"In 1966, 22% of Harvard undergraduate students earned A's. By 1996, that figure rose to 46%. That same year, 82% of Harvard seniors graduated with honors.
In 1973, 31% of all grades at Princeton were A's. By 1997 that rose to 43%. In 1997, only 12% of all grades given at Princeton were below the B range.
Oh really?
Really, yes.
Appreciated your 1997 reference, but you know, it is now 2010 and things have changed.
For all who need some info, here’s a quote from the Princeton website.
“In the spring of 2003, the department chairs made it clear that we were not going to make progress with exhortation. Faculty in one department had no incentive to grade more rigorously if faculty in another department werent also grading more rigorously. So the department chairs charged the Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing with drafting a University-wide grading policy, which was proposed to and adopted by the faculty in April 2004.