New grading policy to take effect this year

As students returned to campus this week, they faced changes from new buildings to flashy orange proxes. But the least visible change might prove to be the most jarring: this fall marks the beginning of the University's new anti-grade inflation policy.

Last spring, a faculty vote overwhelmingly approved the policy, which sets an "expectation" that only 35 percent of the grades given in each department will be A-range grades. The "expectation" of A-range grades for independent work is set at 55 percent.

The flurry of campus debate and media attention garnered by the proposals last spring may have died down, but many students remain nervous about how the new policy will affect their chances for future employment and graduate school admissions.

Seniors, in particular, feel uncertain about the way in which potential employers will interpret their grades under the old policy compared to those under the new system.

"My friends and I have definitely been talking about this policy," Su Mei '05 said. "I think the new policy will affect seniors a lot because it's going to be hard on students to explain to employers why their grades are so different in their last year compared to other years."

Admissions officers and selection committee members from several prestigious graduate schools and fellowships, however, said they expected the new grading policy to help Princeton students rather than harm them. That corroborates statements made by Dean of the College Nancy Weiss Malkiel, one of the primary authors of the original proposals.

"I really want to stress a sense of security to students considering going into medicine," said Robert Mayer, faculty associate dean for admissions at Harvard Medical School. "The policy is not going to be a negative in any way for these students. G.P.A. is not the most important component in admissions, and we want to continue to have excellent Princeton graduates here."

Elliot Gerson, the American secretary for the Rhodes Trust, and Jim Shapiro, the chairman of the Marshall scholarship Chicago region, echoed Mayer's sentiments.

Support nonprofit student journalism. Donate to the ‘Prince’. Donate now »

While Megan Barnett, the dean of admissions at Yale Law School, felt the policy would benefit students by giving their grades greater credibility, she also warned that some law school admissions use an index system that could hurt students at schools with strict grading policies.

The index system plugs a student's LSAT score and G.P.A. into a mathematical formula and then ranks the students. Students must obtain a certain index score to gain admission to the school.

Barnett declined to identify schools using this system, but added that the schools would probably adjust the index to account for Princeton's new grading policy.

Several freshmen voiced mild concern about the potential effects of the policy but did not seem particularly daunted by it.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

"I was a little nervous originally coming in because friends going to other schools said it would be harder for me to get by here because of the new policy," Rochelle Murray '08 said. "In the long run, though, I think it's good because if you get an A in a class you know you really worked for it."

Murray noted that the new policy did not seriously figure into her thinking last spring before she committed to Princeton.

Student concerns are just one issue the administration will be handling this fall as it begins to plan the policy's implementation.

Malkiel said each department will receive reports from the Registrar's office detailing its grading patterns from the previous year. Each department will then use the data as a "baseline" to craft its own strategy for meeting the new grading expectations.

A new Faculty Committee on Grading will also be elected later this year — probably during spring semester — to oversee implementation of the policy.

The committee will annually review the grading patterns in each department, focusing particularly on the three-year rolling average, Malkiel said.

If departments do not meet the expectations, the committee will discuss "how to help these departments do better in the future," though it is too early to know exactly how that process will work, Malkiel added.

Malkiel also said she expects to write to every graduate school, professional school and employer she can identify to make sure they understand the new policy. An official policy statement will accompany every student transcript.