CCSC, ESC Debate Level of Detail on Student Transcripts

Two undergraduate student councils have recently taken opposite stances on one of the more esoteric differences between their schools’ transcripts—while Columbia College transcripts list the percentage of students who received A’s in a given class, School of Engineering and Applied Science transcripts do not.

This inconsistency was brought up in Columbia College Student Council meetings last semester, as council members discussed whether the removal of the percentage of A’s would be beneficial to students in the college. Two weeks ago, Engineering Student Council members also considered whether adding this information to SEAS transcripts might affect engineering students’ career opportunities.

The disclosure is designed to address perceived grade inflation by revealing classes in which it is easy to earn a good grade. Proponents say that revealing the proportion of students who receive A’s also rewards students for good grades in tough classes, preventing graduate schools and employers who view the transcripts from jumping to unfavorable conclusions about the caliber of the courses.

“The percent-A’s is seen as a method of ‘full disclosure’ to graduate schools about the state of grade inflation in a given class,” Alidad Damooei, CC ’08 and vice president of policy of CCSC, explained in an e-mail.

Liz Strauss, SEAS ’08 and president of ESC, said that an officer brought this topic to the council’s attention this semester to see if the other members felt it was worth spending time on. “It’s just something that we’re leaving on our internal plate to keep looking at,” she said.

According to SEAS administrators, the idea has not been closely considered at the school before.

“We have no argument why we shouldn’t do it, we just haven’t given it any thought,” said Morton Friedman, vice dean of SEAS.

During the ESC meeting, some members said they felt that the additional information could be misleading. For example, in a small class in which all students are putting in equal effort, a high proportion of A’s may not accurately reflect the difficulty of the class.

According to Kathryn Yatrakis, Columbia College dean of academic affairs, there was no conscious decision to differentiate between the transcripts of SEAS and the college. Columbia College’s policy of including the percentage of A’s was developed by a committee of faculty. SEAS has its own faculty committee to make such curricular decisions.

After speaking with administrators, CCSC has decided not to pursue the issue. Council members were concerned that administrators would resort to alternative methods to battle grade inflation. For example, Princeton puts a cap on the percentage of A’s allowed per course, according to Damooei.

“I think our method is much more preferable since it gives teachers the freedom to grade as they see fit, yet it provides full information to people reviewing our transcripts,” Damooei wrote in an e-mail.

ivy.chen@columbiaspectator.com