Thought I'd throw this out there for those parents who have children pursuing B.S. degrees, and might be alarmed when their cadet is excited to get a B grade...
About two years ago I ran across a website called gradeinflation.com. To cut to the chase, the author, an ex Hydrology full professor at Duke, conducted a study around grading trends. One of his conclusions was that the BS degree classes had an ave. GPA about .3 or .4 below the BA degree holder.
He has a nice chart on his website which seems to document this pretty much across all 75+ schools in his database.
I wondered if the same held true for the school my daughter is attending, a mid sized Private ranked in the top 100 in US News. I wondered rather than just look it up on gradeinflation.com because her school is not part of the database.
Well, I found the comprehensive grade data on the school's own Instititutional Research website, and found the following, both pertaining to the College of Arts and Sciences:
Ave. GPA for BS Dept. classes: 2.70
Ave. GPA for BA Dept. classes: 3.18
BS Dept. classes that I looked at include Math, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, BS in Psychology
BA Dept. classes that I looked at include English, History, Sociology, Anthropology, BA in Psychology, Environmental Studies, and Journalism.
So, for what it's worth, if your son or daughter seems to be proud for being in the B.S. degree program and having a 3.0 GPA, well, that's because they're doing much better than most of their colleagues!
Aside from the obvious, I have now learned that my daughter's school actually grades on the harder side of the spectrum. The Ave. GPA in the College of Arts and Sciences from my review is 2.92. That is about 0.2 lower than the average school, and a full 0.4 lower than the average GPA for Private colleges that are well ranked and shown within the gradeinflation.com database.
I am going to have to keep that in mind
About two years ago I ran across a website called gradeinflation.com. To cut to the chase, the author, an ex Hydrology full professor at Duke, conducted a study around grading trends. One of his conclusions was that the BS degree classes had an ave. GPA about .3 or .4 below the BA degree holder.
He has a nice chart on his website which seems to document this pretty much across all 75+ schools in his database.
I wondered if the same held true for the school my daughter is attending, a mid sized Private ranked in the top 100 in US News. I wondered rather than just look it up on gradeinflation.com because her school is not part of the database.
Well, I found the comprehensive grade data on the school's own Instititutional Research website, and found the following, both pertaining to the College of Arts and Sciences:
Ave. GPA for BS Dept. classes: 2.70
Ave. GPA for BA Dept. classes: 3.18
BS Dept. classes that I looked at include Math, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, BS in Psychology
BA Dept. classes that I looked at include English, History, Sociology, Anthropology, BA in Psychology, Environmental Studies, and Journalism.
So, for what it's worth, if your son or daughter seems to be proud for being in the B.S. degree program and having a 3.0 GPA, well, that's because they're doing much better than most of their colleagues!
Aside from the obvious, I have now learned that my daughter's school actually grades on the harder side of the spectrum. The Ave. GPA in the College of Arts and Sciences from my review is 2.92. That is about 0.2 lower than the average school, and a full 0.4 lower than the average GPA for Private colleges that are well ranked and shown within the gradeinflation.com database.
I am going to have to keep that in mind