Granted. The top hires from the top. This leads to two questions:
Do we see corruption in those grades? If that is where it matters, that is where we would expect to see it. Say, does admittance into and top grades at Harvard Law depend mostly on academics or is class rank better predicted by other factors, from social class to blatant bribery you mention above?
Once you are below the tournament economy, do we see any corruption? I work for a state government. “Do you have a relevant degree?” is the question, not how good your university was or what your class rank was. Barring extremes (obvious diploma mill, top tier graduate from top tier university), grading just isn’t that important.
At good schools nearly everyone graduates in four years, but at lower level schools lots of students don’t finish at all or take more than 4 years in part because they fail (or never finish the work) in classes. Given the importance of getting a degree, and the cost of taking more than 4 years to do so, grading is also important for students “at the bottom” of the college world.
I suspect the answer is that grading at U.S. colleges just isn’t that important.
It is for many students at good colleges if they want to, say, get a job at an investment bank or a place at a top law school.
Granted. The top hires from the top. This leads to two questions:
Do we see corruption in those grades? If that is where it matters, that is where we would expect to see it. Say, does admittance into and top grades at Harvard Law depend mostly on academics or is class rank better predicted by other factors, from social class to blatant bribery you mention above?
Once you are below the tournament economy, do we see any corruption? I work for a state government. “Do you have a relevant degree?” is the question, not how good your university was or what your class rank was. Barring extremes (obvious diploma mill, top tier graduate from top tier university), grading just isn’t that important.
At good schools nearly everyone graduates in four years, but at lower level schools lots of students don’t finish at all or take more than 4 years in part because they fail (or never finish the work) in classes. Given the importance of getting a degree, and the cost of taking more than 4 years to do so, grading is also important for students “at the bottom” of the college world.
Good point, thank you. I was focusing on the top half of the distribution, when there is also a cutoff in the bottom half.