Yale's grade inflation is a good thing, actually. It makes college less stressful and makes our interest in classes more authentic.

• 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.