"The median grade in Harvard College is indeed an A-. Harvard's Black Students' Association reacted with outrage. Still, as President Obama illustrates, an educational pedigree can take a person a long way. ", Mansfield's affirmative action theory was not well received. Students who gain admission have already demonstrated by the age of 17 or 18 that they are strivers, intelligent, and well-situated to become members of that elite. Harvard Business School grading was done on a strict forced curve when I taught there in the 1970s and 80s. . Noah D. Oppenheim is a producer at Hardball with Chris Matthews on MSNBC. Said Williams after the meeting, "He clarified his point of view, which was that his main issue was with white professors and white guilt. They, therefore, needed help to earn high grades. Online grade entry forms are available to instructors and must be submitted by the indicated due dates. Students enrolled in the undergraduate credit version of CORe receive grades of high honors, honors, or pass and fail. This assumption could easily be tested by examining the high school GPAs and test scores of incoming black and white students at the time. But that should cause no trouble. Apparently dismissing Lewis's public denunciation as inadequate, its president, Aaliyah Williams, complained to the Crimson, "The University has not done anything in the way of censuring [Mansfield]. For what it's worth, I found that there were almost no slackers at Harvard College. But there was also an ethos that students were expected to do great things outside of their classes, be it independent projects, extracurricular activities, or creative endeavors. There is no question in my mind that talent and ability are far more widely distributed than just to the most prestigious colleges and universities. Williams argues that Mansfield's comments "discredit the efforts of African Americans who came [to Harvard] and worked so hard." The students did their assignments, and in my classes the required readings were considerable. While a degree from Harvard (or Princeton or Stanford or a number of other schools) can get a foot in the door, afterward what matters is results. Grades are supposed to convey relative merit. For an institution that says it values diversity so much . When affirmative action opened Harvard's doors to a large number of minorities in the early 1970s, "white professors were unwilling to give black students Cs to avoid giving them a rough welcome. It was hardly a surprise, then, when his first lecture this semester landed him in the pages of the Boston Globe. The Globe had reported that in 2001, 91 percent of Harvard students graduated with honors, and that about half of all awarded grades were in the A-range. Only Mansfield's students can expect an honest assessment of their work, even if it will no longer be part of their scholastic record. "I can answer the question, if you want me to." In the course of an interview about grade inflation, Mansfield was asked about the origins of the problem. The rest got "pass." A few would be asked to leave the school if it appeared they were incapable of doing the work. The Black Students' Association staged a sit-in protest at one of Mansfield's lectures, and subsequently met with him for two hours behind closed doors. In an admirable show of restraint, Harvard has thus far declined to formally censure Mansfield for his remarks. by Noah Oppenheim | March 05, 2001 12:00 AM Print this article. It is irresponsible for him to make this broad and divisive claim without providing a shred of evidence to support it." Matthew Q. Clarida and Nicholas P. Fandos of The Harvard Crimson report: The median grade at Harvard College is an A-, and the most frequently awarded mark is an A, Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris said on Tuesday afternoon, supporting suspicions that the College employs a softer grading standard than many of its peer institutions. Instructors from elementary schools to universities want their students not to feel bad, so they give out higher grades than their students deserve. It may still be, but it is now even greater theater. (See the Due Dates charts for fall and spring later in this chapter.) That Harvard inflates its grades should hardly be a controversial claim. The great leveler we have is competition, and the great disruptor is the internet. Mansfield also posited a related historical explanation. Life is very, very good for the select few who gain entrance to Harvard University as undergraduates. Despite disagreements on the nature of the problem, the faculty responded in 2002 by moving the College from a 15-point grading system to a more conventional 4.0 scale grading system and capping the number of honors graduate at 60 percent of the class. Grade Changes. Now, it seemed, the learning finally could come risk-free. Lewis explains, "I don't know the precise origin of this policy, but I view it as of a piece with our general view that students are admitted here as individuals, not as representatives of classes.". My take on the grading at Harvard College is that it reflects the emergence of a true ruling class in America and the world. After he stepped down, he told an interviewer: "Ninety percent of Harvard graduates graduated with honors when I started. Grades, with the exception of DE, EXT, MU, or asterisk (***), and in some cases WA, are considered final when they are submitted to Academic Services. Harvard Business School grading was done on a strict forced curve when I taught there in the 1970s and 80s. "If this is true or nearly true, it represents a failure on the part of this faculty and its leadership to maintain our academic standards.". There's a lot of wisdom in Oates's argument. A, A– Earned by work whose excellent quality indicates a full mastery of the subject and, in the case of the grade … Thanks to Harvey Mansfield, the very rarest of phenomena, an outspokenly conservative member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the world now knows that the average grade at Harvard College (the undergraduate portion of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences) is A minus. . The larger question is the matter of elites. Harris said. It may still be, but it is now even greater theater. After he stepped down, he. Again, on the subject of relative qualifications, Mansfield offers no firm evidence. they should walk the walk instead of just talking it.". Bell-curve grading, which assures a percent of low grades & failures, is a cruel academic necessity in some quarters. Of course, given the school's generous grading system, Harvard's high graduation rate is hardly compelling testimony to its students' merit -- black or white. And it seems preposterous that half the students at Harvard have achieved near perfection. He needs to communicate that more, that his issue is with the professors and not with us.". But that is hardly his fault. (That risk is not insignificant, as a "C" does not please Wall Street recruiters.) He explained that it was linked to the concern over self-esteem. The Grading System. Rather, they reject the implication that black students required any charity to begin with. What is not as widely distributed are networks of contacts that lead to opportunities within the existing power structure. Students who receive excellent for all or nearly all their classes were awarded first year honors, which functioned as a signal to recruiters from the highest-paying firms, and at graduation, the highest-performing students were reviewed for possible designation as Baker Scholars, an honor that required a faculty vote. The great problem for the rest of us is the damage that can be done in the meantime. The other parts of Harvard, including the Law School, B-school, and Medical School, are professional schools, with no undergraduate enrollment.