Posted on 05/30/2013 8:03:45 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
While flunking out of college is common, some institutions have lax grading policies that make it remarkably difficult for students to fail.
Whether its college, law school, or business school, we found 13 schools that make it nearly impossible for their students to fail.
Most of these institutions are elite private schools with extremely selective admissions. Some argue that the students who gain entry to these schools are highly qualified, and therefore they perform higher than the average university student regardless of their grades.
These schools also have lenient grading policies and high grade inflation. Some have abolished the letter grade system altogether, while others allow students to choose which grades show on their transcript.
1. Yale Law School, New Haven, CT
Yale Law School is widely regarded as the top law school in the U.S.
The school doesn't have regular grades, just Honors, Pass, Low Pass, and Fail. Almost no one fails, so basically the worst you can do is get a low pass.
Not only does Yale Law have a different grading structure, but it has a unique culture as well.
We were recently shut down by students when we tried to compile a list of "the most impressive students at Yale Law School."
2. Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA
Harvard Law School also does not use traditional letter grades.
Instead it grades students through Honors, Pass, Low Pass, or Fail.
The school used to have a policy where 8% of students in each class were required to receive a Low Pass, but at the end of 2009, that policy was abandoned. However, professors are still allowed to give a Low Pass to students who they believe deserve it.
3. Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C.
Georgetown University Law Center adjusted its grading policy in 2009.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Interesting.
Law schools have no standards.
And their graduates appear to minic that style to a grand degree.
‘Twould be fun to see if the Obamadork would have an average of 1% or 2% if he attempted a STEM major.
Most have daddies who write big checks to the endowment funds of these snob schools, so students don’t have to know much. After all it’s not what you know, but who you know in the incestuous Ivy League/government nexus.
RE: Law schools have no standards.
You still have to pass the bar after you graduate.
So, you still have to know something after you graduate or the school’s reputation takes a hit.
It is amazing that SAT scores are going down and the number of honor graduates keeps increasing. Seems like almost half the class is cum-magna-summa.
After the mid-term exam was in, the professor posted the grade distribution. Results: No E's. No D's. One C. 199 B's and A's.
You would never see such a distribution in, say, a calculus or chemisty class.
There are many morals to this story. One of them is to never trust anything that comes out of a university's School of Education.
Policy adjustments in 2009...I wonder what possibly less than glowing information they are trying to hide for future graduates that manage to sneak by the Peter Principle?
When the grades are useless for distinguishing between the worst and the best, why, as a potential employer, do I want to reach into that grab bag at all? Eschew the Ivy League!
Getting into these schools is extremely competitive. You have to be at the top of your high-school class, and even that isn't a guarantee. Once you are admitted, you are among the best and the brightest. Sure, there are some "legacy" students that got admitted by family connections. But, most are already "high achievers".
Under those circumstances, you would expect most of the students to excel academically. If you decided to implement a traditional bell-curve, then you might assign 10% to "failing". If everyone effectively aced a test, how do you do that?
I've seen similar issues in a large company. One organization may have very high-performing employees, either due to the culture, leadership, or even because they were acquired in a merger. Another organization is largely "slackers", because their management lets them slide. But, if a company forces each to rank their employees and get rid of the lowest 10%, are they really solving the problem?
RE: Getting into these schools is extremely competitive. You have to be at the top of your high-school class, and even that isn’t a guarantee.
Al Gore? At the top of his class?
Hmmm...
Did you really think that no one would notice you removing my sentence immediately after what you cited?
I used to teach and I had to take that crappy class (along with all the other crappy classes in the education department). 199 of 200 SHOULD make a B or an A in that course. Then again, given the students who major in education, there should likely have been more Cs.
The Ivy League schools would like for you to simply assume that if they are Ivy League students they are the best, and grades are not really relevant.
Harvard Business School has (or had, when I was enrolled) only three grades: Excellent, Pass, and Low Pass.
Professors were required to give a Low Pass to the bottom 10% of each class, no matter how highly that 10% actually scored in the class.
Low Passes ("Loops," as a noun, and "Looped," as a verb, as in "Mike Looped Marketing") were counted cumulatively over your four semesters. If you received a certain cumulative number of Loops, then you were dismissed from HBS.
Read “Hilarity Ensues” by Tucker Max.
It’s extremely offensive to the easily offended (yeah, it’s funny!) but he does make a few good points about higher edjacashun.
That's one valid argument, but another might be that they have started letting in too many St. Barack-like Affirmative Action quota-fillers whom they don't dare stigmatize with a racist grade like "F".
It would cause Yale no end of trouble if the class had 60% A's and 40% F's, and protected groups made up the entire 40%.
I'll offer a flip-side to your flip-side:
The real value of going to an Ivy League school is that you get to spend 4-years with very bright, competitive, driven students. They will keep you on your A-game. Hanging around smart people always pays dividends.
But that begs the question: Why do you have to spend $60,000 a year just to hobnob with a choice set of peers?
Harvard is a rip-off -- it offers very little except admission to an elite club. After that, as an undergrad, it's really up to you. One can argue that the ROI is worth it (I would not argue that, but someone might) but there is absolute price-gouging going on.
a lot of people can muddle thru bar exams, or other professional exams as well.....does not mean they understand the subjects...just go at cramming..
Yeah, that occurred to me. But, I don't know how you deal with that without penalizing the people that were competitive admissions.
One reason: because you can afford it (or at least your parents can). The reality is that a diploma from a Ivy League school is an E-Ticket to certain things. It's not fair, but very little in life is "fair".
Harvard is a rip-off -- it offers very little except admission to an elite club.
Admission to that "club" is also admission to a network of contacts that can be leveraged for years after you graduate. Is it worth it? Depends on what you do with it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.