Admissions Academy Blog

Grade Inflation and Student Expectations

•  Posted by Sarah Ziegler on March 17th, 2009 in Academics, Articles of Interest
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Inside Higher Ed recently highlighted new data about grade inflation published by former Duke professor Stuart Rojstaczer, founder of http://www.gradeinflation.com/ and the College Ranking Service. His recent findings, expanded to include an assortment of large and small, public and private, highly selective and less selective institutions across the country, show that average GPA’s have been rising at virtually all of the 70 colleges that were sampled. Private college average GPA’s rose almost 7%, from 3.09 in 1991 to 3.30 in 2006. Public college averages rose almost 6%, from 2.85 to 3.01. At some highly selective institutions, average GPA’s now top 3.5. Mr. Rojstaczer argues that these persistent increases cannot be explained fully by a corresponding increase in the quality of college-bound students, as average SAT or ACT scores have not kept pace with increased grades.

This issue of rising grades, and what grade inflation means to the rigor of higher education, is also connected to changing expectations among college students. The New York Times reported that students increasingly expect to be rewarded for their effort, even if that effort doesn’t produce an average or above-average product. The articles quotes a senior from the University of Maryland as saying, “If you put in all the effort you have and get a C, what is the point”? Some students, accustomed to earning high grades throughout their K-12 classes to gain admission to college, fear that low grades will prevent them from gaining admission to subsequent graduate programs.

See the full data for over 180 colleges’ average GPA’s here, and about Princeton’s efforts to curb grade inflation here.

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