In any case, I had noticed on the University of Minnesota's web site that they were going to boost the GPA necessary for getting "honors" to 3.67. I recall my mother had gone to the U of MN back in the 70's and back then a 3.0 was required to get an "honors" notation. For me it was 3.5 back in 1997. Regardless, it shows that while grades have inflated, the deans and academic management have decided not to change the academic rigor needed to graduate with honors. Of course MJ Perry has to go and ruin my fun by posting a chart closely enough related to make my post obsolete;
You can read his post here.
That being said, he has allowed me to simply link to his chart, thereby giving me the opportunity to ride my motorcycle around today and fish instead of make an original blog post.
Ah, the benefits of plagiarism.
7 comments:
Indeed, Carpe Diem is a fantastic blog.
Wouldn't the selection of a major also have a large impact in grades? I mean, Women's Studies didn't even exist in the 1960s and I doubt it is the most rigorous area of study.
I went to an Tech school down in Colorado. Older students told me that one of the advanced petroleum engineering classes had a professor that would schedule test at 1 am. During the test the professor would pace around throwing chairs about and knocking desks over, telling his students "You need to be able to work through distractions!". He only gave out 2 A's no matter what, so competition in the class was pretty fierce.
Apparently they shut him down after only a couple of years, but all I could think of is "Man, I want to take HIS CLASS!"
No way that sort of stuff would fly today, but don't you wish it did! Damn vanilla white-bread administrators!
a) I love Carpe Diem
b) Just took an advanced micro final today. We had tow midterms, each of those the median was roughly 65, and he only curved so the median was 80. I like that because his average grade is only a C+/B-.
Also because I'm not going to get lower than a 80 minimum, so at worst I'll get a 95 on an exam :-D
c) I'm drunk because said micro exam was the last I had today. Currently enjoying a nice Cuban I bought illegally/glass of Jack Daniels.
Wonder what the distributions look like.
I'm a college student seeing this grade inflation first hand. I rarely go to class. I barely do any homework. Yet I get mostly Bs and a some As.
Colleges are just like any business giving their customers what they want.
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