Rankings can counteract GPA inflation
By Mike Hansen
Nov. 11, 2002 9:00 p.m.
At private universities across the country, grade inflation is
rampant. Average GPAs at private schools like Stanford range from
3.4 to 3.6, while at public institutions, such as UCLA, Berkeley
and UNC, the averages range from 3.0 to 3.2.
UCLA needs to bring back class rankings to preserve the value of
our hard-earned grades. Class rankings would demonstrate that a 3.0
at UCLA, where the average GPA ranges from 3.1 and 3.2, is much
more respectable than a 3.0 at Stanford, where the average GPA was
recently brought down from 3.6 to 3.4.
The general trend of private universities to inflate grades
harms UCLA students in the job market and when applying to graduate
schools.
“Grade inflation can eat a fat one,” says UCLA
history major Tina Shull, who is currently applying to history
Ph.D. programs. Tina has a 4.0 GPA in her major, and
understandably doesn’t want her GPA to be confused with a 4.0
from an expensive private school, where professors give out As as
if the entire university were on a football scholarship.
So why are good grades at private universities so easy to get?
Well if you were paying $35,000 a year for your education,
wouldn’t you feel ripped off if you graduated with a 2.9 in
return? When asked why GPAs tend to be higher at private
universities, USC student Alice Chang explains, “Private
school students pay more, so they care more.” I see. USC kids
buy their grades. What a surprise.
Private universities treat their students like consumers. The
consumer must be satisfied, and how better to satisfy them than
giving out easy As. Alumni are the cash cows of private
universities, and these cash cows will keep giving if they graduate
satisfied with their university experience (translation: GPA).
While grade inflation is a national phenomenon, former Harvard
dean Henry Rosovsky and University of Pennsylvania lecturer Matthew
Hartley say it is “especially noticeable” in the
outrageously expensive Ivy League. The expectation of private
school students that they are entitled to a high GPA is so
ingrained that one Harvard professor, Harvey Mansfield, has a
two-grade policy. Professor Mansfield hands out a merit-based grade
which is shown only to the students and an inflated grade which
gets recorded on transcripts.
Can you even imagine a UCLA professor handing you an unofficial
C because you deserve it and an official A because you want it for
your transcript? Of course not. UCLA and similar public schools
haven’t succumbed to the grade inflation disease.
“Having a high GPA at a state school is a bigger
accomplishment than having a high GPA at a private school,”
says Vidya Prabhakaran, former president of Yale College Council.
Okay, maybe private school students are aware of this, but do you
really believe employers know? I doubt it.
We need a common yardstick to better measure academic
achievement among different schools. Universities will never
agree on consistent grading standards or create a standard
distribution curve. The chance of that happening is about
equal to the chance that Christina Aguilera’s next video will
be called “Clean.”
UCLA can print class rankings on transcripts, so that potential
employers and admissions czars see that we attend a rigorous
university that has upheld its academic standards. We have a right
to show people where we stand relative to our fellow students, and
we should demand that the administration grant us this right.
