Will Harrell was a student at Princeton University when he wrote “A Defense of Grade Deflation” for the Princeton campus newspaper. In “A Defense of Grade Deflation” Harrell argues that Princeton's artificial lowering of grades is good for the academics of the school. Harrell argues that grade deflation will increase standards, differentiate good students, weed out bad students, and make grades more consistent across classes and departments. The fact that Harrell, a student, is arguing for lower grades for his peers makes me suspicious that he stands to benefit from grade deflation. This is certainly not an unbiased article. Also, the author seems pretentious when he talks about raising standards and states that Harvard is a school with low …show more content…
For many college students, college is their first big step into adulthood. Students now need to worry about money, roommates, serious relationships, pursuing their passions, future and present jobs, and above all homework, class, and studying. This is the situation that most college students are thrown into. We simply don't need one more thing to worry about. I believe this is why in 2008, an AP survey found that eighty percent of students say they are stressed daily, thirteen percent have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder or depression, and nine percent have considered suicide.(Cite 1) This makes colleges that are actively pursuing lowering students grades such as Princeton seem maleficent. Harrell brushes this off in his article as he says that lower grades will increase competition and then makes the incredulously pompous statement: if you wanted to breeze through college you should have gone to Harvard. Harrell says that at Princeton their goal is to “Teach, not to entertain... [to] maximize academics, not leisure.”(CITE0) This mindset is not healthy. A student at a university that puts an emphasis on lowering everyones grades and increasing difficulty fosters a culture that overemphasizes gades. In other words, a college with this attitude would have a campus where instead of pursuing things like health, community, or lieser, students would mostly be inside worring and …show more content…
College is also about the connections that you make in your major and with your peers. A recent study found that students who were involved in extracurricular activities had a positive impact on how well college has fostered their career skills and development. Why sacrifice all of that for the sake of
In his essay, "Why Colleges Shower Their Students With A’s,” Staples claims that student grades are increasing for the wrong reasons, causing college degrees to become meaningless. Staples provides evidence that average grades have increased significantly over the last several decades, but claims that it is not because students are working harder. The real explanation for grade inflation, he argues, is the effect of grades on both students and their professors. Teachers give more A’s to receive better evaluations and increase job security. Students give more importance to their grades as a result of the rapidly increasing cost of a college education. Staples argues that modern
In the op-ed, “Grade Inflation Gone Wild,” Stuart Rojstaczer addresses the concern of grade inflation and its effects on students. Rojstaczer uses several different methods to prove his point of view to the reader. Rojstaczer links grade inflation to the sinking quality of education, as well as the rise of college alcoholics. While this op-ed does a satisfactory job appealing to the reader on a person-person basis, many of Rojstaczer’s main claims do not hold any scholarly evidence. This analysis over “Grade Inflation Gone Wild” will discuss whether Rojstaczer has written this editorial solely to convince readers of his opinion, or does Rojstaczer present a credible claim in higher education’s grade inflation.
In “Grades and Money,” Steven Vogel makes it clear that he is disappointed and frustrated with what grades have become. He believes that grades have become commoditized and that students’ grades suffer because of their relation with money. Vogel also believes that students no longer take any risk with their education. I agree with Vogel that grades are being equated to money by students, that students’ work suffers because of grades, and that students no longer take risks in their educational process.
The first point that Etelson makes in her article is about the pressure that students are under today, she often refers to it as “educational pressure cooker” (Etelson, 2015). Today, every student is overwhelmed with pressure. Middle class students have pressure to get into a top college. Poor students feel
The biggests explain I can think of is University Of michigan. They are famous for their football team. But do you know what else they are famous for? There science department. University Of Michigan get peoples attention only for football of science department what about other major? The major that could matter but don't get enough attention. This world of education is turning to only science majors and math or the football team. There classes like writing, speech, art and etc is turning into basic classes that supports science and math. The high the test score in these subject the better the rating for universities. What about the success rate of students? No college wants to rate themselves by the number of murders, suicides, failures, or dropouts. They all hide the negative side to attract the students to come to their college. Colleges are turning education into a business. They do this by adding classes that are not a part of their major, increasing the prices of books, and high tuitions that cause students to pile up with student
Use the time to help develop your people skills to help you in the future. College helps with your organizations skills, time management to prepare you for the future. In college, you learn that there is a lifetime of learning to experience and you getting prepared for the upcoming decisions in life. With the future jobs, you will have deadlines to meet with multiple things at once, but you will be able to handle with having had 4 class and several things due on the same day. In college, there are many organization that people are members of helps set their future careers. College gives people the experience of an atmosphere that is a step closer to the real world. The experience that the college offers to study aboard and explore other countries to learn cultures that you may know nothing about gives you a diverse learning experience. Many people do not get the opportunity to travel aboard without college because they can’t afford. College has set up a way for many to experience these things. The essay Is College Worth the Money? Answers from Six New Graduates The lawyer Beverly Ozowara stated “she had the opportunity to travel (for a third of the normal cost) to Brazil with the Notre Dame Concert Band. During the trip, I was able to do things like perform at the oldest concert hall in the Americas and to swim in the Amazon river” (Dwyer113). While in college now I have met many different people in the classroom, where they are from and different things about their background. Opening and communicating with others helps you to be a people person with in the
Former professor of geophysics, Stuart Rojstaczer, in his informative op-ed piece, “Grade Inflation Gone Wild,” featured in “Christian Science Monitior(2009),” investigates grade inflation among universities today. Rojstaczer’s purpose is to inform and educate universities on the inflation of grades, and how an A has become the average grade among those schools. He adopts a dismissive tone when generalizing and addressing the students on their behaviors and actions. Rojstaczer found over 80 universities with data on they’re grades, using this he was able to better understand the inflation and also analyze possible solutions. His logos based writing portrays a negative connotation on todays students and their ability to achieve within the classroom. There is no hiding that the standard for grades has been on the rise sense the 1960’s, and is now at an average GPA of a 3.0, but rojstaczer may have lost his audience with his arrogant approach.
