Grade inflation

There's nothing like trying meddle with two guarded foundations of the Princeton community to "awaken the sleeping giant." In the past weeks, two of the most sacrosanct institutions of student life, the street and grades, have come under some undesired scrutiny and have roused condemnation from a normally apathetic student body. Two weeks ago, a grad student received a barrage of criticism over his allegations about Prospect Street, and last week Dean Malkiel put forth a grading proposal that threatens the sacred and greedily hoarded A.

Since the Prospect Avenue criticisms have been sufficiently beaten to death, students have turned their attention to the potential threat to their coveted GPA.

For many a Princeton student, the A has become their pride and joy — the immutable sign of excellence that has always lovingly supported us in times of adolescent insecurity. From a student body that has always strived for perfection, the thought of such a proposal has sent many students running to the library with the possibility of getting a B simply too overbearing.

This new grading proposal that is threatening to diminish our academic self-worth has left many asking the question: Do Princeton students take grades too seriously? Have today's colleges become more about graduate school and i-banking, than achieving academic excellence through a mastery of the material? Tuesday's letter to the editor from a freshman parent represents a very real and serious worry for Princeton students who think that a "Princeton education is not always an end in itself, but, rather, it is often a means to an end — graduate school admission." As he said, "I would recommend that the undergraduate institution be selected on the basis of its success in placing its graduates in graduate school."

An article in the April 6 New York Times addressed college students and told us to "lighten up" about grades. The dean of student affairs Bowdoin College, Craig W. Bradley, spoke to the college's trustees recently about, "creating a culture that emphasizes the joy of learning for learning's sake, "a culture that can itself ameliorate the anxiety many students feel about grades, jobs, grad school admissions." In the article the college phenomenon of "perfectionism" was analyzed and some examples of how universities have come to deal with students who are under increasing stress from families and peers. In today's cutthroat world of jobs and grad schools, is it feasible that college can return to the notion of learning for learning's sake rather than the graded result?

Many worry that Dean Malkiel's proposal has failed to account for the fact that we will be the only top flight school curbing grade inflation. As we move forward into a more educated world, the competition is only going to get more intense and Princeton students are quite rightly afraid of being at a disadvantage from the rest of the highly qualified pack.

There is a reason why we care about getting A's, and it is not completely ridiculous. With graduate education becoming increasingly more important and competitive, anyone who tells you that your GPA is not important is simply lying. If the administration thinks that they are somehow going to spark a cultural revolution that will put the focus back on learning and away from grades, than they have seriously underestimated our generation's craving of A's.

The bottom line is that in today's competitive student world, with pressure coming from parents, friends, peers and teachers, learning will sadly always come second to grades. In this lies the problem. Maybe the repercussions of this grade inflation proposal are an indication of how students use Princeton as a resume filler — a necessary stop in the long road to a six-figure salary. Many see Princeton as merely a well credentialed step on the way to a higher powered grad school and an even higher powered job.

While this does seem a practical view to take regarding one's future, if ultimately that's what Princeton's functions turns out to be, then it will have failed as an institute of higher education. The unknown consequences of this grading proposal are undoubtedly a scary prospect for many students including myself — especially if other schools don't follow suit.

But in the end, if may just "awaken" the stellar student in all of us and provoke us to rise to this academic challenge. Chris Berger is a sophomore from London. His column runs every other Thursday. You can reach him at cberger@princeton.edu.