Grade Deflators

BEGINNING with the class of 1998, transcripts will look a little different. Instead of merely recording a , student's own grades,

transcripts will list the class size and median grade given. The new format, approved at a spring meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, will let students—and interested others, prospective employers included—know where they stand relative to their classmates. Though meant more as an informational tool than a weapon against grade inflation, the extra indicators will also go some way toward separating the gut from the grind. Courses in which all students pull an A will stand out, as will courses in which even the most dedicated students squeak by with a C. Then, too, a student who gets a B in a course where everyone else gets a C can feel pretty proud of that particular grade. According to Chemistry Professor Russell Hughes, who proposed the transcript changes, knowing the relative worth of a grade-and having an indicator of performance beyond the absolute CPA—may actually encourage students to take harder courses. Perhaps, too, knowing that worries may not keep students out of tough classes will encourage professors to keep standards high.

The change comes at a time of increasing national concern about grade inflation. Of course, Dartmouth's is not the only approach to making grades meaningful again. Stanford, where 93 percent of letter grades are A's and B's, is encouraging profs to dole out C's and D's, and to dust off an old relic: the F.