Are College Students Getting the Grades They Deserve?

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Are College Students Getting the Grades They Deserve?

Students at Boston University complain of grade deflation

College students work hard assuming that they will get the grade they deserve but this is not always the case.

Caroline Boulanger, a sophomore business administration and management major at Boston University studies hard. In her freshmen economics class, her final grade was based on three exams. She received two "A's" and an "A-" on these exams. However, at the end of the semester, she ended up with a final grade of a "B-." She tried contacting her professor and he has still not gotten back to her, so she assumes her grade was deflated. Boulanger is not the only person who has had this problem as a result of the grading policy of Boston University.

“I’ve heard that getting a 4.0 at this school is about as likely as winning the lottery or getting struck by lightening. It could be considered an act of god,” said Haley Goucher, a freshman premed student at Boston University.

If a student does receive a 4.0 at Boston University they are in the minority. In a survey of 100 Boston University students, only 23% received an "A" in any one of their classes and 0% of the students had a GPA of 4.0.

Many of these students expressed that this sudden decline of grades made them lose confidence in their work and themselves.

“People who did well in high school have trouble transitioning sometimes. They work hard and they still feel stupid,” said Alex Corhan, a sophomore journalism major at Boston University.

There is no formal grading policy at Boston University but the university does give several guidelines for professors to follow.

“Don’t be a grade-inflater! Grades should reflect the distribution of effort and success in the class … If your distribution of grades is skewed toward the high end, it might imply that either an 'A' does not require a high level of achievement in the course or you are demanding too little of your students,” the Boston University College of Arts and Sciences “Information for Faculty Instructors” states.

Not only does Boston University strongly discourage grade inflation, but they evaluate their professors by how high they grade their students. This leads to problems for both professors and students.

“The individual colleges monitor the grade distribution of courses and let instructors know if their grades seem to be considerably higher or lower than the norm.

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