Dennis Roberts writes:
>i don't think anyone would equate grades on the transcript
>with what the student knows but ... i will be a dime to a
>penny that if you saw a transcript for two students (from
>comparable institutions) where one got mostly Cs ... and the
>other got mostly As ... that we CAN assume that one has
>learned alot more than the other ...
You have to also add the qualifier that they took comparable courses. An A
in music appreciation is not the same as an A in Calculus (for me anyway,
music appreciation was a lot harder). And that's one of the problems with
grades: they encourage the student to go for the easy A rather than the
course that diversifies their knowledge base and challenges their intellect.
When I was supervisor, I put more emphasis on the letters of recommendation
than the GPA. I do recall another supervisor who said he would never hire
anyone who had an F on their transcript. To me that seemed a bit simplistic,
and again that sort of attitude discourages risk taking and diversification
of our college students.
I'm not arguing that colleges should stop computing GPAs, but it is
important to recognize the side effects.
Steve Simon, [EMAIL PROTECTED], Standard Disclaimer.
STATS - Steve's Attempt to Teach Statistics: http://www.cmh.edu/stats
<http://www.cmh.edu/stats>
P.S. Has anyone else noticed the recent Dilbert comic strips about data
mining? They are a real hoot!
