Good article on college grade inflation

[Stretch 74]

I know we have had some discussion a while back on grade inflation relative to high school, this one focuses on college. I think it really is a strong indictment on the US education system.

I am curious to hear what some of you folks that are still working have to say about this. Have you noticed a deterioration in the skills of the younger kids coming into the work force? Especially in areas like engineering. My brother in law was an engineer and I know that he had talked about this even 10-15 years back. I had noticed it also when I was working, in particular in the ability to write and communicate effectively. What has been the observations and experiences from some of the rest of you?

College Grade Inflation Undermines Workforce Competitiveness

townhall.com

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

I know we have had some discussion a while back on grade inflation relative to high school, this one focuses on college. I think it really is a strong indictment on the US education system.

I am curious to hear what some of you folks that are still working have to say about this. Have you noticed a deterioration in the skills of the younger kids coming into the work force? Especially in areas like engineering. My brother in law was an engineer and I know that he had talked about this even 10-15 years back. I had noticed it also when I was working, in particular in the ability to write and communicate effectively. What has been the observations and experiences from some of the rest of you?

College Grade Inflation Undermines Workforce Competitiveness

townhall.com

Is grade inflation the same as expectation degradation? Have just put a kid through k-12 I can attest that being stupid is the norm and will "earn" a passing, if not better, grade.

 

[95coug]

I know we have had some discussion a while back on grade inflation relative to high school, this one focuses on college. I think it really is a strong indictment on the US education system.

I am curious to hear what some of you folks that are still working have to say about this. Have you noticed a deterioration in the skills of the younger kids coming into the work force? Especially in areas like engineering. My brother in law was an engineer and I know that he had talked about this even 10-15 years back. I had noticed it also when I was working, in particular in the ability to write and communicate effectively. What has been the observations and experiences from some of the rest of you?

College Grade Inflation Undermines Workforce Competitiveness

townhall.com

I can tell you that at all education levels, there’s no longer incentive or encouragement to have high achieving student. The goal is toward uniformity.

And, in the interest of teaching the “correct” process, there’s no teaching problem solving. But that’s been happening long enough that most teachers don’t know how to do it either, and don’t understand when you ask them about it.

 

[Cougsocal]

Interesting article, but it ignores the reality that class rank is the be all and end all on your resume. That because grade inflation has been around for decades and what employers really want to know is how you compare to your contemporaries. It is all about being in the top 10%, whether your GPA is 3.00 or 3.95.

What has changed is how competitive it is to get into a university these day. When I was attending WSU all you basically needed to do was to fog a mirror to get in. That isn't the case any more. The average admit at WSU has a 3.46 GPA, and a 1130 SAT. It has gotten insane in California. UCLA and Berkeley have an 8% acceptance rate.

A 4.00 these days won't get you into any of the UCs except, potentially, UC Merced and Riverside, the systems' bottom tier. This year, my son had a 1360 SAT and a lowly 4.13 GPA and was rejected by UCSD, SDSU (not kidding) and Cal Poly SLO on an engineering intended major application. None of these schools required the SAT, so he was basically applying on 4.13 GPA, being a two sport varsity athlete (swimming and water polo) and having 1s on the AP Calc, Physics and Comp Sci. Are kids brighter these days, of course not. So there is certainly a level of both grade and qualification inflation at the high school level.

That said, on the other side of the coin, our visit to WSU was disappointing regarding the engineering program. Gone are the days that you needed at least a B in Math 171 and 172, as well as Physics 201 to be admitted in to the program. Now, you are admitted to the program if you list engineering as your intended major, and you will receive an engineering degree if you pass the required classes (even with some Ds) at some point if you have a 2.00 GPA. Our meet and greet with the student engineers confirmed it. Everyone I spoke to admitted struggling to pass these former "weeder" classes. I was left disappointed and praying that my son would not chose WSU, fearing that employers now would tend to look down their noses at an WSU engineering degree.

So my take on it is this. If you are recruiting engineers from top tier schools, they are as strong academically as they have ever been. But schools like WSU now do the bare minimum to filter out kids who really aren't suit to the discipline.

 

[COUGinNCW]

Where’s your son going Cougsocal?

 

[95coug]

Interesting article, but it ignores the reality that class rank is the be all and end all on your resume. That because grade inflation has been around for decades and what employers really want to know is how you compare to your contemporaries. It is all about being in the top 10%, whether your GPA is 3.00 or 3.95.

What has changed is how competitive it is to get into a university these day. When I was attending WSU all you basically needed to do was to fog a mirror to get in. That isn't the case any more. The average admit at WSU has a 3.46 GPA, and a 1130 SAT. It has gotten insane in California. UCLA and Berkeley have an 8% acceptance rate.

A 4.00 these days won't get you into any of the UCs except, potentially, UC Merced and Riverside, the systems' bottom tier. This year, my son had a 1360 SAT and a lowly 4.13 GPA and was rejected by UCSD, SDSU (not kidding) and Cal Poly SLO on an engineering intended major application. None of these schools required the SAT, so he was basically applying on 4.13 GPA, being a two sport varsity athlete (swimming and water polo) and having 1s on the AP Calc, Physics and Comp Sci. Are kids brighter these days, of course not. So there is certainly a level of both grade and qualification inflation at the high school level.

That said, on the other side of the coin, our visit to WSU was disappointing regarding the engineering program. Gone are the days that you needed at least a B in Math 171 and 172, as well as Physics 201 to be admitted in to the program. Now, you are admitted to the program if you list engineering as your intended major, and you will receive an engineering degree if you pass the required classes (even with some Ds) at some point if you have a 2.00 GPA. Our meet and greet with the student engineers confirmed it. Everyone I spoke to admitted struggling to pass these former "weeder" classes. I was left disappointed and praying that my son would not chose WSU, fearing that employers now would tend to look down their noses at an WSU engineering degree.

So my take on it is this. If you are recruiting engineers from top tier schools, they are as strong academically as they have ever been. But schools like WSU now do the bare minimum to filter out kids who really aren't suit to the discipline.

A lot of schools now are sort of forced to relax criteria because they need tuition-paying bodies. Letting kids fail out means losing money…so it’s better to keep them in class and graduate them than it is to weed them out