Digby Willard says he doesn't see students avoiding hard graders. I
see lots of it.
The difference is that students in college are trying to hold onto
scholarships. Over half the students at my college are receiving some
sort of financial aid that requires a specific GPA to keep. Most of
the financial-aid packages require a 3.0, but a few require a 2.5 GPA.
If over half the students are getting financial aid and need roughly a
3.0 GPA, then we will have one of two situations... (1) the average
grade at our institution will be higher than a 3.0, or (2) each year
many students will lose financial aid.
Now suppose I have a reputation for giving average grades of B-/C+
(about 2.5) and suppose it is common knowledge that students have to
work hard to get this average grade (such that the grades in other
courses suffer because they put so much time into my courses). Do you
think students will be electing to take my courses? No way. They
avoid me like the plague, unless they are truly good students and know
they will get an A or B from me. (As you might have guessed, this is
not hypothetical, this is the true situation I am in.)
Richard Tarara tries to respond to the original question, and wonders
about those students who get inflated grades in high school, then face
college. That is exactly the situation here. HS grades are so
inflated that most of our entering freshman qualify for some sort of
aid. But the grades are truly inflated because when they take my
courses (where I expect homework, writing in complete sentences, etc.)
they struggle just to get a C even though their HS GPA was higher than
3.5 out of 4. We used to require students to do well on the ACT/SAT to
get financial aid. We still require that for our top scholarships, but
for the typical scholarship they only need a good HS GPA. We dropped
the ACT/SAT requirement so we could give more scholarships and get more
students.
Grade inflation in HS and college is very real. I used to be quite
angry that we gave scholarships to students that probably didn't
deserve them and would lose them. Now I feel less bad because some
students really do blossom in college. Our aid policy gives them the
chance to blossom. But those who don't blossom will avoid hard courses
and/or will switch majors so they can keep their aid.
My main gripe right now is that the science courses are known as GPA
busters, so we are having problems keeping students in science. They
actually say, "I would like to major in physics, but if I do I can't
maintain my scholarship, then I can't stay in school." It might very
well be that students who say this don't really have a future in
physics anyway. But whatever it means, they say it.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D. Phone/voice-mail: 419-358-3270
Professor of Chemistry & Physics FAX: 419-358-3323
Chairman, Science Department E-Mail edmiston@bluffton.edu
Bluffton College
280 West College Avenue
Bluffton, OH 45817