While interviewing Mr. Coles, I found I tended to agree with him on several of his points. Mr. Coles summed up himself, and how I feel, quite simply: "College gives you options." Unlike high school, you’re not required to fulfill a certain number of units in one year. If you have other plans for your life, you can accommodate those while going to school. But, that applies not only while you’re in college, but also when you get out of college. "Life’s about choices," Mr. Coles continued, "it’s about having choices. You come to critical points in your life where decisions have to be made, hopefully you have some options...[...
Everyone has their own reasons for wanting a college education. Popular reasons for attending college include being able to obtain a better paying job, increase future earning potential, gain training for a specific career, and learning more about a specific topic of interest. Rampell, C. (2015) My reasons are more personal than either of the reasons listed. I do not wish to miss out on significant opportunities that have the potential to enrich my life and future. If there is anything in my life that I would regret it would be not pursuing my college education. As we get older life happens and the list of things we wish we could have done gets longer. Knowing that it is never too late to accomplish my goals is strong motivation to shorten the list of should haves. Obtaining a college education is important to me because I will have a strong sense of accomplishment for setting a goal that is important to me and seeing it through to the end. I also enjoy challenges and feel inspired by the endless possibilities for my future.
College, a gateway for expanding the horizons within our youth has many conflicting ideas due to it's cost, suggesting that it may not even be worth it. Yet thinking about having this privilege of exposing our minds to anything and everything we desire while providing ourselves with far more opportunity in the future makes every late night double shift, staying up until 3 am, living off ramen noodles well worth it.
College is a place where people go to learn and to grow as a person. Most people go to college for the same reasons. They want to set a good foundation for getting a job, experience new things, or because their parents wanted them to. All of those reasons apply to me also.
It seems as though the majority of college students these days aren’t looking to further their education because it’s what they really want, they do it to please their parents, to be accepted by society, or because there’s nothing else for them to do (Bird, 372). These expectations have led to students being unhappy and stressed, and have pushed them into a school or a job that they don’t particularly care for.
Having a college education is very beneficial for a person’s future. The degree itself is not the most beneficial aspect of a person’s success in the future nor is the type or rank of school attended will be most beneficial. The education received throughout the years in college will be the most beneficial reward in a student’s life. The education a person receives from a college experience is not only the textbook education or the education provided by the professors but also the real-life experiences. The real-life experience benefits are what will truly matter in the future. A few specific benefits from a college education are the life experiences, the commitment to someone/something other than yourself, the skills achieved such as time management and organization, and also the self-sufficiency a person profits. College is also a great time to find yourself through the chaos of balancing life and maintaining passing grades. “Another one of the many benefits of a college education is meeting others from distant places with diverse backgrounds.” (McGuire) In high school, students do not have the wide range of people from different backgrounds. In college, students are introduced to everything new to life and along with that comes other students from different areas of life. Going to college and having the
At a high school, there are many things to offer such as auditoriums, lunch rooms, computer labs and science labs. Along with these things sports are offered too, among those sports are basketball, soccer, baseball, football and various running sports. While students benefit from these extracurricular activities there are rules to be obeyed such as the school dress code and cell phones are not permitted during school hours. While in college it is a little different, you get treated like an adult and you have a bit more freedom. College students take advantage of this freedom of roaming and exploring the campus. For example, college kids can freely take out their cellphone without it being taken up at any given point in the class. “In high school, your day is typically planned for you, including where and when your classes meet and what time you eat lunch. College gives you significantly more freedom in building your schedule and choosing how to spend your time” (Kori Morgan). Along with extensive freedom offered at the college level there are other things offered as well, like sports fields, theatres and concert halls most of those things are unheard of in high school. Whether college kids are in class they could easily be hitting the books hard in libraries or just relaxing in the campus café. The choices are endless in
In Kristin Butcher’s article “The Effects of an Anti-Grade Inflation Policy at Wellesley College” she states, “Based in part on grades, students make choices about how hard to work, courses, majors, and careers. Graduate schools make choices about whom to admit and employers make choices about whom to hire”(1). By participating in Grade inflation this is helping professors, students, and schools succeed. Students will receive good grades so they can pursue in post education practices. Teachers and school reputations will remain high. Teachers and schools want to give a good impression and in order to do that they need to produce something that all students want, a good grade. Some say grade inflation helps show students they are smart and capable of working hard and receiving good grades. This motivates them to work harder to keep those high grades. Grade inflation also gives students the opportunity to apply them selves to the next level University. But is this really helping a student succeed? How are they going to succeed if they have not gained any knowledge? It is not right for someone to give a student a grade they do not deserve. Stuart Rojstaczer in “Grade inflation Gone wild” has an interesting opinion on students. He says, “When students walk into a classroom knowing they can go through the motions and get a B+ or better, that’s what they tend to do, give minimal effort”(75). This is a great point because in today’s society too many people just give bare minimum effort because that’s all they have been taught. Students need to learn as much as possible and be challenged so they can succeed in the future. Like Rojstaczer said all Grade Inflation is doing is making lazy students, teaching one to give no effort because everything is given. This is setting students up for failure in the future, as work does not come easy for the everyday