Posted on 12/08/2023 2:05:05 PM PST by devane617
Nearly 80 percent of all grades given to undergraduates at Yale last academic year were A’s or A minuses, part of a sharp increase that began during the coronavirus pandemic and appears to have stuck, according to a new report.
The mean grade point average was 3.7 out of 4.0, also an increase over prepandemic years.
The findings have frustrated some students, alumni and professors. What does excellence mean at Yale, they wonder, if most students get the equivalent of “excellent” in almost every class?
“When we act as though virtually everything that gets turned in is some kind of A — where A is supposedly meaning ‘excellent work’ — we are simply being dishonest to our students,” said Shelly Kagan, a Yale philosophy professor known for being a tough grader.
The trend has scrambled the very meaning of grades themselves, he said. Students no longer think B means “good.” An A is the new normal.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Those Ivy Leaguers are paying good money for those A’s.
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.