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The college instructor's quandary: When students lobby for higher grades
Does grade-point average matter?
Rick Soisson
Critics of American higher education have long disparaged the undue emphasis placed on a student's raw grade-point average, or GPA, as an indicator of the student's academic standing. Obviously, they point out, an "A" grade is tougher to come by at some colleges than at others. (Think: Stanford vs. Penn State.)
Even more obviously, one's GPA is wildly unhelpful as an indicator of creativity, leadership or work ethic in any environment beyond the classroom.
"GPAs are worthless as a criteria for hiring," a senior human resources manager at Google recently told a New York Times writer. (Click here.)
Yet high school and college students continue to believe that their grade-point average will make or break their careers, perhaps for good reason. According to researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, the first criterion for job placement or graduate school admission is a good GPA— and it doesn't matter how easy or tough your school is.
The critical factor in hiring or grad school admissions, says Berkeley's Samuel A. Swift, is "correspondence bias"— the human tendency to value behavior indicators (like a GPA) over the context of that indicator. (Click here.)
Two experiments
Swift and his colleagues performed a couple of experiments in this regard. First, they asked actual college admissions officers to select students for admission. Those students with higher GPAs were "more likely" to be selected, and according to an interviewer, "Even if a school's average GPA was questionably high, indicating grade inflation and poor standards, students who managed a 4.00 there were more successful applicants than those who pulled slightly lower GPAs at much tougher colleges."
Similarly, when "executive business students" were asked to select applicants to hire, those with "the numbers" were chosen: "When shown applications for airline managers, the evaluators were biased towards those with the best percentage of on-time departing flights. This held true even when some applicants came from "'difficult' airports and some came from ones with a nearly perfect historical take off record."
Jonathan Swift's trade-off
As someone who teaches analytic writing to college students, I was shocked— shocked!— to learn that people in sensitive jobs take mental shortcuts. To paraphrase Jonathan Swift (no relation to Samuel): We've learned to make efficient trade-offs between thinking deeply and making the best choice, and getting the answer right most of the time without devoting much effort.
I can only hope that my students never see this report. Some of them might best be described not as students but as "student-lobbyists."
The student-lobbyist fully appreciates Swift's point (above) without ever having seen it. He simply wants a higher grade, and he isn't shy about demanding it— both verbally or by e-mail— regardless of the lack of supporting evidence.
When students lobby
Every semester, halfway through, lobbyists emerge in every class. They might begin with a simple, unsolicited verbal declaration like, "I'd really like to get at least an A-minus this semester." Often they resolutely continue lobbying even after grades are posted (in one case, for six months after the class ended).
Their first strategy after grade posting is to ask for a grade breakdown— which, when provided, is usually challenged with an e-mail assertion like, "I really thought my class participation was worth an A. I did all the work." In only one case among dozens did a lobbyist point to an actual error in my grade calculation. (I changed his grade.)
When such unsupported pleas for higher grades fail to budge me, the lobbying student often tries a Hail Mary pass: "If you would raise this grade, it will really help my GPA."
Needless to say, these exchanges are annoying. But you must give the lobbyists credit for knowing how the world works. I just wish I could be present when they go on job interviews. Would they actually argue, "If you give me this job, it will really help my financial situation"?♦
To read responses, click here.
Even more obviously, one's GPA is wildly unhelpful as an indicator of creativity, leadership or work ethic in any environment beyond the classroom.
"GPAs are worthless as a criteria for hiring," a senior human resources manager at Google recently told a New York Times writer. (Click here.)
Yet high school and college students continue to believe that their grade-point average will make or break their careers, perhaps for good reason. According to researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, the first criterion for job placement or graduate school admission is a good GPA— and it doesn't matter how easy or tough your school is.
The critical factor in hiring or grad school admissions, says Berkeley's Samuel A. Swift, is "correspondence bias"— the human tendency to value behavior indicators (like a GPA) over the context of that indicator. (Click here.)
Two experiments
Swift and his colleagues performed a couple of experiments in this regard. First, they asked actual college admissions officers to select students for admission. Those students with higher GPAs were "more likely" to be selected, and according to an interviewer, "Even if a school's average GPA was questionably high, indicating grade inflation and poor standards, students who managed a 4.00 there were more successful applicants than those who pulled slightly lower GPAs at much tougher colleges."
Similarly, when "executive business students" were asked to select applicants to hire, those with "the numbers" were chosen: "When shown applications for airline managers, the evaluators were biased towards those with the best percentage of on-time departing flights. This held true even when some applicants came from "'difficult' airports and some came from ones with a nearly perfect historical take off record."
Jonathan Swift's trade-off
As someone who teaches analytic writing to college students, I was shocked— shocked!— to learn that people in sensitive jobs take mental shortcuts. To paraphrase Jonathan Swift (no relation to Samuel): We've learned to make efficient trade-offs between thinking deeply and making the best choice, and getting the answer right most of the time without devoting much effort.
I can only hope that my students never see this report. Some of them might best be described not as students but as "student-lobbyists."
The student-lobbyist fully appreciates Swift's point (above) without ever having seen it. He simply wants a higher grade, and he isn't shy about demanding it— both verbally or by e-mail— regardless of the lack of supporting evidence.
When students lobby
Every semester, halfway through, lobbyists emerge in every class. They might begin with a simple, unsolicited verbal declaration like, "I'd really like to get at least an A-minus this semester." Often they resolutely continue lobbying even after grades are posted (in one case, for six months after the class ended).
Their first strategy after grade posting is to ask for a grade breakdown— which, when provided, is usually challenged with an e-mail assertion like, "I really thought my class participation was worth an A. I did all the work." In only one case among dozens did a lobbyist point to an actual error in my grade calculation. (I changed his grade.)
When such unsupported pleas for higher grades fail to budge me, the lobbying student often tries a Hail Mary pass: "If you would raise this grade, it will really help my GPA."
Needless to say, these exchanges are annoying. But you must give the lobbyists credit for knowing how the world works. I just wish I could be present when they go on job interviews. Would they actually argue, "If you give me this job, it will really help my financial situation"?♦
To read responses, click here.
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