Students can now find out the median grade and enrollment number for all classes at the end of each term by looking in the "Public" file server.
According to the Registrar Office's report, only three classes had a median below "B-," while more than 20 courses had a median grade of "A."
Half of the students in any given class are above the median grade, the other half below. The list does not include classes that had fewer than 10 students or are exempt from having their median grade reported.
The average grade point average for the Fall term was 3.20, according to Registrar Thomas Bickel. The average grade point average for the 1992-1993 school year was 3.23, he said.
The Class of 1998 is the first class to have median grades and enrollment numbers reported on their transcripts. The new information will appear on transcripts in the winter or spring, and upperclass transcripts will not change.
The Committee on Instruction voted in mid-October to release the median grades to the public. The COI is a faculty committee that deals with curricular issues.
The new transcripts will look essentially the same but will include class enrollments, median grades and a statement at the transcript's bottom showing the number of grades the student has received that exceed, equal or are below the median grade.
The new transcripts were initially supposed to be issued for the first time at the end of Fall term, but the computer programs necessary for the new transcript are still being modified, according to COI chair Gary Johnson.
Freshmen currently can access median grades, enrollment numbers and the distributive requirements fulfilled by each of their Fall term classes via DarTerminal.
Freshmen will receive a letter from Bickel and Dean of Freshmen Peter Goldsmith this week explaining how to use DarTerminal to access this information.
The new transcripts, which the Faculty approved last May, came about as a result of a study the COI began in 1990 to re-examine grade-reporting at the College.
Johnson said the COI found most schools around the country include only the course and the grade earned on their transcripts.
But he said the COI discovered Yale and McGill incorporated class size and median grade into their transcripts.
"We thought that these schools served as good models for Dartmouth," Johnson said.
Johnson also said many of the Dartmouth's peer institutions are beginning to adopt similar transcript policies.
Columbia will vote on whether to include class size and median grade on their transcripts this February, he said.
