A Letter To The Faculty
Posted December 11, 2005 
Comments(6) I received this email from another student informing me of the unanimous disturbing feeling towards the grading policies of our required courses. For the final exam, i studied 12 hours straight, paid attention in every class in the second half of the semester (it wasn’t a cumulative final) and still failed the exam. after writing an email to my professor pleading to round my soon to be 59.83 overall course grade up to at least a 60, i received a generic email from the professor essentially telling us “i didn’t fuck up, all of you fucked up, ill double check and make sure you fucked up, and if you’re fucked, go fuck yourself, peace i’m out”. words cannot express my complacency towards this institution.
Dear Members of the Babson Community,
I am writing to express my concern over this years IME 3 program, particularly the Managerial Accounting segment.
I wrote this email to Dean Reza on October 31st:
“My name is Snarl Henderson and I am a junior currently in IME 3 (A1). Throughout the semester I have grown increasingly more distraught and concerned regarding the grading policies and attitudes of the professors in my stream.
For the first time during my Babson tenure, grades have been treated as something linked to a mysterious college policy as opposed to actual performance. The professors in my stream continue to refer that they are forced to maintain a B- average in the course. For example, one of my professors stated that he was ‘given’ the option of enforcing a B or B- average and went with the latter. This ‘grade deflation’ strategy has led to no noticeable differentiation on grades within classes regardless of performance. To maintain this strict curve, professors are giving the vast majority of grades solely in the B range. An A has become rare and appears to be directly correlated to however many C’s or below are given.
While grade inflation may be a critical issue at top notch ivy institutions, Babson does not have the luxury of securing our futures through the weight of our brand. An emphasis on ‘grade deflation’ and a lack of grade dispersion will hinder the success of our graduates finding top positions at recruiting firms that also look at more prevalent schools that do not emphasize a grade deflation policy.
I do not know whether this is the policy of IME 3 faculty or the college. However, I would like to learn more about this issue and how it is currently in place and the way it is affecting my future success.”
Since this email the situation has only grown worse. While I do not speak for the entire junior class I am confident that the majority are expressing the same concerns particularly through dissatisfied comments on the course and professors evaluations. After the final exam, Professor Wain sent an argumentative email criticizing the ‘poor’ performance of the junior class. I quote “Some highlights: essays were pretty weak – overall grade average was 81.2 which I curved up to 82.”
While he did provide basis for his criticisms the fact remains that over 161 students are in his classes and if there were overwhelmingly unanimous faults, logic would presume that some fault lies with the faculty and test design. I had never realized how important achieving an exact 82 average was to our faculty. I was not aware that such an innovative school encouraged their faculty to place conformity and rigid academic grading policies above learning.
Another touchy issue in IME 3 was professionalism. In our Managerial Accounting courses, our professors supposedly gave every student a grade from 0-4 every class based on how many times students answered questions. If on average three questions per student yielded a four for that day and each question took an average of 30 seconds the ask and answer over 60 minutes of the class would be spent on Q & A.
Babson spends an enormous amount of resources trying to improve its curriculum; basic business practice would be to consult the actual customers (i.e. students).
I would like to add that this feeling of mistrust and overall confusion not only lies within me but with countless other members of the junior class. It is evident that there is an enforced curve on campus without the knowledge or consent of the student body. While grade inflation may be an issue at other schools, I have never seen or heard of any faculty member at Babson artificially inflating grades. This preemptive and aggressive strategy only leads to Babson graduates having difficulties competing versus top tier business schools. Babson does not have a sufficiently strong enough brand to allow their students to not concern themselves with their GPAs.
What does Babson gain from lowering the GPAs of its students?
Concerned Babson Student,
Snarl Henderson (name changed to protect the innocent)
AIM to friend
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