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“grade deflation”

Cornfields are also boring places to be on Saturday nights

Cornfields are also boring places to be on Saturday nights

Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do–even if that gotta involves spending a Saturday night in a library.

UPC hears you out.  We’re giving a voice to the voiceless, to those hushed by librarians on Saturday nights, when nobody should ever be working, really.

HEY GUY BEHIND THE DESK IN LEWIS BASEMENT!

So, how’d you get stuck with the Saturday night shift?

I requested it.  It’s peaceful.  I do homework.  I’m doing Chinese right now because I got tired of Chemistry.

You know, it’s kind of really depressing down here in Lewis.  Fine?  Lewis-slash-Fine?

I think it’s the Fine wing of Lewis.  The smiley face balloon makes it better.  But, I like the fact that it’s depressing because then the happiest place is your book, so you want to study.

Any Saturday night regulars?

Her!

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Valerie Smith (via princeton.edu)

Valerie Smith (via princeton.edu)

Dean of the college Nancy Malkiel, known to many students as the architect of Princeton’s grade deflation policy, will step down from her position and be replaced by Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature Valerie Smith.

Smith, who expanded the University’s interdisciplinary Center for African-American Studies, will take charge of the University’s undergraduate academic program on July 1, 2011. Malkiel will have been the longest-serving dean of the college.

The Office of the Dean of the College is responsible for the development of undergraduate students, including the supervision of the residential college system, admissions, and financial aid offices.

The search committee charged with finding Malkiel’s replacement included Provost Christopher Eisgruber, six other faculty members, and two undergraduates, Sachs Scholar Veronica Shi ‘11 and USG chair of the Undergraduate Life Committee, Mike Weinberg ‘11.

More on this story as it develops.

IMG_3601lg-1Princeton Dean of the College Nancy Weiss Malkiel will step down from her administrative role at the end of this academic year, the school announced in a Wednesday press release.

In recent years, Dean Malkiel has become a lightning rod for debate over Princeton’s future due to her role in implementing the school’s grade deflation and four year college projects.

But as the official press release notes, Malkiel’s 24-year tenure as Dean of the College — the second-longest among those holding her job — has also included the introduction of many other recognizable policies and programs.  These undertakings include the Princeton Writing Program, the P-D-F grading option, current course distribution requirements, the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning, and Princeton’s no-loan financial aid policy.

Malkiel will soon return to the History Department, which she joined as a faculty member in 1969 (her husband Burton Malkiel is also a professor at the University, in the Economics Department).   In her post-administrative career she’ll begin work on “a book about the history of coeducation at Princeton” and eventually teach a freshman seminar on coeducation.

Regardless of the endeavors that lie in Malkiel’s future, among current students she’ll likely be remembered, not always fondly, for her strong support of the grade deflation policy that seeks to limit limit the number of A’s academic departments give out each semester.

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The latest weapon in the fight against grade deflation (and some lovely shag carpeting)

The latest weapon in the fight against grade deflation (and some lovely shag carpeting)

Do you know what our first, and to date only line of defense is against the fire-breathing academic dragon of grade deflation?

A form letter. A piece of paper that earnestly explains why Princeton GPAs are lower than other GPAs, and encourages potential employers and graduate schools to visit the helpful online booklet Grading at Princeton: Frequently Asked Questions. The University mails out a letter with every transcript.

It may not be much, but it’s what we’ve got, and the USG hopes to propose a new draft of the letter to Dean Malkiel.

So what’s better in the new letter?

“The new letter is much shorter,” says Becca Lee, Academics Chair. Lee co-wrote the new draft with USG President Mike Yaroshefsky and 2012 Class Senator Julie Chang.

Brevity! Makes sense–who’s really going to read two pages about Princeton’s grading policy? What else are we telling the world?

“Its most important message is that grades at Princeton [are] earned differently than at other schools,” says Lee. “GPA does not necessarily provide a reliably standardized point of comparison.”

Amen! Now let’s hope someone (anyone) takes the time to read it.

Wanna see what the letter looks like? Full text of the new draft after the jump!

