By Destiney Burt /Staff Writer
Hard work, dedication, and all-nighters, may not be enough for a college student to earn an “A” grade.
A 2010 study done by Stuart Rojstaczer, a geophysics professor at Duke University, shows a list of 16 collegiate schools with the toughest graders. This means that some schools reward students with the grades they deserve while others do not.
Taking into consideration that overall school grades are unregulated, Florida International University was ranked as one of the most demanding.
Assistant Dean of FIU’s Honors College, Jose Rodriguez, said that schools that want to maintain high standards of quality have the right to impose strict standards of excellence.
Rodriguez said that it is fair for schools to demand more from their students. “If by ‘grade harder’ you mean to say ‘have higher standards’ then yes, it is perfectly fair,” he said.
Also, he said students earn their grades while professors only enforce the policies set forth in their syllabi.
Rojstczer found that the schools’ GPAs are not necessarily low. However, some of the highly selective schools, whether public or private, frequently give higher grades. This includes Brown University, for example.
According to the federal education institution, 17% of students in private institutions receive mostly A’s and 11% of students at public institutions. However, whether these grades are handed to students or earned varies.
Senior health services administration major, Raymond Borrero, thinks grade inflation is certainly an issue that must be addressed.
Borrero said grade inflation makes it more difficult to identify the best students, as more students are awarded the highest available grade. “It creates an unfair culture and it diminishes the value of merit,” he said.
Senior biology major, Fabian Williams, agrees with Borrero. Willams said that a student can miss out on developing strength of mind if they are just handed an A.
“College is our gateway to the real world, and for people who are not prepared to deal with that, it might be a rude awakening,” said Williams.
“Being able to afford oneself an easier path through college does not always translate to success on the next level.”
This is a load of crap. I understand that the school wants to maintain excellence and all, but if they investigate the classroom setting, I’m sure they can find a lot of professors who read off their power-point slides, abandon lectures to go on tangents about family life, and teach not a single thing about critical thinking skills. Then on the test, the content is stuff they’ve never even taught or mentioned in the lesson.
No, we’re not paying you to enforce policies; we’re paying you tuition money (the same $$$$$$ that increases year after year) to guide us step by step in learning our subjects and to ultimately TEACH us what we’re paying to learn.
Somehow the professors are turning this into a competitive game while they dish out hard esoteric assignments and sit back to watch with popcorn in their hands. What the professors doing at FIU are creating a hostile and competitive environment with no nurturing factor.
Why should students jump over fire and hoops when the professors at this school aren’t contributing even half of the effort? Get off your butt and actually give back to your students.