Grade option flexibility is a celebrated luxury of the New Curriculum. It speaks to Brown's distinctiveness and emphasis on liberal education, and I'd be lying if I said I haven't indulged myself by taking a couple of classes S/NC. However, while the advantages of this grading structure are undeniable, its implementation is flawed.
The deadline to change grade options occurs four weeks into each semester. By this time, students generally haven't received any substantial grades in their classes. Accordingly, students weighing grade options are forced to predict their class performance before there is any meaningful evidence to that end. In light of this defect, the deadline for switching grade options should be extended.
There are many reasons to take a class S/NC, and gauging the favorability of grade options is one of them. For example, if a student wants to take a class without the additional pressure of a letter grade, the S/NC option would seem favorable. Nevertheless, if that student goes on to find out that she would have received an A on her first midterm, I imagine she might regret her decision. This is a fairly common situation, and if you haven't been in it, it's likely that someone you know has.
Of course, why regret taking a class S/NC if an S with distinction (denoted on transcripts as S*) is just as good as an A? Think of it this way: Would you be OK with me going to the registrar and convincing them to change all of your A's to S*'s? I presume you wouldn't. An A is preferable to an S* because employers and grad schools do not necessarily recognize their equivalence. Consequently, students would benefit from the opportunity to better assess the favorability of their grade options at the beginning of the semester.
Some might argue that students can use homework performance to determine the most suitable grade option before the deadline. But not every class returns graded homework before a midterm, and so students often have to assess grade options baselessly.
While there is undoubtedly some correlation between homework and exam scores, success on homework hardly guarantees high grades on exams. For example, class material generally gets harder throughout the semester, and thus the fact that one can manage pre-deadline material is not an indication that one will be able to manage later material.
Moreover, there is no way to predict how a professor grades her exams - perhaps she grades them more strictly than she grades the homework. On the other hand, there are a number of courses in which teaching assistants grade the homework and the professor grades the exams, once again making it difficult for students to determine their standing in the course based on the homework alone.
One might argue that students can figure out how hard their courses will be using resources like the Critical Review, and so they should know what they're getting into before they register for a class. However, there isn't always information about professors and their exams online, and even then students may disagree with the average ratings posted on the Critical Review.
Bottom line? There is no way to accurately evaluate grade options by the current, four-week deadline, and this severely limits our ability to take advantage of the Brown curriculum.
We can remedy the situation with a small amendment to the current policy: enforce the deadline eight weeks into each semester, rather than four weeks, thus guaranteeing the completion of at least one midterm. Students will accordingly have a strong basis to evaluate how well they are doing in their courses, effectively preempting any regrettable grade option decisions while preserving the integrity of the Brown curriculum.
The only problem with this change is that it would likely increase the average GPA. This is, arguably, not something we want, considering that the average GPA at Brown is an extraordinary 3.6. However, I suspect that the GPA increase will ultimately be minor, and that this is a small price to pay to reduce student anxiety and grade option mistakes.
For instance, it is unlikely that a student will take a course in his area of concentration S/NC, and it is indisputable that concentration GPA is more important than overall GPA. Given that courses in a student's concentration generally comprise the majority of his courses, the increase in overall GPA will likely be insignificant.
That in mind, it seems extending the deadline is a no-brainer. I leave it up to the University to take action, or at least defend its current policy, but given the facts I imagine the latter is far from plausible.
Jared Lafer '11 is unsatisfied with satisfactories.
