Word: gpa
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...only we did! If only my lovelorn, career-driven, diverser-than-diverse collection of classmates could stop worrying for a few moments, could let the paper and the interview and yes, the nicely-inflated GPA slide, and join me in some old-fashioned wassailing! I would submit, ever so humbly, that no Harvard student can claim to have lived, really and truly, until he has staggered drunkenly down Mt. Auburn Street singing Disney songs at the top of his voice, hurling snowballs through an open window in the Fly and bemoaning the girls (or guys) who got away. The Harvardian...
...ourselves with the academic upper crust, and we should therefore be compared with and evaluated against the performance of our peers. And if the coveted Harvard diploma is to mean what it is meant to mean--namely the combined McKinsey, Mozart and Mercedes of the academic world--then our GPA's should reflect that rigor. Even if the average Harvard students can perform above the average elsewhere, they shouldn't expect--or be able--to do as well at Harvard...
...here is where grade inflation truly does the Harvard undergraduate a great service. Unlike other classes, one's grade in a Core tends to be somewhat beyond the student's control. Grade inflation merely ensures that the result, however arbitrary, is at least not catastrophic to one's GPA. I can only imagine the hue and cry that would erupt if the current Core program were not subject to grade inflation. Receiving an arbitrary grade somewhere between a "B-" and an "A," (which, according to Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield, is where 90 percent of Harvard grades...
...Michigan's admissions policy, we would take issue with some of its nuances. For example, on a 150-point scale, blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans receive a 20-point increase. A perspicacious essay, outstanding leadership skills or noteworthy personal achievement receives a relatively paltry 3 points, but a perfect GPA will earn one up to 80 points. In addition, whites and Asians of economic disadvantage receive 20 points, as do scholarship athletes. A Michigan resident garners 10 points, the child of an alumnus receives 4, and a perfect score on the SAT wins one 12 points...
...break, I was actually ready for the onslaught. I was prepared for a siege, ready to lay waste to the mountains of unknown material threatening to undo me. My keep was filled with an abundance of preserves, primarily Christmas cookies from mom, and my will to defend the coveted GPA could be no higher. I was primed for battle...