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The Dartmouth
December 17, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth
Bente Shoen
The Setonian
News

Department by department, grades vary significantly

By Bente Shoen | February 27, 2002

Grade inflation is an obvious trend, but some grades are more inflated than others. Though there are no official policies on grade distribution at Dartmouth, an analysis of departmental grading reveals that grade inflation has not risen all boats equally: there are significant differences between departments. The average median grade in Dartmouth's music department over the last eight terms is a 3.75, whereas that of the biology department is .52 grade points lower -- at 3.23. Make you think twice about which elective to take next term? In Dartmouth of old such inter-departmental disparities did not exist.

The Setonian
News

College once embraced grade policies, now has none

By Bente Shoen | February 27, 2002

A survey of the Special Collection's library reveals a little known feature of Dartmouth academic history: the most recent College grading policy dates to the early 1950s. "We just don't seem to have one any more," said Provost Barry Scherr, who has been at Dartmouth since the early 1970s. Now, instead of a top-down policy, grading is handled largely by individual instructors and somewhat at the departmental level. This disintegration of policy corresponds directly with grade inflation: the overall College GPA has increased by an average of .01 per year over the last 25 years, and this trend appears to have begun in the 1960s, a decade after the publication of Dartmouth's last official policy. Indeed, Dartmouth's Institutional Research Office put out a statistical report in 1971 outlining a decade of grade inflation. Not only has no centralized College policy existed for some time, but even departments shy from standardizing grades internally. History department chair Mary Kelley said her department has no written or unwritten policy and that, as far as she knows, there has been no discussion of moving in that direction.

The Setonian
News

Growing number of states require exit exams

By Bente Shoen | February 13, 2002

In response to a series of reports in the 1980s that found America's schools substandard, five states now require students to pass standardized tests, known as exit exams, in order to graduate high school.

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