Attention high school seniors: if you’re looking for an easy “A,” Auburn University probably shouldn’t be at the top of your list of potential college choices.
A study by former Duke Professor Stuart Rojstaczer puts Auburn in what he calls the “Sweet 16” of the toughest grading colleges in the country.
Rojstaczer created GradeInflation.com to illustrate a pattern of colleges “inflating” grades over the past several decades. His findings show an undeniable trend of more and more students being given higher and higher grades in recent years.
In 1940, only about 15 percent of students received an “A.” By 2008, that number had risen to roughly 43 percent.
As you might expect, grade point averages have also risen right alongside the likelihood of receiving an “A.”
“Since the late 1990s, ‘A’ has been the most common grade awarded on four year college campuses,” Rojstaczer explained. “By 2008, ‘A’ had greatly outdistanced all other grades in terms of popularity.”
However, Auburn was one of the few colleges in the country to actually give out less “A’s” in 2008 than in 1990.
“Eat your hearts out ‘Bama; Auburn is just a tougher place to earn an ‘A,’” Rojstaczer said in conclusion.
Here is the complete list of the 16 colleges where it is the hardest to get an “A.”
- Boston University
- MIT
- Princeton University
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Auburn University
- Florida International University
- Hampden-Sydney College
- Purdue University
- Roanoke College
- Southern Polytechnic State
- University of Houston
- Virginia Commonwealth University
- Cal State University-Fullerton
- Harvey Mudd College
- Reed College
- Simon Fraser University
(h/t Coed)
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
