What problems do you see with Dartmouth’s current grading scheme, and what changes would you suggest to College grading policies?
There are delineable inconsistencies in the College’s grading system, especially pertaining to grading differences between departments. At a liberal arts institution, there are students who pursue the social sciences, the arts and STEM fields, and we are all privileged to be able to pursue those divergent interests. The elephant in the room, however, is that most people think some majors and departments are “harder” than others and some majors are more “legit” than others. Where does the perception of a major being traditionally “harder,” such as engineering, biochemistry or mathematics, versus “easier” come from? There is no simple answer. Though this is perhaps an oversimplified explanation, I think that it is not the difficultly of the tests, exams, problem sets and papers that make certain courses appear “harder,” but instead it is the amount of perceived effort that goes into the achievement of median grades and median grade point averages. Students here, like it or not, consider a 3.8 in theater not to be equivalent to a 3.8 in engineering — and that perception needs to change. The only way for that to change, however, is for students to be confident and secure in the knowledge that the grading severity is equal across departments. Therein lies the direction that Dartmouth’s academic rigor campaign needs to go. —Aylin Woodward ’15
Like many of its peer institutions, the College should seriously consider cutting down on grade inflation, especially in the humanities. The way things stand, many students feel the ability to coast through courses without being challenged. A wider range of grades within a class will challenge students to work harder and produce better work. This change should be standardized across the board, so that no specific department or professor is known as easy or hard. Reducing grade inflation would allow students to be totally immersed in the intensive academic experiences here that they probably imagined when they applied, which I disappointingly find lacking. This change would have wide-reaching effects on campus culture, and I believe those effects would ultimately be rewarding for students, staff and faculty alike.—Vivien Rendleman ’16
Dartmouth’s current grading system encourages students and departments towards anti-intellectual behavior. Students are incentivized to take “lay-up” classes for high medians and relatively easy work. Although talked about less, departments are also incentivized to inflate grades. Since easy classes with high medians result in greater enrollment in a department, these numbers can be used to make a case for increased student interest in the subject, and therefore serve as the basis for more faculty hiring and financial support of those departments. Dartmouth should publish median and mean grades for all classes, regardless of size. The register should also be required to create a concise and clear annual report regarding median and mean grades broken down by academic department. —Jon Miller ’15
One problem with academic life is the grade point average cut-off for Presidential Scholars. Every fall, sophomores whose grade point averages puts them in the top 40 percent of their class are granted the chance to become presidential scholars and conduct paid research under a faculty member. But grade point average, of course, is not the sole indicator of academic performance or rigor. This has been reported on well enough by the median grades on the office of the registrar’s website, which also shows that the median grade in the sciences is constantly lower than the median grade in all other disciplines. The grade point average cut-off for this year’s eligible Presidential Scholars is at 3.61 (up from 3.54 for the Class of 2016). For someone who has taken several language classes or arts classes, where the median grade is generally A/A-, having a grade point average of 3.61 means doing worse than the median. For someone who has taken chemistry or biology classes, where the median grade is set to B, a 3.61 means doing significantly better than other students taking the same classes. It is great to reward academic performance with research opportunities — but it is simply unfair to use grade point average as an indicator. It is about time the College thinks of other ways to judge Presidential Scholarship eligibility. Yes, figuring out medians and weighting grade point averages might be a hassle for the administrators of this program, but it is the only way that makes sense.—Reem Chamseddine ’17
