CATHERINE JUN/ Daily Bruin Students sit in a crowded
classroom during Film and Television 404. Classes with many
students, especially if the professor relies on readers for
grading, may contribute to grade inflation.
By Kelly Rayburn
Daily Bruin Reporter Third-year economics student Paul Sachdeva
doesn’t think too much about how difficult a class is before
signing up for it. “I don’t think any class at UCLA is
that easy,” he said. Sachdeva, who recently switched his
major from psychobiology to economics, said science classes are
difficult and earning a good grade in economics classes is pretty
tough too. But there are professors at UCLA who believe grade
inflation ““ the increasing number of high grades being
awarded, without a similar increase in the difficulty in coursework
““ is a real problem. “It’s rampant,” said
history Professor Anastasia Christman. “Part of the reason I
hate it so much is because I think students who do “˜A’
work ““ when you scale all the grades up ““ don’t
get the recognition they deserve.” Christman added that with
grade inflation, sub-standard performers don’t get the
“wake-up call” they might need. Christman said the
average grade in a history of Los Angeles class she is currently
teaching will be a B or B-, but only because she has to rely on
readers to help her with the grading ““ the readers are
usually easier on students than Christman. In a seminar class of
about 22 people during fall quarter, Christman awarded only two As,
while one student got an F and two or three got Ds. Meanwhile,
chemistry Professor Arlene Russell said grade inflation
wouldn’t be much of a problem if professors practiced
mastery-based grading, as she does, rather than using a curve.
Russell said she doesn’t know how many As, Bs or Cs were
given out in her classes, because students need to perform at a set
level to earn a certain grade from her, no matter how their peers
do. “If you set your standards, and an A is an A, grade
inflation isn’t an issue,” she said. But Russell
acknowledged grade inflation can occur if grades are not
mastery-based. And UCLA isn’t the only place affected by
rising grades. Three-thousand miles away, Ivy League schools and
professors have taken other approaches to alleviate grade
inflation. A few years ago Dartmouth College officials began
putting the median grade of a class on a student’s transcript
next to his or her grade, to provide a context by which grades
could be evaluated. In Cambridge, Mass., renowned Harvard
government Professor Harvey C. Mansfield has been a long-time grade
inflation combatant ““ and last semester he tried something
new. Mansfield, whom Harvard students nicknamed Harvey C-Minus,
gave students his political philosophy students two grades: one
public, for their official transcript, based on the breakdown of
Harvard grades, and the other private, which he felt the students
really deserved. The latter were considerably lower. Mansfield said
in an e-mail that students either liked or accepted the idea.
“I got no complaints either at my office or on the course
evaluation. Some said they appreciated learning where they stood in
relation to the rest of the class,” he said. Mansfield was
pleased with his experiment, which he said showed contempt for the
way Harvard grades, and will use his policy again for a large
lecture course. Mansfield added that the enrollment in his
political philosophy class doubled from the last time he taught it
““ before he announced his two grades policy. Professors at
UCLA who don’t grade too harshly said they have more students
in their classes, as well. Professor Roger Bohman, who teaches a
popular class on AIDS and another on the biology of cancer at UCLA,
said many students sign up for his classes because they think they
are easy. But he added they “drop like flies,” when
they find out the class is more difficult than they expected.
“Contrary to what people think, everyone does not get an
“˜A’ in Bio 40,” he said. But for some UCLA
students, a professor’s reputation as being difficult or easy
doesn’t matter. “Regardless of who the teacher is, the
grade I receive depends on my performance,” said third-year
neuroscience student Vahe Varzhapetyan. And there are some who
don’t care much about grades anyway, whether inflation or
not. “A lot of faculty would be happy not giving out a grade,
and just writing evaluations,” Christman said. Bohman said
grades aren’t too important in his classes, rather he hopes
students take what they learn about AIDS and cancer and practice
responsible behavior. Furthermore, officials from two of
UCLA’s graduate schools said that grade point average ““
whether inflated or not ““ is only a small part of admissions
to their schools. “GPA masks a lot of things,” said
Linda Baldwin, admissions director of the Anderson School at UCLA.
The Anderson admissions office takes into account the rigor of an
applicant’s curriculum and the reputation of his or her
undergraduate school when considering the applicant’s GPA,
Baldwin said. And Baldwin added that GPA is only a small part of a
holistic admissions process, which also take into consideration
extra-curricular leadership, letters of recommendation,
standardized test scores, essays, work experience, cultural factors
and performance in interviews. “We get down to the real
nitty-gritty,” Baldwin said. But grades are not completely
irrelevant either. “If a student comes in without and A or B
in calculus, he doesn’t stand a chance,” Baldwin said.
Though Baldwin expected GPA would be weighted more heavily in law
school, medical school and engineering graduate school admissions,
the Associate Dean of UCLA’s graduate school of engineering
Stephen Jacobsen said GPA is not the major issue at UCLA.
“(Admissions to the school of engineering) is not a formulaic
process at all,” he said. Like the Anderson school, the
school of engineering takes into consideration the academic
reputation of an applicant’s school, as well as performance
in specific courses relevant to an applicant’s field. And
Christman, now a professor, once worked in a law school admissions
office and said law school admissions are similar. Students do not
get much of an advantage coming from a school where grades are
inflated, Christman said. “When we saw a 4.0 grade point
average, we assumed grade inflation ““ or that the school was
crummy,” Christman said.
G.P.A. REPORTED BY UNDERGRADUATES Original
graphic by ADAM BROWN/Daily Bruin Web adaptation by HERNANE
TABAY/Daily Bruin Senior Staff