BU
I am reading articles about how my school, Boston University, deflates grades. One article states that it is easier to get an A at Harvard than a B at BU. That's crazy. An article in the New York Times states that BU is trying to maintain a high standard. Unfortunately, other schools don't have the same standards and this makes BU students look like they are not as intelligent as students from other colleges.
This may not seem that interesting to you, but it sure is to me. I have been busting my butt and that B+ I got in American History still ticks me off. But if BU deflates grades? Then my A, A-, B+, A- and A are not looking so shabby. But how do I tell Dartmouth what BU is doing?
This may not seem that interesting to you, but it sure is to me. I have been busting my butt and that B+ I got in American History still ticks me off. But if BU deflates grades? Then my A, A-, B+, A- and A are not looking so shabby. But how do I tell Dartmouth what BU is doing?
Buggie spilled her guts for you at 7/17/2006 12:06:00 PM
3 Comments:
I don't think you can tell them, though I would be surprised if admissions officers at major schools were not aware of grade biases at other major schools. They may even publish distributions, within the "community". Ultimately a school's reputation will depend on the success of its graduates, so it would not be in the interest of BU to effectively sabotage its graduates for further education. But they have done some crazy things, I know.
I'll ask a friend who graduated from BU last May whether she experienced this in her grad school applications.
Followup from my recent BU (Art History) grad friend:
As far as grade deflation goes, I would say it depends on which department she was considering. The only time I experienced it was when I took psych 101, and that was because prior to that semester, almost everyone got an "A". Anything in the arts sciences, she should be safe. H----, who was a biochem major, had most of her grades scaled up. I've mostly heard of that going on in the business school, but I think people made more of a big deal than it became.
Eh, I think I have earned most of my grades. I do know that if I am between two grades, they will give me the lower one. Which pisses me off. And forces me to send the ubiquitous email asking them to recalculate my grade as I feel I have earned an A, which of course never works. Yet, the knowledge that it never works has not stopped me yet!
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