Any Ivy League Graduates?

Are you kidding me? 30% A's and you think you have grade DEflation? Do you know what the actual distributions of a bell curve are? 30% is ridiculous, especially considering nearly nobody fails apparently. The student at the lowest 10% still gets a C! Hahahahahaha.

I can't even begin to formulate a well thought out sentence, as I am too stunned that anyone would consider a class in which 30% of the people receive A's, "difficult".

Originally Posted by WhateverYouLike

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Are you kidding me? 30% A's and you think you have grade DEflation? Do you know what the actual distributions of a bell curve are? 30% is ridiculous, especially considering nearly nobody fails apparently. The student at the lowest 10% still gets a C! Hahahahahaha.

I can't even begin to formulate a well thought out sentence, as I am too stunned that anyone would consider a class in which 30% of the people receive A's, "difficult".

Yes, I do know what the normal curve looks like. That has never been the criteria by which grades are assigned. The 30/30/30/10 curve works well for ranking students internally in the school. This is important because there can be no possible comparison between students at different schools. I thought I had explained it efficiently, but I'll try again.

Top 10%: A+; Next 10%: A; Next 10% A-; and so on, until the remaining 10% are given D/F. This means that any grade on the transcript tells which 10th of each class the student was in. It is therefore the place of the viewer of the transcript to determine the overall difficulty of the student's program and therefore their proficiency. Assigning relative value is the only purpose of grades, and for this the system is effective. I hope we've now explicated the system.

As for the deflationary question. Well, my statement was that the curve, which is applied only in quantitative classes, gives deflationary grades relative to any number of humanities disciplines, in which lower grades are rarely, if ever, given.

Therefore, the strict curve is perhaps a strength of an Ivy (or comparable) education, because the observer already knows what quality of student exists at an Ivy. Therefore a relative grade is meaningful in a way that a relative grade at another school in which the quality of student varies more widely, is not.

Originally Posted by WhateverYouLike

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Are you kidding me? 30% A's and you think you have grade DEflation? Do you know what the actual distributions of a bell curve are? 30% is ridiculous, especially considering nearly nobody fails apparently. The student at the lowest 10% still gets a C! Hahahahahaha.

I can't even begin to formulate a well thought out sentence, as I am too stunned that anyone would consider a class in which 30% of the people receive A's, "difficult".

You are clearly out of touch with what constitutes a fair grade

My computer engineering program at villanova, I think only two kids graduated with over a 3.5... talk about grade deflation!

Interesting discussion.

Honestly, I've been rather unimpressed by my current ivy league school and its students. I attended a small but well-respected liberal arts college for undergrad, and I'm fairly certain my classmates there surpassed my ivy classmates both in terms of intelligence and work ethic. Really the world of elite institutions is far bigger than the ivy eight. My undergrad is a relatively no-name school on the coasts but it's admission data and caliber of student are similarly high, and the small size offered something that Cornell of Penn really can't.

I'm now at an ivy law school, and it seems the undergrads party more, work less and are just generally richer than my undergrad friends. There is an air of entitlement here that didn't exist at my college.

That said, law is a somewhat snobby business, and I'm pretty sure my ivy status helped me land my summer job at one of the most snobby (I mean, elite) NYC firms.

Originally Posted by constant struggle

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My computer engineering program at villanova, I think only two kids graduated with over a 3.5... talk about grade deflation!

See, I think this is dumb. I do not think this is a reasonable distribution of grades.

The problem with grade inflation/deflation is that it makes it very difficult to compare candidates from one school with candidates at another school (or even from program to program within a school). However, I don't think the answer would be to move all schools to a uniform grading scale.

As far as Ivy League education, they are excellent schools. I'm not sure the academics taught there are exceedingly more impressive than other institutions, but you certainly learn from some of the best. I think the real advantage lies in the personal network you can create with administrators, professors, and highly-motivated peers.

Originally Posted by dboll

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As far as Ivy League education, they are excellent schools.

Except for Dartmouth and Penn

Originally Posted by Tarmac

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Except for Dartmouth and Penn

Take an extra swig of hatorade this morning?

Originally Posted by redgrail

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Take an extra swig of hatorade this morning?

Haha not at all. They are just not top-tier schools.

Originally Posted by Tarmac

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Except for Dartmouth and Penn

Haha, I find there are a far worse institutions across the country. Where they fall within the Ivies is debatable (or from your perspective, not).

Look, there are like 2,000 4 year schools in the U.S. If your school is in the top 50 or 60, you can probably expect to get a good education, good alumni network and good memories.

Originally Posted by Connemara

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Look, there are like 2,000 4 year schools in the U.S. If your school is in the top 50 or 60, you can probably expect to get a good education, good alumni network and good memories.

There are a hell of a lot more than just 50 schools that can give you those things. I'd say there are a hundred, if not more.

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

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There are a hell of a lot more than just 50 schools that can give you those things. I'd say there are a hundred, if not more.
Yeah, you're right, there certainly are more than a hundred. But I think the farther you get down the list, the more you come upon schools that are "ranked" due to specific departments. If you're looking for a comprehensive university, I don't think you'll find a ton of those out side of the first 100-200 schools.

blop