In an age of increasingly high average grades, professors have been giving out more and more citations, which recognize students whose class performance merits acknowledgment that a letter grade fails to explain.
Dartmouth has used the citation system for over 40 years as a way to add a "personal touch" to a student's transcript.
The selectivity of citations has made them prized commodities. During the 2004-2005 school year, 774 citations were awarded: 257 in the fall, 195 in the winter, 247 in the spring and 75 in the summer. This fall, professors gave out 265 citations.
Professors say they try to limit the number of citations they give each term in order to retain their meaning.
"I don't give a whole lot of citations. They ought to be protected in this age of inflation. Their meaning should not be diluted," government professor Nelson Kasfir said. While many students never receive a citation, some students receive many in their time at the College. Sandeep Ramesh, the Class of 2005 valedictorian, received 16 citations during his Dartmouth career.
The citation process begins when the faculty member requests a citation sheet from the department administrator and records the reasons for giving a citation. The text is then submitted to the registrar and included in the student's permanent record.
On the transcript the student's grade in that course appears with an asterisk next to it. On the back of the transcript, the key lists an asterisk as a "Citation for meritorious performance," according to associate registrar LeRoy Graham. Any time a student's transcript is sent out it will include the professor's comments for every citation received.
Currently no written standard for awarding citations exists and professors are free to interpret "meritorious performance" within in the context of each class they teach.
"A citation is for excellent achievement that's off the scale of normal grading," Kasfir said.
Other professors award citations based upon the qualities they look for in an exceptional student.
"Consistently high quality work, intellectual curiously, conscientious and joyful to have in class are some of the things that I hope for in a student," sociology professor Melissa Herman said.
Other professors award citations based entirely on grades.
"I was told that normally the best student in Government 3 will get one," government professor Michael Herron said. "I looked at exam scores."
But citations are not always attached to A grades -- between the summer of 2000 to the spring of 2002, three students received citations along with a C grade. The Center for the Advancement of Learning advises new faculty members to award citations when the student's special efforts may be obscured by the grade or when the grade alone "inadequately represents the quality of a student's work."
Some professors will even award a citation to a student who came into a class with little preparation and initially struggled, but then worked hard enough to end up with a decent grade, Kasfir said.
Unlike many other colleges, including the majority of the other Ivy League institutions, Dartmouth does not have a Dean's list to acknowledge exceptional work. But several professors explained that a Dean's list based solely on grade point average unfairly represents student abilities.
"I think with grade inflation a Dean's list is less and less meaningful," Herman said.
Despite the honor that comes with receiving a citation, some first-year students were oblivious to the meaning of a citation when it appeared on their transcript.
"I didn't really know what it was, but I got a letter from my dean saying that it was a recognition for doing particularly well in the class. I had loved the class, so this was like icing on the cake" Jo Xu '09 said.