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We dominate.

We dominate.

Yale has a few reasons to be ashamed of itself: We routinely beat them at the U.S. News and World Report game. Our application numbers soared this year while they saw 200 fewer suitors. Despite all this, there is one department in which Elis seem to be more…satisfied…than Princetonians.

It’s “Sex Week” at Yale, which means the Yale Daily News conducted and released a sex survey, pretty similar to the one The Daily Princetonian printed last month.

Let’s check the competition:

Percent of Men Who Claim to Have Had Sex:
Yale: 69.5%
Princeton: 62.4%

Percent of Women Who Claim to Have Had Sex:
Yale: 59.8%
Princeton: 51.0%

What could possibly account for Yale’s ability to beat us at this game? One Yale student says, “At the end of the day, you can get laid. … You’re not forced to see them on a daily basis so you can get away with it.” Is the problem just that Princeton is too small for this spirit of casual hookups to be acceptable? No. The problem must be deeper than that. Let’s look at some parallel discrepant figures:

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Dean of Admissions at Yale Law School Asha Rangappa ‘96 said in a comment on the New York Times’ Choice blog today that the much-debated grade deflation policy won’t affect the admission chances of Princeton grads. The comment follows the Times’ Sunday article about grade deflation at Princeton.

Rangappa said that admissions officers consider students’ GPAs within the context of their own schools, and that the top law schools are generally less interested in absolute GPAs to inflate their rankings.

For students concerned about their GPAs, Rangappa’s comment might come as a relief. To Dean Malkiel, it might be a satisfying I-told-you-so.

The comment in full after the jump.

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2499892047_1c7b743272_oThe Times gives its take on the policy most Princeton students love to hate (or just hate):

WHEN Princeton University set out six years ago to corral galloping grade inflation by putting a lid on A’s, many in academia lauded it for taking a stand on a national problem and predicted that others would follow.

But the idea never took hold beyond Princeton’s walls, and so its bold vision is now running into fierce resistance from the school’s Type-A-plus student body.

Read the full article here, and then email it to everyone you’ve ever met.  Whether you’re for deflation or against it, as Princetonians we should all agree: the more people who know about the policy, the better.

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[Update 2/7/10: Here's a write-up of the event in the PAW --BKN]

For the first time since 2006, Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel– architect of the ever-popular grade deflation policy– will be gracing the Whig-Clio Senate Debate to defend her brainchild. Hordes of deflatees await their chance to duke it out in a public forum.

Whig Hall Senate Chamber is about to get heated.

And I, your humble Giri Nathan, will be your eyes and ears. Behold.

8:35 PM

100+ students have packed into the chamber like so many dour, grade-deflated sardines. Some of said sardines are attired in snazzy suits. These are the debaters. The battle has yet to begin.

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Staples+Easy+ButtonImagine a Princeton student saying that the academics here are just too darn easy and that the school should get harder. Why yes, please deflate our grades even more! And can we tackle another JP or two while we’re at it? This, I promise you, is something no Princetonian would ever utter.

Which is why I was so fascinated to read a recent article written by a Harvard senior about his school’s academics, and why he believes Harvard should be harder(!).

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(source: princeton.edu)

The proportion of “A” grades received by undergraduates finally dipped under 40 percent last year, the Faculty Committee on Grading reported happily today. A smashing success! Welcome back to school!

“A” grades made up only 39.7 percent of undergraduate grades given in the 2008-09 academic year, down more than eight percent from 2002-03, before the grade deflation policy took effect.

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5th-birthday

(image source: zazzle.com)

Did you forget? April 26th was grade deflation policy’s birthday! Yes, it’s five years-old already! Parents Malkiel and Tilghman are so proud. Just look at the results!:

Average GPAs:

  • Brown: 3.61
  • Stanford: 3.55
  • Yale: 3.51
  • Harvard: 3.45
  • Penn: 3.44
  • Dartmouth: 3.42
  • Columbia: 3.42
  • Cornell: 3.36
  • Princeton: 3.28

(source: gradeinflation.com)