Is this actually news to anyone? Before reading the article, did people on this campus actually think that grade inflation did not exist at Amherst or that it was confined to a few "gut" classes?
I think I first heard about grade inflation as a freshman during orientation week, and it certainly didn't take much time for me to discover first-hand just how easy it was to get a good grade at this college. Every upperclassman I talked to confirmed that, yes, the average grade here is a B+. Anyone surprised by the statistics in The Student probably has an inflated opinion of his or her own ability to succeed in class. In case anyone still doesn't understand, I'll spell it out for you: You don't deserve the grades you get.
Well, maybe that's not entirely true. In the sense that you haven't put enough into a particular class to deserve the specific grade you received, it is true. But in another sense every person here does deserve the grades they get, no matter how inflated they may be.
Getting into Amherst is hard. Most of us had to work our asses off in high school to get here, taking AP classes and exams, participating in extracurricular activities and maintaining high GPAs. If you ended up here, chances are that most, if not all, of that past effort was expended to get yourself into a really good college.
Guess what? It worked. You're here and now you deserve to relax. You should be doing what interests you most, whether it's working on a student publication, playing a sport, consuming massive quantities of alcohol or maybe, just maybe, taking that really cool Russian Lit. class.
You shouldn't have to worry about that boring Philosophy professor giving you a bad grade because you never did any reading and fell asleep in class.
What you are getting at Amherst is the chance to explore who you are and who you want to be, and only a small portion of that has to do with classes. When your four years are up and you are thrust into the real world, you will be forced to work very hard at things you don't necessarily enjoy, and you will only be rewarded if that work is up to some pretty high standards. There will be plenty of time then to do unfulfilling work. For now we should be taking advantage of what our superior intellects and hard work have gotten us.
I love grade inflation. And I love it not because I think students have gotten smarter, because it might help me get into grad school or because it means my parents won't get on my back about academic success, but rather, because it means I have less work to do. I can blow off a stupid, boring class if I don't like it. I may not get an A, but I'll do just fine. I can spend a couple of hours writing this column for The Student instead of studying for a test. I can stay up late talking with friends and then sleep through class the next day without worrying about the repercussions. I can spend more time doing the things I really like and less time "learning" about useless stuff I have no interest in.
When a class comes along that really catches my attention, I can do all the reading and pay attention in class because I'm truly interested in the material-not because I care about getting a good grade. The beauty of being at this college is that we've already won. We've made it to a level that most people are unable to attain, and there is no reason why we shouldn't reward ourselves. The last thing I want here is to get a grade I deserve. That's not why I came to!