[austinl]

There's been a general trend of grade inflation in U.S. universities, accelerating in the 1960s (during the Vietnam war), and then again in the 1990s [0]. In some sense, this might be because the role of the student shifted more towards that of a consumer purchasing a product.

Harvard average GPA was a 3.0 in 1967, now it's a 3.45 [1].

There are some universities that have tried to actively prevent inflation (e.g. Purdue with a 2.73 average in 1986 to 3.09 in 2012 [2]).

[0] https://www.gradeinflation.com [1] https://www.gradeinflation.com/Harvard.html [2] https://www.gradeinflation.com/Purdue.html

[Spivak]

God I hate this take. This mythologizes grades as an end rather than a means. I much prefer the world where tests are written with the expectation that people who've mastered the material get an A rather than the endless hamster wheel where the test gets harder until you get a distribution centered at C.

I would have burnt out on my schooling so fast as to make it worthless. How demoralizing it must be when every test is designed so that you won't know all the answers. Why even bother trying? I'm not in school to compete with other students, I'm there to learn.

[ghaff]

So 15% vs. 13% (albeit from a slightly lower starting point). Not sure that makes a case for a dramatic difference.

[ceejayoz]

Nor is inflation the only possible explanation.