Most students, alumni, and faculty agree that it is the college’s challenging curriculum combined with high expectations that lead to lower grades, not any deliberate effort to deflate those grades.“When I talk with my other friends and we compare our college experience, the work load seems more here,” says Theresa Collins, a junior nursing major from Goffstown, N.H. “Yes, it can be frustrating when you see your peers at other institutions getting higher GPAs, when we seem to work so much harder. But I don’t feel that grades at Saint Anselm are deflated. Professors outline what it takes to get a certain grade, and that grade is fair.”

Juliann Minnon ’05 transferred to Saint Anselm because her future depends on academic rigor, not just high marks. “I was a 4.0 student, but I felt I wasn’t being academically challenged. I feel like I’m getting much better preparation for medical school here,” she observes. “It’s hard work, but I might as well go through it now and be ready for what comes next.”

Kate Durant ’98, of Melrose, Mass., “definitely had to work hard and learn to manage time.” She believes these skills have contributed to success in her latest position at an advertising agency. “The humanities program is very intense, and the comprehensive exam is also challenging”—two things, she says, that students at other institutions may not experience.

Still there are rumors of deflating grades. Lanna Martin, a sophomore business major from Calais, Maine, recalls a faculty member saying that mid-term grades were too high and that he’d better make the next test harder or the dean might take notice. She thinks he was joking, but she’s not sure.

Perhaps this reaction comes from the fact that the dean is committed to monitoring grade distribution. If too many grades are in the A/B range, a professor is likely to get a letter, asking for an explanation. Fr. Augustine points out, however, that issuing A’s and B’s at 30–35 percent is simply a goal, and in fact, it is not often met. For the academic year 2001–02, for example, the percentage of A/B grades was 39.1. For the academic year 2002–03, the percentage of A/B grades was 42 (this does not include B- grades).

While faculty are asked to monitor grade distribution, professors say they do not deliberately lower grades. They have not been encouraged to do so by the administration; although they acknowledge that some faculty may interpret the message differently. They also say they do not find teaching at Saint Anselm drastically different from other places in the academy.

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