Sunday, June 1, 2008

Grade Inflation: A Small Piece of Evidence

I have been working this weekend again on my c.v. (the long resume used in academia) and it's been basically great. There is nothing like putting all the impressive things about yourself in one huge document to make you feel a sense of confidence. (For instance, my research experience rocks. Too bad I am not going into geology...)

I have a 3.64 GPA from Rice, which put me into the cum laude honors group, and as I recall, I was not barely skating by. Robert looked up the current GPA cut-off at Rice for cum laude - it is 3.80! So in 12 years, there appears to have been enough grade inflation to bring the cut-off up by about 0.20. That's quite a lot. (Of course, it's possible that Rice students have become more studious since 1996, but I somehow doubt it. I also can't believe that student quality could have increased that much since I was there.)

But the thing that had me triumphantly aha-ing when I saw this information was the realization that I don't just have a 3.64 GPA from a top university - in 2008 terms, I have a 3.8ish GPA from a top university. Too bad I can't report my GPA in current terms (like you would report 1996 dollars in 2008 dollars), but I have to assume that the professors on the admission committees are at least as aware of grade inflation as I am.

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