Last week, three student researchers wrote a letter to The Post stating that the College of Education’s GPAs are “grossly inflated,” which I (and many other Education majors) find “troubling” based on the under-representative sample size.
As an adolescent-to-young adult education major (grades 7-12), specializing in science, I find their research to be haphazard at best.
Now, obviously “difficulty” of an academic program is a highly subjective measure. No right-minded person can realistically compare accounting, education, dance, music, political science, economics or most majors to each other, but as I think about my own college experience, which has included more courses with lab components than my biology major, chemistry minor roommate, I highly question how my GPA is inflated.
Combined with 40 hours of school observation per week most quarters, which is not required of accounting, economics or math majors, my point seems to be further proven. I am not claiming to be an expert of the entire College of Education, but calling every undergraduate’s GPA inflated is not only erroneous but also simply insulting.
As research assistants (which apparently was a necessary addition to the letter) for a center that claims to measure productivity, thorough research should have been conducted before making such over-arching claims.
I admire the typically termed “hard” majors that the three authors have taken up, as well as their passion for the discussion; however, their letter should be taken not only with a grain of salt but also as nothing more than simply an observation of the college as a whole.
Joe Stitt is a senior studying adolescent-to-young adult education.
