Happy Graduation (in the world where no one gets an F, or a D, or even a C!)

Pay your schools fees, get a B average! Stanford does not give F's? So says a Cal grad friend of mine. Sheesh!



Stanford and Duke (and more): Where All Grades Are Above Average



A college prof writes:



"A's are common as dirt in universities nowadays because it's almost impossible for a professor to grade honestly. If I sprinkle my classroom with the C's some students deserve, my class will suffer from declining enrollments in future years. In the marketplace mentality of higher education, low enrollments are taken as a sign of poor-quality instruction. I don't have any interest in being known as a failure."





"Parents and students want high grades. Given that students are consumers of an educational product for which they pay dearly, I am expected to cater to their desires not just to be educated well but to receive a positive reward for their enrollment. So I don't give C's anymore, and neither do most of my colleagues. And I can easily imagine a time when I'll say the same thing about B's."



More at the link above.



Update:



From this Stanford Review article:



"Nevertheless, when broken down by letter grade alone- A's, B's, C's, and D's -49% of all grades have been A's; 39% have been B's; 10% C's; and 1.5% D's. The mean grade has migrated from the C, considered average twenty years ago, to the area between the A- and the B+. Grade percentages for the years prior to the '70s indicate a marked difference beginning with the removal of the F from use in 1970. For the year of '68/'69, only 29% received A's, while 35% were awarded B's. Yet in the following year, in percentages which have remained stable until now, 41% have received A's, and only 29% B's."



Seems you have to work harder to get a D than a B. Maybe the report card is more a reflection of the students college fee payment record than studies.