Snowflakes in Harvard melting

[Por_sha911]

The comments by the students make me laugh! Oh the tragedy of having to earn an A grade!

Harvard students are in an uproar after the school's Office of Undergraduate Education released a report last week saying the Ivy League school is "failing to perform the key functions of grading," leading to inflated grades.

The report, which was released internally to Harvard students, said 60% of undergraduate grades are A's, as opposed to only 25% two decades ago, according to the school's student newspaper, The Crimson.

The 25-page report, penned by Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh, reportedly said the massive uptick in A grades means the school needs to implement stricter grading guidelines and "failing to perform the key functions of grading" was "damaging the academic culture of the College."

Here's the funny part:

"The whole entire day, I was crying," one student reportedly told The Crimson. "I skipped classes on Monday, and I was just sobbing in bed because I felt like I try so hard in my classes, and my grades aren’t even the best." "It just felt soul-crushing," she said.

Another student has concerns about the mental health toll potentially caused by stricter grading.

"It makes me rethink my decision to come to the school," she reportedly said. "I killed myself all throughout high school to try and get into this school. I was looking forward to being fulfilled by my studies now, rather than being killed by them."

Some are worried about a well-rounded education, and say stricter grading could force them to drop extracurricular activities.

"What makes a Harvard student a Harvard student is their engagement in extracurriculars," one said. "Now we have to throw that all away and pursue just academics. I believe that attacks the very notion of what Harvard is."

Another, identified as a member of the men's lacrosse team, concurred. "It’s doing students a disservice because it’s not really accounting for what we have to do on a day to day basis, and how many hours we’re putting into our team, our bodies, and then also school," he reportedly said.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/harvard-students-unload-school-over-prospect-stricter-grading-after-inflation-report-i-crying

- Its not fair that I'm not smart enough to get an A so they won't give me one.
- My self esteem and happiness is justification for my demand that I get a grade I don't deserve.
- I will have to drop all the "extracurricular activities" to maintain a good grade. (Oh the horror of not being able to go to club parties, basketball games, and socials!)
- You have no idea how much time I spend with the lacrosse team "and then also school" (Maybe you should put your school education first instead of an afterthought???)

*These are the comments of a 'participation award' generation! An ivy league degree used to be a sign of excellence and that you were a top tier academic scholar.

Parents are going to be furious when they find out that all the bribes they paid to get a C student little Egbert into the school and the outrageous tuition each semester and now their is going to flunk out. When I was in school for a Meteorology degree, we were graded on a bell curve. Only the best got a 4.0 and I was thrilled to get a 3.25 - 3.5.

[zakthor]

On the other hand the kids being admitted today are bred from vats to know how to work hard enough to get into harvard. I imagine theres not a slacker in the bunch. Something you get with a high end school grad is someone who knows how to buckle down and get work done.

Might be a better analogy to this ‘anti grade inflation’ is the idiotic jack welch style layoffs at ge where great people were let go for corporate reasons. A curve has its place but maybe not in all classes…

Edit: when i was doing performance reviews at a big company we sometimes had teams of rock stars. Policy was they needed to be fit in a curve but it made no sense to reward one with huge bonus when everyone was so equal. We were able to get an exception when we needed to. We also got exceptions so noone got a bonus because everyone sucked. Same in school, sometimes curves dont fit.

[Rot 911]

Harvard law school has been inflating the grades of their law students for decades. Just so they could brag that their Law graduates had the highest GPA in the Ivy League.

[Arizona_928]

Merit… when it’s no longer existent in the k-12, then grade 13-21 means what?

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by zakthor

On the other hand the kids being admitted today..

Oh really?

https://www.businessinsider.com/college-admissions-scandal-legal-alternatives-wealthy-parents-paying-consultants-donations-2019-3?op=1

Wealthy parents are paying up to $1.5 million for consultants to help get their kids into college — and there are ways to do it that are completely legal



In an ongoing college admissions scandal, 33 parents have been accused of paying millions of dollars to fabricate their children's credentials during the college admissions process.
But there are other, legal ways the ultra-wealthy try to increase their children's chances of getting into an elite college.
This includes paying up to $1.5 million for college consultants or making donations of more than $10 million to the school their child is applying to, according to The New York Times.

