Posted on 12/31/2022 9:39:51 AM PST by george76
When people think of elite higher education, we think of Harvard University. But, if one academic trend is anything to go by, Harvard is turning into a joke.
A recent column in the Harvard Crimson makes it clear that the university is becoming a glorified academic daycare where every student gets a trophy or, in this case, an A. The average GPA at Harvard is now 3.8 ... out of 4.0, according to Crimson data analyst Aden Barton.
That’s up from 3.3 in 1991. Are we supposed to believe that college students are just that much smarter now than decades ago?
Nope. College, even at the most elite universities, is just getting a whole lot easier. Harvard actually had to abolish the “Dean’s List” because it became such a joke that by its final year, 92% of students were receiving the “award.” The same fate may await GPAs at Harvard, seeing as, according to Barton, “if grade inflation continues at its 2021-2022 pace, for example, the average GPA of the Class of 2028 would be over 4.0.”
This phenomenon is called grade inflation, and it’s not just happening at Harvard. Research by Stuart Rojstaczer has found that grades at almost all colleges have significantly inflated in recent decades, with A's now becoming the most common grade given out.
...
Rojstaczer theorizes that this is in part due to the increasing and exorbitant cost of college, creating an era in higher education in which “students are consumers.” When they’re paying tens of thousands of dollars each year, they feel entitled to good grades and put enormous pressure on colleges to cough them up so they can get good jobs and recoup that investment. (Of course, the flip side is that when good grades become so common, they can no longer serve that purpose!)
Universities are so desperate to keep the money flowing in that they’ll do whatever students want, including giving out A's like candy on Halloween.
...
Why does all this matter?
Well, for one, it sabotages the spirit of meritocracy that has long underpinned American exceptionalism. When everybody gets A's, there’s no real reward for those who worked hard or excelled — meaning there’s much less incentive to do so.
It also discourages risk-taking because if you by some chance get a B, it’s suddenly an enormous outlier. As Barton explains , “grade compression ultimately perverts the liberal arts education, which should center on risk-taking and pushing oneself intellectually instead of sheltering in ‘easy-A’ classes. Harvard hopes that its ‘liberal arts and sciences philosophy encourages students to step outside their comfort zone,’ but how can students ever exhibit genuine curiosity or experiment academically when the potential damage to one’s transcript is so high?”
American economic excellence and innovation have long depended on our renowned higher education system. So, its evident corruption should concern and frustrate us all — not just those of us old enough to have a few B's on our transcripts.
Too Late. Harvard has been a joke for years. Arrogant Snobs.
Psalm 14:1 says it best, only fools say there is no God.
Pensacola Baptist is in every way a better school academically.
I graduated from a MAC school in the 70’s with a 3.2 GPA and worked my az off to get that.
Back then a B or better overall GPA for a BS degree was something of which to be genuinely proud.
Harvard = $53 billion tax free endowment. They should be force to pay all the tuition and fees of Harvard students
If the average is not 2.0, a C, then it is a joke (or a farce).
The endowment should be seized and paid as reparations to poor white families to make up for decades of discrimination against them in the name of “affirmative action”.
How so? I know that in the 1870s they built a memorial to graduates who had died in the Union forces, but emotions were still strong at that time, and you'd be hard pressed to find a Southern college at that time honoring any of their graduates who fought for the union.
‘...only fools say there is no God.’
and this you know exactly how...? other than an ancient witticism...
I’d like to see admissions broken down by demographic over the years and how the trends look across the demographics.
I’m pretty sure I know what I’d find.
I went to U of of Chicago in the early ‘80s, and grade inflation was already a thing EXCEPT at U of C. That wound up hurting grads whose grades would have been better at Dartmouth or Brown.
A “woke” university is a “joke” university. The same applies to el/hi “woke” schools.
They are merely aping and justifying America's new values. Albeit they continue to do it in an advanced, post-modern intellectual and elitist way. They will stay on top in our strange new world.
Oh boo-hoo those meanie old Southerners
Unlike you I live down here and we have plenty of monuments honoring the dead on both sides they make a point of doing that in fact just a few years ago in Franklin Tennessee who was building a new target they found the Ramones of an unidentified soldier when they were doing the site prep And they They had a big deal funeral for him and they honored him with both flags etc. given that it was impossible to ascertain which side you fought for who apparently had both union and confederate buttons on his jacket which was not unusual for either size since they turned it to pick up buttons from the battlefield to replace the ones that broke all the time
https://www.al.com/live/2009/10/unknown_civil_war_soldier_rebu.html
But yes I think the Ivy League and most colleges in general or lost they are just bastion of Wokeness that cost too damn much I don’t see the benefit of college these days unless you have a specific plan that requires a degree I would not pay all that money just for a run-of-the-mill liberal arts degree to put on the wall like I have but mine cost about 10% of what they cost today
https://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-monuments-of-Union-soldiers-in-the-American-South
Aside from the neo abolitionist in reconstruction Most people were more magnanimous to both sides Open till very recently when they became sanctimonious about it like you are
Don’t want to damage the students self esteem.
Risk-taking at one time was taking a course pass/fail.
And in most colleges the pass did not count as part of your GPA only the total credits counted to graduation.
Unlike you I live down here and we have plenty of monuments honoring the dead on both sides they make a point of doing that in fact just a few years ago in Franklin Tennessee who was building a new target they found the Ramones of an unidentified soldier when they were doing the site prep And they They had a big deal funeral for him and they honored him with both flags etc. given that it was impossible to ascertain which side you fought for who apparently had both union and confederate buttons on his jacket which was not unusual for either size since they turned it to pick up buttons from the battlefield to replace the ones that broke all the time
The 1870s were much more than a "few years ago," but I'm glad the guy's Ramones got a good send off.
The rap at Hah-Vahd has always been that the stoodents there are all A stoodents, so they should get A’s.
Makes sense, huh?
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