AWOL from Academics
https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2024/03/university-people-the-undergraduate-balance
In stark contrast, English professor James Engell told me that when he was a Harvard student, “there was a sense…that the primary reason for your being in the College was to take courses, and to spend a lot of time on them”—a belief which, in his eyes, has “eroded some.” Indeed, data from the Crimson’s senior survey indicates that students devote nearly as much time collectively to extracurriculars, athletics, and employment as to their classes…
HALF OF THE BLAME can be assigned to grade inflation, which has fundamentally changed students’ incentives during the past several decades. Rising grades permit mediocre work to be scored highly, and students have reacted by scaling back academic effort. I can’t count the number of times I’ve guiltily turned in work far below my best, betting that the assignment will nonetheless receive high marks.
https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2024/03/university-people-the-undergraduate-balance
In stark contrast, English professor James Engell told me that when he was a Harvard student, “there was a sense…that the primary reason for your being in the College was to take courses, and to spend a lot of time on them”—a belief which, in his eyes, has “eroded some.” Indeed, data from the Crimson’s senior survey indicates that students devote nearly as much time collectively to extracurriculars, athletics, and employment as to their classes…
HALF OF THE BLAME can be assigned to grade inflation, which has fundamentally changed students’ incentives during the past several decades. Rising grades permit mediocre work to be scored highly, and students have reacted by scaling back academic effort. I can’t count the number of times I’ve guiltily turned in work far below my best, betting that the assignment will nonetheless receive high marks.