Is it true that at Harvard, you get to keep only the grades you want?

[CoolTech]

Is it true that at Harvard, you get to keep only the grades you want on your transcript? I heard this, wondering if its true. If it is, seems unfair to all the other school that do not have this policy and inflates the public's perspective of Harvard.

 

[Encryptic]

Sounds like BS to me. If this was really true, I doubt Harvard would have much respect as far as degrees go.

 

[GiLtY]

Originally posted by: CoolTech
Is it true that at Harvard, you get to keep only the grades you want on your transcript? I heard this, wondering if its true. If it is, seems unfair to all the other school that do not have this policy and inflates the public's perspective of Harvard.

Don't know about Harvard, but I do know that Stanford allows you to drop the class at the last minute, and by last minute I mean before the final exam.

--GiLtY

 

[MacGaven]

It's true that the grades are inflated.

 

[pillage2001]

Originally posted by: GiLtY

Originally posted by: CoolTech
Is it true that at Harvard, you get to keep only the grades you want on your transcript? I heard this, wondering if its true. If it is, seems unfair to all the other school that do not have this policy and inflates the public's perspective of Harvard.

Don't know about Harvard, but I do know that Stanford allows you to drop the class at the last minute, and by last minute I mean before the final exam.

--GiLtY

Without any academic penalty or it being showed up in your transcript???? That's messed up man.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: GiLtY

Originally posted by: CoolTech
Is it true that at Harvard, you get to keep only the grades you want on your transcript? I heard this, wondering if its true. If it is, seems unfair to all the other school that do not have this policy and inflates the public's perspective of Harvard.

Don't know about Harvard, but I do know that Stanford allows you to drop the class at the last minute, and by last minute I mean before the final exam.

--GiLtY

My school allowed us to drop the class VERY late during our freshman year only. Are you sure about what you're saying ?

 

[CoolTech]

yah, thats b.s.

 

[AgentEL]

Originally posted by: pillage2001

Originally posted by: GiLtY

Originally posted by: CoolTech
Is it true that at Harvard, you get to keep only the grades you want on your transcript? I heard this, wondering if its true. If it is, seems unfair to all the other school that do not have this policy and inflates the public's perspective of Harvard.

Don't know about Harvard, but I do know that Stanford allows you to drop the class at the last minute, and by last minute I mean before the final exam.

--GiLtY

Without any academic penalty or it being showed up in your transcript???? That's messed up man.

I heard about this too. I doubt anyone would actually do it unless they know they were failing. Otherwise, it'd be a huge waste of time and money considering how much tuition costs.

 

[BCYL]

Originally posted by: AgentEL

Originally posted by: pillage2001

Originally posted by: GiLtY

Originally posted by: CoolTech
Is it true that at Harvard, you get to keep only the grades you want on your transcript? I heard this, wondering if its true. If it is, seems unfair to all the other school that do not have this policy and inflates the public's perspective of Harvard.

Don't know about Harvard, but I do know that Stanford allows you to drop the class at the last minute, and by last minute I mean before the final exam.

--GiLtY

Without any academic penalty or it being showed up in your transcript???? That's messed up man.

I heard about this too. I doubt anyone would actually do it unless they know they were failing. Otherwise, it'd be a huge waste of time and money considering how much tuition costs.

If you are failing a class, why not drop it right before the final exam? If you fail you dont get the credits and will have to re-take the class anyways... So it's just as much time/money has been wasted... But if you drop, your failing grade wont show up on your transcript...

I think TONS of people will take advantage of this...

At my school, you can only drop a class 2 weeks after the semester started without anything showing up on your transcript...

 

[GiLtY]

Maybe I was more certain than I thought. I only recall vaguely from a conversation with my teacher, and he mentioned something along the line of what I just said.

and AgentEL: people who go to private institutions have faily strong finanacial backbones, and those who don't usually get a significant amount of financial support, so they can afford to drop a class or two here and there. Just my opinion though

--GiLtY

 

[richardycc]

I've also heard that once you get into Harvard, everything is down hill from there, they will have so much "help" there, it's impossible to drop out of Harvard. Is it true?

rich

 

[filmmaker]

Originally posted by: pillage2001

Originally posted by: GiLtY

Originally posted by: CoolTech
Is it true that at Harvard, you get to keep only the grades you want on your transcript? I heard this, wondering if its true. If it is, seems unfair to all the other school that do not have this policy and inflates the public's perspective of Harvard.

