I think grades are often not the best indicator of whether somebody is going to be a good employee and right for the job. They're just a very easy, very comfortable metric.
Somebody at The Hill wrote:
TrumpleThinSkin
My school gave written evaluations and no grades. At the time I didn't know what to think about it, but now looking back, I like it. It was typically a three paragraph description of my work in the class and how I did. Much more meaningful. Except that some grad schools I applied to didn't appreciate the extra effort of having to read that and actually know me.
I just applied for a fellowship, and they asked for a resume. I wrote them and told them that I hadn't had one of those since I was 22, and frankly, I had no idea of the exact dates I did various jobs or worked various places.
They told me to estimate, and I ended up writing little bits about a few jobs -- which I think gives a better sense than just the straight dates. (And sure, there's a little extra reading for those on the other end!)
This reminds me of how one of my professors described his concept of grading. roughly quoted:
My job is to teach the material that the university says this course is to cover. Yours is to learn it. Your grade depends on you showing me at the end that you know what the course covered. Your grade says how well you know the concepts and how ready you are for the next course. If you don't get stuff at first but do by the end -- what do I care? You are ready for the next class. So if every one knows the material really well at the end, why shouldn't everyone get an A? but the university won't let me do that....
The Former Banker at April 10, 2019 12:05 AM
Graduates-to-be, beware: Employers (at least in the STEM fields, which is where I operate) know which schools are good and which ones inflate grades. It's not a secret. If you went to one of the latter, you'd better have something special on your resume or in your transcripts. There is a school here in the Southeast which has a reputation as a party school, and from what I've seen of their graduates, the reputation is earned.
Cousin Dave at April 10, 2019 7:38 AM
Cousin Dave beat me to it. In fields where you actually can measure things this has been obvious for a long time and people have already adapted to it. A 4.0 from MIT is treated vastly different from a 4.0 from Tulane.
Also, the grade inflation depends on degree as well as school. Usually the less significant the information the degree represents the greater the inflation.
Ben at April 10, 2019 7:51 AM
I'm assuming you're referring to STEM graduates, CD. As there are some pretty well-regarded technical schools here in the southeast, as well as some deservedly-reputed party schools, and some of which are both, I'm curious as to which school you are referring.
Living and working in California, I found our UC-Berkeley finance interns to be woefully unprepared, despite the school's stellar reputation as a developer of talent. Perhaps I was too, at that age.
Conan the Grammarian at April 10, 2019 7:58 AM
No doubt. There's a reason aspiring lawyers do not get STEM degrees.
Conan the Grammarian at April 10, 2019 7:59 AM
No doubt. There's a reason aspiring lawyers do not get STEM degrees.
Conan the Grammarian at April 10, 2019 7:59 AM
Some do. We had some engineers in my law school class. Very helpful if you are going into a technical field of law like patent law.
I have a very close relative who struggled, and I mean struggled through a stem degree at the United States Military Academy. He was also a varsity athlete. The grading was so tough that his final grade average was 1.93. After leaving the Army he found that there were many jobs he couldn’t even apply for without a 2.0 or even a 2.5. He would have easily achieved this at any state university. Once he passed the EIT exam his problems went away but it was rough going at first. We were West of the Mississippi and many potentential employers literally had no idea what USMA was.
Isab at April 10, 2019 1:51 PM
"A 4.0 from MIT is treated vastly different from a 4.0 from Tulane."
I'd hope so. MIT grades on a 5 point scale, so a 4.0 from MIT is a B average and a 4.0 from Tulane is an A. (I'd still take the MIT candidate).
MITer at April 10, 2019 7:49 PM
I'll agree with Cousin Dave, but add that the same is true for liberal arts programs. I went to a large state university with a good, but not elite, reputation. My small residential college within the university was known for being more academically rigorous (and having lower GPAs) than the general university.
Grad schools knew this about my college and adjusted their standards accordingly.
Dale at April 10, 2019 8:40 PM
good point about the employers. When I applied at Intel coming out of grad school they mentioned they kept track. My program really compresses the range. I don't know of any one who graduated that was not in the 3.95-3.50 range.
I think it is a bit more program specific. My undergraduate school certainly had a mixed reputation. Business school - party time. Math, psychics, CS - academic. Medical fields - rigorous. Biology, chemistry - OK geology - party. Music school - pretty good but a lot of party. classics - rigorous and fairly well know albeit tiny. Otherwise - meh with a lot of partying.
The Former Banker at April 10, 2019 9:16 PM
There's a reason aspiring lawyers do not get STEM degrees.
Yes, because STEM degrees are not as good preparation for law school as degrees that train people to analyze texts and develop arguments (which, for the most part, are liberal arts programs).
My law school friends who had engineering undergraduate degrees were frustrated by lectures/socratic method discussions that emphasized ambiguity and equivocation. A good law professor takes a legal opinion that appears to be clearly reasoned, starts asking students questions about it, and by the end of the hour seemingly destroys any coherence in the legal principles discussed. That's just not the thought process STEM programs teach students.
Dale at April 10, 2019 10:36 PM
Szabo is our best Stemmy attorney.
With such a rich understanding of history, law, finance, computer science and human nature, you'd think he was equipped to introduce a civilization-changing innovation in the realms of personal & civic wealth. Or something like that.
Crid at April 10, 2019 11:02 PM
"...but add that the same is true for liberal arts programs. "
That's gratifying to hear, what with everything that's going on with liberal arts education these days.
Cousin Dave at April 11, 2019 5:52 AM
It is even worse than reported because more kids (as %) going to college means the average ability is lower now than in 1969 and STILL grades go up. You have college grads who cannot write a paragraph, who have no knowledge of US or world history, who know nothing of economics (ahem AOC), and who can't do simple math. Don't even get me started on logic.
cc at April 11, 2019 11:06 AM
Conan: I was referring to the University of Florida. I'll admit that it's been a while since I had much to do with hiring and interviewing, but back when I did, resumes from Florida grads got extra scrutiny, because of prior experiences with them. It's not that they were stupid, but when we hired Florida grads, it was evident that the university had not done a good job of educating them.
Cousin Dave at April 12, 2019 6:49 AM
I'm not sure this is either recent or restricted to new students. I have "pantsed" three engineers with Professional Engineer licenses for schoolboy errors.
Radwaste at April 12, 2019 2:09 PM
I thought you might have been since I've heard remarks similar to yours from other sources.
And yet, it consistently ranks high (top 20) in lists of engineering schools in the US.
I spent a coupla semesters in Gainesville and UF is a human zoo, more interested in processing students than in educating them.
Conan the Grammarian at April 12, 2019 3:10 PM
A friend of mine hates pro sports league expansions for the same reason. Only so many people can play the game at a high level and when there are more teams, the teams have to accept lesser players to fill a roster. Thus, the average ability of players declines.
Conan the Grammarian at April 12, 2019 3:13 PM
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