During my time at Princeton, one issue was the source of more debate, more controversy and more contention than any other. Was it Abu Ghraib? The 2004 election? The 2006 campaigns? No, it was grade deflation. As most Princetonians know all too well, Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel's new grading policy, implemented in April 2004, instructs departments to give As for only 35 percent of undergraduate course work and 55 percent of independent work. The grade deflation policy incited such indignation and outrage that it seemed to bring a dormant campus to life. Emotions are still at fever pitch, and neither the administration nor the student body shows the slightest inclination to back down.
Grade inflation policies can be traced back to the Vietnam War. Professors, motivated by political conviction as well as sympathy, gave higher grades to students whose poor academic standing put them in danger of being drafted. At Stanford, the average GPA rose 0.4 points between 1968 and 1992. In 2001, there was a wave of incredulity when the Boston Globe revealed that a full 91 percent of Harvard seniors had graduated with honors that year.
College grades may be symptomatic of a broader culture of inflation. SAT scores are on the rise as many more students master test-taking strategies and employ private tutors. High School GPAs are also inflated, partially because teachers and counselors are watching out for students about to face the cutthroat world of college admissions. Regardless of its causes, however, many educators and administrators acknowledge that inflation must be curbed — an attitude epitomized by Princeton's policy.
There is no question that Malkiel's policy has been effective in counteracting inflation. The Daily Princetonian found in an unscientific survey that the average GPA for seniors stands at 3.52 but drops down to 3.44 for juniors and 3.40 for sophomores. Many students believe that deflating grades is a cause of significant harm in many areas. The debate on the subject, conducted in our email inboxes and on the pages of campus publications, has been passionate — and vitriolic.
Spearheading the efforts against deflation is former USG president Alex Lenahan '07. He has offered many thoughtful reasons to revoke the policy, including the suggestion that a quota on top grades will increase competition in the classroom, undermining the collaborative and communal atmosphere of seminars, precepts and labs. If fellow students are seen as rivals and not colleagues, he says, the Princeton community will lose something of great value. Lenahan has also suggested that Malkiel's policy will push students away from academic exploration. Concerns over grades, he adds, will cause widespread avoidance of unfamiliar subjects and notoriously challenging courses where there is a greater uncertainty that one will rank in the top 35 percent. And, Lenahan explains, with introductory courses being the hardest hit by the new grading policy — quotas are placed on departments, not on individual professors — students might limit their overall experience at Princeton by sticking to what they already know they can do.
Though Lenahan was unsuccessful in his attempts to overturn Malkiel's policy, he successfully exposed the emotion and conviction with which students oppose deflation. An October 2006 survey revealed that almost 70 percent of students believe that the grading policy is a negative addition to the University; an overwhelming 86 percent asserted that the policy's effect on Princeton's academic environment has been negative. In an email that Lenahan sent to the undergraduate student body a week after sending out the survey results, he emphasized his concern that the policy would cause students to sacrifice their academic passions and stifle their intellectual curiosity in favor of obsessing over their GPAs.
USG president Rob Biederman '08 has taken a more subdued approach to the issue, conceding that he does not believe overturning the policy is "a practical or achievable goal for the USG right now." He is, however, maintaining the campus's mood of resentment and indignation.
Biederman has articulated an intention to focus on whether the policy is fairly and correctly implemented and seems to be implying that it is not. In a February 2006 email, he urged students to inform the USG academics chair if they believe that a fall semester professor incorrectly applied the grade deflation policy. "Dean Malkiel has happily agreed to meet regularly with [academics chair] Sarah [Breslow '08] and the USG," Biederman wrote, "and has already spoken with one professor who applied the policy incorrectly in grading his fall class." As Biederman told the 'Prince,' his error-correction campaign has two main purposes. One is to intervene in specific cases of misunderstanding and to get grades changed. "The second reason for the whole drive," Biederman said in February, "is to show that — in my opinion — the grade deflation policy is frequently misapplied." If Lenahan suggested that Malkiel's policy is flawed philosophically, Biederman has shown that it has been problematic in application.
Though Malkiel has often stated that one of her goals in implementing the grade deflation policy is inspiring other peer institutions to follow suit, this does not seem to have occurred. The median GPA for Princeton's Class of 2006 was between 3.2 and 3.3; the median GPA at Yale falls between 3.6 and 3.7. Princeton students are no less competent than those at Yale; nor is there any reason to believe that Yalies work harder. Malkiel's counterpart at Yale, College Dean Peter Salovey, told the Yale Daily News that grades should ultimately be left to the discretion of professors because each faculty member "understands best what constitutes Aor B-level work."
Malkiel has consistently maintained that the grade deflation policy has not diminished students' success as graduates, even if the competition has not been subjected to a similar policy. She has said that most fellowships, graduate programs and recruiters are impressed with Princeton's decision to lead the fight against a significant problem; what is more, they are reassured by the knowledge that Princeton grades are "real grades." Since the policy has only been in place since April 2004, it may be too soon to tell. According to the results of Lenahan's survey, students aren't sure whether they believe her. Of the Class of 2006, 51 percent said that the new grading policy did not affect their ability to obtain a job post-graduation, while 24 percent said that it did and another 25 percent weren't sure. Somewhat contrarily, 46 percent said that the new grading policy did affect their chances of admission to graduate or professional school, while 30 percent said it didn't and a full 24 percent answered that they weren't sure.
Upperclassmen are understandably nervous about being the proverbial guinea pigs — some would say the sacrificial lambs — but the University has tried to ensure that employers and other institutions know about the policy. In January 2005, the University sent a statement explaining the policy to about 3,000 companies and programs. The same document is appended to every copy of a transcript that the registrar produces and Career Services presents a copy of the policy to every employer that comes to interview on campus. The statement explains that "new institutional grading expectations" have been put into place with the intention of "address[ing] locally the persistent national problem of grade inflation." The statement makes clear that As account for less than 35 percent of grades given in undergraduate courses and less than 55 percent of grades given in junior and senior independent work.
According to Beverly Hamilton-Chandler, director of career services, employers have not expressed concerns about the policy. This may be of little comfort to students, however. Many fellowships and competitive programs have a minimum GPA requirement which is not deflated for the benefit of Princeton applicants. And if selective employers take a look at the recent grades of two similarly compelling applicants — one with Bs from Princeton and one with As from Yale — it is possible that they will not ponder the impact of a new academic policy.
Employment aside, there is also an argument that grades haven't inflated at all, that standards are the same as ever, but that comparatively more students are doing A-level work. The percentage of each class' academic ones and twos, the Office of Admission's designation for the strongest applicants academically, has been on the rise since 1993. In addition, admission to Princeton is more challenging each year, as more and more capable students and valedictorians are rejected. In a message to prospective applicants on its website, the Office of Admission warns high schoolers that the University is met with "an abundance of highly able and accomplished candidates" and that "most of our applicants are qualified to attend Princeton." If a majority of applicants would have been able to succeed academically, and only 10 percent of applicants are accepted, is it that much of a stretch to assume that a great number of that 10 percent will do A-level work? Some would counter that an A at Princeton is not an A somewhere else; what's more, it shouldn't be.
On Nov. 15, 2006, Malkiel and Lenahan squared off at a forum organized by Whig-Clio. Malkiel conceded that she understands students' frustration but that she believes that the high emotional pitch of the debate will soon self-regulate. "We'll make the transition," she said optimistically, "and people will calm down." But the resentment, indignation and self-righteousness that this debate has brought forth may never abate.
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