Don't know about Harvard, but I do know that Stanford allows you to drop the class at the last minute, and by last minute I mean before the final exam.

--GiLtY

Without any academic penalty or it being showed up in your transcript???? That's messed up man.

I'm sure you still have to pay the outrageous fee for the class, though. 😉

 

[ebaycj]

university of iowa allows a 'second grade option', meaning you can take a class a second time and keep the better of the two grades. i wouldnt be surprised if harvard had something similar..

ebaycj

 

[bcterps]

Many of the "elite" universities (Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, etc.) out there have long been criticized for inflated grades. Basically the hardest thing about these schools is the admissions process, once you're in it's clear sailing.

I definitely know at Stanford that you used to be able to drop the class at any time, and you could just retake the class that grade would just replace the Incomplete for the class you dropped. I think that has changed though, since they got a lot of grief for it.

IMO, just go to a solid state school for undergrad, do well, and go to an "elite" school for your graduate education.

 

I talked to my international relations professor about harvard, where he went to grad school and got his doctoral from. he said it is sad with the amount of grade inflation that goes on there. If you get a C there, the professor is saying that you do not belong in the class. Ds and Fs are almost unheard of.

 

[kami333]

Couple of my friends went to Harvard and thye told me about one prof who gave out two grades. The official grade that would go on record and an unofficial one where he gave them the grade he thought they deserved. Needless to say the unofficial was about 2grades lower.

 

[Broncho]

I went to UT Dallas and they would allow you to retake a class later and have the higher of the two grades be the only one that counted in your GPA so that I think is a fairly standard deal since it is a public university. The one catch is both classes remain on your transcript so anyone who looks at it can tell you took the class multiple times. Last day to drop a class was like a month or a month and half before the semester was over.

I guess I'm a little naive but I assumed that was the way most schools did it.

 

[Ime]

Is it true that at Harvard, you get to keep only the grades you want?

If I had the $$$ to spend on Harvard, I'd expect to get all A's, too! 😛

 

[hdeck]

i have a friend that goes to harvard. let me ask her

 

Originally posted by: Broncho
I went to UT Dallas and they would allow you to retake a class later and have the higher of the two grades be the only one that counted in your GPA so that I think is a fairly standard deal since it is a public university. The one catch is both classes remain on your transcript so anyone who looks at it can tell you took the class multiple times. Last day to drop a class was like a month or a month and half before the semester was over.

I guess I'm a little naive but I assumed that was the way most schools did it.

not the way my school does. If you failed you can retake, but only to get the credits...the grade remains the same.

 

[bcterps]

Originally posted by: FallenHero

Originally posted by: Broncho I went to UT Dallas and they would allow you to retake a class later and have the higher of the two grades be the only one that counted in your GPA so that I think is a fairly standard deal since it is a public university. The one catch is both classes remain on your transcript so anyone who looks at it can tell you took the class multiple times. Last day to drop a class was like a month or a month and half before the semester was over. I guess I'm a little naive but I assumed that was the way most schools did it.

not the way my school does. If you failed you can retake, but only to get the credits...the grade remains the same.

When I was in undergrad, you could retake any class in your first 18 credits and replace the original grade that you got, it would still show that you retook the class on your transcript. After the first 18 credits, you could retake a class, and the grade you got would be averaged with your old grade for GPA purposes. It still showed everything on your transcript.

 

[aphex]

Here at UF, you can drop a class until about 2 weeks left in the semester...

 

[ElFenix]

at UT, in the college of liberal arts, you got 2 drops you could use after the normal drop period is over. the profs didn't know about them though, since most students didn't know about them, so the profs almost never got one.

 

[xyion]

at PSU you can late drop a class until about 2-3 weeks left in the semester, but you only get 16 late drop credits, so if you drop a 4 credit class you are left with 12 credits. After 16, you are SOL and have to finish the class and take the grade. You can take a class as many times as you'd like, but the grades and credits count in your overall GPA.

 

[Turkish]

if that's true, that's BS.