Grade Inflation

[littleredfan]

most (if not all) majors in the arts college doesn't have a fixed latin honors distribution. you would need to write a thesis to get latin honors.  if no one writes one, theoretically no one graduates with latin honors...

[jtwcornell91]

[Q]littleredfan Wrote:

 most (if not all) majors in the arts college doesn't have a fixed latin honors distribution. you would need to write a thesis to get latin honors.  if no one writes one, theoretically no one graduates with latin honors...[/q]

When I graduated Astronomy must have done honors based on grades, since no one mentioned the idea of writing a thesis and I still got them.  Of course that year 100% of the Astronomy graduating class was summa cum laude. ;-)

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

[Q]Robb Wrote:

 When I graduated in '94, the engineering college's policy was that a GPA >= 3.25 was "with distinction," and everyone else was "with diploma."  There was no strict percentage on it.  Of course, given that most classes were curved to a B- or so, you could probably estimate that the percentage of "with distinction" grads would be in the 15-20% range. [/q]

When I graduated, "With distinction" in the Engineering College was > 3.5.  I know for sure because I just made the cut and they had to mail my diploma to me instead of giving it to me at the post-graduation reception.  Word had it they curved to a C+/B- during the year and slightly higher during co-op summer to offset the fact that the co-op's were the top half of the class (thouigh one prof refused to do that).  I never took stats, so I don't know the percentages, but I'd guess less than 10% were "With distinction."

[Trotsky]

You couldn't tell the pct above the "with distinction" line from the mean alone, anyway; you also need the measure of dispersion about the mean (i.e., standard deviation).

You could tell if the grading was to a strict normal curve, but that's such an artificial construct that I doubt any department, even an Engineering department, would be misguided enough to conflate it with reality.

[Jacob '06]

I believe chemistry actually has 2 systems. There is one that is grade based, and then you can write a thesis for honors.

[Ken \'70]

Answering my own question:

http://ezra.cornell.edu/posting.php?timestamp=1117083600 (question #3)

Also:

http://www.cals.cornell.edu/Latin_Honors.cfm

http://ezra.cornell.edu/posting.php?timestamp=1046322000#question15

http://ezra.cornell.edu/posting.php?timestamp=1113454800

So similar to Duke in percentages, but not methodology, Cornell being more prone to the effects of grade inflation on honors inflation.

[Rosey]

[Q]Jacob '06 Wrote:

 I believe chemistry actually has 2 systems. There is one that is grade based, and then you can write a thesis for honors. [/q]

The math department is like this.  I got magna cum laude from Arts because of GPA, but math gives "honors" for taking the honors seminar and (I believe) "high honors" for writing a thesis, the latter of which I was too lazy to do.

Not sure what "with distinction" means, but evidently I got that in "all subjects" so it's probably some college-wide thing.

(Not tooting my own horn or anything, just providing my limited perspective.  There's a lot of shit on my diploma, partly because I spent too much time working in college, and partly because it's basically toilet paper this long out of school...)

Cheers,
Kyle

[Robb]

Oops - you're right, Jeff.  It was 3.5 in 1994, too.  We didn't get off that easily...

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Thanks, Robb.  Nice to know standards haven't dropped.  :-D

[French Rage]

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