On Tuesday, dozens of people were charged in a college admissions bribery scandal uncovered by the FBI. Among those charged are Hollywood actors, college athletic coaches, business leaders, and CEOs and executives in finance, real estate, and other industries.

[zakthor]

Originally Posted by Por_sha911

Oh really?

https://www.businessinsider.com/college-admissions-scandal-legal-alternatives-wealthy-parents-paying-consultants-donations-2019-3?op=1

Painting with a broad brush my man.

If i was king of harvard id trust the profs to do what they thought best.

[onewhippedpuppy]

This is what happens when everybody gets a medal and kids are brainwashed into thinking that you go to college to “find yourself” or some such hippie BS. I went to college to get a career in aerospace engineering and got kicked in the nuts every day until I was done. Extracurricular didn’t exist in my life, nor did “balance”. So it’s hard to find much sympathy for some spoiled and entitled rich kids.

Related note, my freshman daughter just got a 14% on her first test in Calc 4 & Differential Equations. Class high was 50%. She didn’t cry about it, she got a tutor and is going to give it her best. If she fails, she’ll retake the class. She had a 4.3 GPA, graduated cum laude, and got a 34 in her ACT. Welcome to college!

[Arizona_928]

Class high of 50% is a sign of the bad professor and not on the students…. Everyone fails for the first exam though.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by Arizona_928

Class high of 50% is a sign of the bad professor and not on the students…. Everyone fails for the first exam though.

I would also agree with that statement, unfortunately it’s common in undergraduate math and engineering courses to get a TA or doctoral student that is far more interested in their thesis or ongoing research project than teaching. Bonus points for most of them being foreign and impossible to understand.

[mjohnson]

My school's average GPA was between 2.7 and 3.0 while I attended. From 1874 to 1996 (my undergrad exit) nobody had ever graduated with a 4.0. Lots of HS valedictorians failed out by the second semester. Every one of us got a big slap of reality and for some the first bad grades of our lives. Most of us sucked it up and got better. The rest transferred to Boulder...

[Arizona_928]

Those actinides turn you immortal? ^^

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

I would also agree with that statement, unfortunately it’s common in undergraduate math and engineering courses to get a TA or doctoral student that is far more interested in their thesis or ongoing research project than teaching. Bonus points for most of them being foreign and impossible to understand.

I never really understood that. Pay big bucks to get a subpar education from foreigners and non-professors. Idk. I taught a few sections of a chem lab and it often turned into on the spot tutoring for the classroom section… College is such a waste

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by zakthor

If i was king of harvard id trust the profs to do what they thought best.

What they "do best" is indoctrinate students with woke doctrine. People have already been convicted of doing the "donation" to get their kid in an ivy league school. Not all but it happens a lot more than the public knows. Don't stick your head in the sand and not see what is out there because you like their social stance.

[Arizona_928]

How else is society going to improve from a post industrial era…?

[mjohnson]

Originally Posted by Arizona_928

Those actinides turn you immortal? ^^

Heh, I guess that sure reads differently than I planned!

And acktuahllly, the "IPPu" club early members - those that pass that actinide in their urine after an uptake - lived healthier and longer lives than average. They being more-or-less educated and affluent was probably more of a factor rather than the twinkly pee though.

[oldE]

Of course basing one's opinion of an institution upon the disgruntled comments of selected underachievers is just as flawed. There have always been those who ***** and gripe because they aren't getting praised for achieving little. After my first year of university, I was asked not to come back due to my lack of academic achievement. OK. Working on the farm and in the woods for a year paid off my student loan and sharpened my appreciation for the kind of work which was needed. A couple of years after that, I just missed making the Dean's List. Lessons learned.
Some however didn't learn those lesson. A fellow in one of my second year history classes was told by the professor he would only be able to continue if he took a remedial English course. This was 1974. He had somehow managed to make it through to his second year without being able to write a complete sentence.
Not a new phenomenon.

[id10t]

Saw in another post about this a rather nice chart... which showed a massive jump in grades in the late 1960s/early 1970s... From what I recall from an article I read forever ago, it had to do with the draft deferments and keeping kids in school....