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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 22, 1980)
L lusive GPRs Texas A&M ranking 5th of Southwest schools THE BATTALION Page 7 TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 1980 By TERRY DURAN Campus Reporter The eternal search for those elu- ive grade points goes on as college jtudents stay up all hours of the IJHt, ruin their eyes, destroy their I jlnina and generally wreck their jedies. jBhen again, some people study, ftklgliid talk of grade inflation and ie traditional grading system being Id-fashioned and outmoded, almost IlMeges and universities are still Rising the four-point system, where a ! radc of A is worth four points per iredithour, a B is three, and so forth. Iffiost of the schools that went to a K-fail system in the upheaval of relate 60s and early 70s have gone ack to the four-point system, Ithough many retain optional pass- til gradings for some courses. ■Of nine Southwest Conference ■J^hools, only five compute the over- V average grade point ratio (GPR) ir their entire undergraduate stu- ent body. Of those five, Texas A&M Univer- yStevti.-ty is in last place. Southern Methodist University, Jhe top of the list, had an overall an was the average grade was a B, that (a 2.4 average) would vrn me. However, we nor- \y think of a C as being aver se, and the professors here 'c that way. You have to be \ewhat above average to get er than a C, ”— Dr. Charles 'andless, Texas A&M associ- vice president for academic shrine afeBjrrs. rashec Lt . Mergraduate GPR of 2.922 for just ™ ader7,000 students in the Fall 1979 1 1 .J smester. ivastnesf said. “In fact, it sounds pretty reasonable. “If the average grade was a B, then that (a 2.4 average would concern me,” he said. “However, we normal ly think of a C as being average, and the professors here grade that way. You have to be somewhat above av erage to get higher than a C. ” McCandless declined to comment on the standards of the other univer sities. He also said he doesn’t think students who are enrolled in the Col lege of Engineering, or who are members of the Corps of Cadets affected the overall grade ratio signi ficantly. Corps Scholastic Officer Mike Formby said the overall average for the Corps of Cadets was 2.36 for the Fall 1979 semester. He said the Col lege of Enginering traditionally has the lowest grades, and the Corps has about 50 percent engineering ma jors, a much higher average than the University as a whole. Formby said the Corps average at midsemester was 2.42. Figures for the Fall 1979 semester at Texas A&M show the senior class to have a GPR of 2.637. The junior class, consisting of 6,302 students, compiled an average of 2.377, while the sophomore class, with 5,637, av eraged a 2.211. The freshman class of 6,214 com piled a class average of 2.311. Thirty-two percent of the under graduates had a B average or above in Fall 1979, with the senior class again coming out on top — 41 per cent of the seniors had B averages or better. Dr. Arvoe Juola of Michigan State University has studied the overall pattern of a representative sampling of universities’ average GPRs. Grades dropped drastically as standards rose, Juola says, and the harsh grading of the early 60s set the stage for later student actvism in the areas of humanistic orientation and anti-elitism. Juola’s studies show that the over all average nationwide in the early 60s ranged from about 2.35 to 2.45. In 1965, he says, grades began to rise at an accelerated rate, and in what he calls the “highly emotional” period of 1968 to 1972, rose higher and faster. After 1972, Juola said, the upward trend began to slow down, and grades throughout the country Thirty-two percent of the under graduates had a B average or above in Fall 1979, with the senior class again coming out on top — 41 percent of the seniors had B averages or better. peaked in about 1974. After 1975, a very gradual — only a few hun dredths of a point per year—decline has brought his sampling’s average to about 2.71. “It’s amazing how closely the schools follow the trends throughout the country,” Juola said. “There is really very little difference in the data from any one part of the country economic location. The trends are almost universal.” Juola also said that most schools consider a grade of C to be just “the middle point in the scale” now, as opposed to the 60s, when C was “the standard to go by.” ‘ What we have now,” Juola said, “is a Dolly Parton curve — top- heavy. A grade of C is now the acceptable minimum at most places aculoust n the No. 2 slot is Texas Christian Jersitv. with its 4,936 undergra- ! 1 jates who had an overall GPR of 846 for Fall 1979. " 1 Following TCU is the University [Texas at Austin. The 34,617 1 ndergraduates there in Fall 1979 listed an overall GPR of 2.70. 3 ori f 1 In fourth place is Texas Tech, with IZU ~" GPR of 2.59 for 19,690 undergra- P ec ‘ al nates in Fall 1979. 116 No. 5 is Texas A&M, with an r P ai ndergraduate population of 26,927 id a GPR of 2.412. froral' University of Houston, with ridentji 183 undergraduates, doesn’t cal- at dif jat,. the composite GPR of its stu- s ' nter snts, nor do Baylor University with opk'" s 8,551, Rice University with ,432, or the University of Arkansas had h> fth its 12,292 undergraduate stu- irine • en t s . a the nil These figures show the smaller ninglHhobls of the five, SMU and TCU, Hunilif'reon top of the heap. Both church- theri»f'|pp 0r ted schools are generally ilic higgled to have an atmosphere that ass. Res more emphasis on studying In the other three schools. -—Dr Charles McCandless, Texas ,&M’s associate vice president for inemic affairs, said he was not up- itabout Texas A&M’s ranking with K other Southwest Conference Bools. “A 2.4 or 2.5 average GPR oes not appear unusual to me,” he ATTENTION 78-79 MEMBERS OF ALPHA LAMBDA DELTA If you were initiated last year, in the Fall of 78, or Spring of 79 (ie, currently a Sophomore) we need to have our GROUP PICTURE RETAKEN for Aggieland. The remake is scheduled April 23rd, at 8:00 p.m, in the MSC Lobby. i Attention Students: NO'SERVICE-CHARGE CHECKING FOR STUDENTS AT UNB THIS SUMMER UNH is offering free cheeking (no monthly activity fee), for students who won’t be using their checking accounts during the summer months. Come in to our customer service department to sign the necessary forms for free summer checking before you leave for home. nlvmdili/ 2STA.TI02SLAJE-. B^ISTK COLLEGE STATION. TEXAS 711 University Drive Deposits Insured By FDIC 713-846-8751 for academic competence; there’s really no magic about the old cutoff point anymore.” Juola said many schools have gone to a more-than-four-point system, where differentiation is made be tween, for example, a grade of 81 and one of 89. Under this system, for instance, an 81 would be a 3.1, while an 89 would be a 3.9. Many of these systems are still being experimented with, though, Juola said. Meanwhile, through trend and term paper, the 19,188 Aggies who posted above a 2.0 continue the search for the elusive grade point. After all, over 800 Aggies posted a 4.0 last fall — it must be possible. Somehow. DAVIS GARY AND FOWLER CHALLENGE ANY OTHER PAIR OF DORMS TO OUTSELL THEM IN TICKETS TO THE WORLD’S LONGEST BANANA SPLIT! 14 KT. 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