Marks and the Man

Grade-consciousness is an inevitable product of an educational system that attempts to rate its students. Its effects are two-fold: while some people tend to work harder for marks, the very fact that they are being graded can also make them shy away from difficult courses. Among the most valuable features of the new Advanced Standing plan is a provision allowing scholarship holders to keep their stipends even if their grades in especially difficult courses fall below the required scholarship average, In drafting such a regulation, the Committee on Educational Policy hoped to eliminate the aspect of mark-consciousness that often limits a student's program to a slate of "sure thing" courses.

Curiously out of line with this goal, however, is an older rule requiring honors candidates to count every grade in every course they take in their field, no matter how esoteric the course or how far it may exceed ordinary honors requirements. While a poor grade in a "primarily for graduates" course seldom penalizes a concentrator in fields demanding a thesis and generals, it is often damaging in the sciences, where grades alone are the basis for honors determination. For this reason, many prospective scientists, recognizing the gamble involved, shy away from advanced courses in their field or related fields, missing what could be the most stimulating features of their four years in college.

Obviously, it would be unfair if advanced-course grades were omitted from the record of a student who suddenly catches fire in his senior year and does much better than he had done in previous courses taken to fulfill honors requirements. And a candidate for the summa or magna should be expected to master anything he does, regardless of difficulty. But the cum laude degree, implying reasonable competence, but by no means brilliance, is a different matter. Here, a candidate should not lose honors if he maintains a B average through all his required courses and then makes a C in a more ambitious selection chosen only because of interest.

As in the past, all grades should be counted towards the summa and magna degrees, and also in cases where improvement comes with the interest stimulated by more difficult work. But for cum laude, the student should be forced to include only those courses specifically taken to fulfill honors concentration requirements. For it is just this student who needs a little encouragement and a reduction of pressure before he will tax his abilities by competing with graduate students.