In 1996, I thought my 3.6 high school GPA was pretty hot stuff. Yep, I never worried about my application to the University of Iowa, even with my subpar ACT score. College planning was EASY, my admission was a rubber stamp.
To date, I have been impressed with my son, Yosef’s, ability to maintain what I would call “good grades” into his junior year- well above my lofty 3.6. I thought preparing to help him with his initial planning for college should be EASY – another rubber stamp.
((insert record scratch))
I have learned that a GPA in the high/mid-3’s (B+) isn’t so great anymore. In fact, most of the universities around us (Florida) are attended by students that have earned SIGNIFICANTLY higher marks. Like, MUCH HIGHER.
I was completely flat-footed reading the data from Florida’s 2022-2023 State University System (SUS) Admissions Matrix (here), namely:
With an enrollment of around 34k undergraduates, the middle HALF of admitted students at Florida State during the fall semester had a high school GPA between 4.3 and 4.6, and an SAT score above 1300.
You read that correctly – FOUR POINT F’ING THREE!!!
Who knew that my kids were surrounded by such titans of American scholastic achievement?!!?
Reading these stats was a gut-punch, a tomahawk chop to Yosef’s goal of attending Florida State.
Instead of screaming at Yosef for mailing it in with such a meager GPA in his high school, like most parents of today, I immediately point blame at the system, asking:
How the hell can there be so many kids pulling an A+(+++) average?
Are teenagers just that much smarter today?
No way. I’m calling BS on these 4.5’s.
The quest for answers to these questions has taken me down a rabbit hole of a highly controversial phenomenon coined “grade inflation.” A study done by ACT in 2022 (for data to 2021), in fact, confirmed that which had just slapped me in the face: GPA’s are rising, and at rate that far exceeds that levels of results of standardized tests.
My question is answered: kids are not smarter today, they are just being given better grades.
But, A+’s?
How?
Why isn’t Yosef cashing in on this inflationary grade benefit?
His answer: “I’m not in all AP, IB (International Bachelorette), or Honor’s classes, Dad.”
Mystery solved. Yosef has elected not to play on the same field – lending a good grade in a lower level class relatively worthless. Sure, Yosef is accountable for the choice NOT to register to these classes, but, let’s be honest, should attaining the equivalent of all A+ grades even be possible?
Are AP level classes more than 25% tougher than general pop classes?
If IB classes are THAT tough, should any student be allowed (for the sake of balance) to take a full schedule of them in order to push their GPA to the heavens?
This all makes no sense – and the systems that perpetuate it end up making even the best grades in the hardest classes less meaningful and no indication of success at college.
What are we even doing here?
This topic matters – and not just because my son is being electively relegated, but because the grade statistics show that we are patting our kids on the back (again).
Grade inflation matters because systems around our kids are providing exaggerated rewards without correspondingly exaggerated efforts. These GPA’s are nothing more than the same “participation trophy” mentality that parents continue to perpetuate – in sports, in our kids’ social lives (ie: prom-like birthday parties), and, now, in a classroom near you.
There will be an end to the A+’s and pats on the back – at college or in our kids’ selected workplace. As such, we must start asking:
How might your 4.5 GPA kid react at her first college “C”?
Will your over-achiever be able to re-calibrate their expectations to significantly lower college marks or job prospects?
Does the top 1% quit when their future boss, having decades of experience, tells them their works is not good enough?
There is a price to pay for systems that over-reward – a debt our kids will repay with inevitable, future disappointments.
In the meantime, though, I am left caught between feeling prideful for how my son has performed given the classes he’s taken, fighting off the crushing prospect of him needing to increase his current SAT score immediately, and sulking in Yosef’s recalibrated post-high school reality.
A reality where rubber stamps that were once made with B’s are now created with by A+’s only.
