(Patriot.Buzz) – Shedding light on a concerning trend among top-tier universities, a data scientist and professor at Washington University in St. Louis uncovered that A’s are frequently awarded in institutions like Yale University and Harvard University to avoid the hassle of dealing with angry parents and students.
In a recent article for The Hill, Liberty Vittert stated that the underlying motivation for this grade inflation is not to enhance students’ job market prospects or to follow university mandates. Instead, it is to sidestep the relentless complaints and demands for justification that follow lower grades.
Vittert highlights that the repercussions of assigning a grade less than an A extend beyond the students’ discontent. Instructors often face a barrage of emails and complaints, not just from the students but also from their parents.
These objections are not limited to questioning the student’s performance but can escalate to serious accusations against the professor, including claims of racism, homophobia, or antisemitism. Vittert herself encountered such an accusation of antisemitism, which she found particularly ironic given her own Jewish heritage.
Moreover, Vittert points out that students are now leveraging claims of mental health neglect to pressure professors for higher grades. This situation is further exacerbated by university administrators’ reluctance to support faculty members, often escalating cases to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) office.
This grading leniency has perpetuated a cycle where students increasingly demand higher grades for subpar work, knowing that professors are likely to comply. Vittert references a study on grade inflation at Yale to illustrate that this is not a recent issue.
She recalls that during her pre-med studies at MIT, students often opted to take organic chemistry at Harvard because it was infamously an easy A, contrasting sharply with the course’s reputation for difficulty elsewhere.
This trend raises alarming questions about the academic rigor and the value of grades at prestigious institutions. As Vittert concludes, when grade inflation becomes widespread at such elite universities, it inevitably casts doubt on the actual academic competence of their graduates.
