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- Yale is under criticism for grade inflation and giving most students A's.
- As a junior at Yale, I've experienced the grade inflation firsthand, but it helps us not stress.
- Since we don't focus on grades, we take classes out of curiosity and share knowledge with friends.
Yale University was a dream Mom, Dad, and I came up with over egg-drop soup.
We dreamed with caution, of course. We'd heard about how being a high achiever would not necessarily save a first-generation, low-income student from failure at an Ivy League and in the real world.
The prospect of sending me to college was a spark within the walls of the 100-square-foot bedroom we shared. My parents refused to fall asleep on those nights I stayed up studying for the good grades I needed to get into Yale. Our silence was interrupted only when they asked whether I wanted more soup.
When I got into Yale and started college, I was ready to validate their sacrifices by continuing to work hard and hopefully graduating.
Now, as a junior, I can't help wondering how freshman-year me would have reacted to the news of Yale being under scrutiny for giving most students A's, thanks to grade inflation.
Grade inflation is apparent at Yale
The first time I noticed it was in freshman-year biology when the professor reminded us to enjoy his course and work hard — but not to stress. The grading curve made it so that half the 200-person class would end up in the A to A-minus range. Most of my large lectures in the following semesters would adopt a similar model.
Administrators also seem to be cognizant of the pressure that graduate-school admissions and job recruiters place on students' GPAs: My premed friend was advised to drop and retake a chemistry requirement because she was on track to get a C-plus. Special permission from the residential-college dean is needed to take over 5.5 credits, and a student can convert up to six graduation credits to a pass-fail option — which I took advantage of last term.
It occasionally dawns on me how hard I worked throughout high school, where my schedule consisted of nine back-to-back classes. College inflation metrics partially exist to encourage students to prioritize mental health and think critically about the type of person they want to become outside the classroom. For that, I'm thankful.
I eventually learned collective winning enriched the education experience for everyone
While the world compares grade inflation to a cash economy, my time in college has been about being comfortably lost in an economy of information.
I learn just as much from friends and what their professors are teaching as I do from my classes, simply from being in the same spaces as them. Biochemistry, philosophical metaphors, and Spanish phrases seep into conversations in between the aisles at Costco or as we hurry back to our dorms on a rainy day. Less concerned about getting high grades, we make sharing what we learn the foundation of our connections.
Meanwhile, the options to take a challenging course on a pass-fail basis and attend curved classes — which inevitably inflate GPAs — are just accessories that nudge me to venture outside my intellectual comfort zone. In my entomology elective, for example, I was busy traveling on Yale's dime and tracking elusive creatures, not worrying about which grade I would end up with. More than once, I have turned in comics for reading responses because following my creativity is more important than my grade.
I write from a vantage of immense privilege. It's not that students at public colleges don't work as hard for their grades. Rather, Yale's dynamic professors — made possible by its large endowment and federal grants — don't focus on preparing students for exams.
I'm realizing it has never been the goal to get high grades
I guess I finally understand what my parents meant when they said they wanted me in a place where I would be taken care of. The reality is that Yale's grade inflation does just that.
My parents aren't together anymore. Dad has never visited Yale, and Mom only once. Sometimes, I imagine what it would be like to be on campus with them by my side. I would thank them for everything — for staying up with me into the witching hours and watching me work toward higher grades.
We held our breath on those nights, knowing all along it was never the grades I was working for.