The graph of average GPA at Harvard vs. time is interesting. I thought back to being a 3rd-year Arts student in ’78/79 at a public university in western Canada.
A very good prof told us that in the Department of Psychology (or perhaps the Faculty of Arts in general), the median mark was set as the demarcation between a C+ and a B (and thus, the median GPA would have been 2.75).
Per the graph, the average Harvard GPA at the time was c. 3.1. (The slope is steep at that point, so there’s some +/- possible, and the median may have been different.)
Both average/median GPAs are higher than the formal grade definitions of my childhood. As I recall, they were:
A—Excellent
80 − 100%
4.0
B—Good
70 − 79%
3.0
C—Average
60 − 69%
2.0
D—Poor
50 − 59%
1.0
F—Fail
0 − 49%
0.0
All of this to say, by definition the average GPA should have been a C/65%.
It appears grade inflation has been a real thing for a long time.
The graph of average GPA at Harvard vs. time is interesting. I thought back to being a 3rd-year Arts student in ’78/79 at a public university in western Canada.
A very good prof told us that in the Department of Psychology (or perhaps the Faculty of Arts in general), the median mark was set as the demarcation between a C+ and a B (and thus, the median GPA would have been 2.75).
Per the graph, the average Harvard GPA at the time was c. 3.1. (The slope is steep at that point, so there’s some +/- possible, and the median may have been different.)
Both average/median GPAs are higher than the formal grade definitions of my childhood. As I recall, they were:
A—Excellent 80 − 100% 4.0
B—Good 70 − 79% 3.0
C—Average 60 − 69% 2.0
D—Poor 50 − 59% 1.0
F—Fail 0 − 49% 0.0
All of this to say, by definition the average GPA should have been a C/65%.
It appears grade inflation has been a real thing for a long time.