College Grade Inflation Leaves Grades Meaning Nothing

On Monday I had a post about the economics of college collapsing. One of the reasons for that is grade inflation. Ivy League’s Big Three 'A'rms race leaves top grades increasingly meaningless

If everyone gets an "A," why bother working hard?

Yale awarded more than 80 percent of its undergraduate grades in the A range in 2024-25, while Harvard reported an even higher share and Princeton approached two-thirds.

If everyone in a class gets an "A," and professors who remain committed to minimum standards are fired, what does that grade even mean?

At Yale University, an A officially means “excellent.” But in the 2024-25 academic year, more than four out of every five undergraduate grades fell in the A range.

There is a chart about Yale. The increase in grades over COVID is astonishing. Not that inflation wasn't underway before that. Click thru for more on the COVID-era insanity.

When the overwhelming majority of students at America’s most historically selective universities receive grades intended to signify exceptional performance, the distinction those grades are supposed to convey becomes increasingly difficult to preserve.

Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit.

The Higher-Education Bubble Might Be Bursting

From Issues & Insights, we get an article about the collapse of job prospects for the whiny class. Reality Slaps College Graduates In The Face

The job market is booming for young people – but not those with college degrees. Are employers finally coming to realize that colleges these days mainly produce coddled, know-nothing, whiny, entitled brats?

A recent analysis from Burning Glass Institute found that unemployment among those 22-34 years old without a college degree is lower than it’s been in decades, but those with college diplomas are having a much harder time finding work than before.

Between the indoctrination of the hard Left, the dumbing down of classes that are "too hard," even though the material hasn't changed in decades, and the complete lack of work ethic. (Why study if everyone will get an A?)

Some of this article is based on something from the Wall Street Journal, which has been behind a paywall, since forever.

The Journal says that AI is contributing to this unprecedented education divergence in job prospects, because companies are replacing entry-level white-collar jobs with AI just as colleges churn out more graduates than ever. At the same time, the shortage of skilled workers is making it hard to replace the many who are now retiring.

The skills gap has been coming for decades. They mention the work of John Ratzenberger, but not Mike Rowe, in raising awareness. I guess they think Rowe doesn't have the correct politics.

And they get extra points for mentioning this insanity.

A Columbia University professor recently won a national book award for a volume arguing that white paint is racist. We kid you not.

Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds (author of The Higher Education Bubble) at Instapundit.

So kids today go to college, and end up with 10's of thousands (sometimes many 10s of thousands) of dollars in student loan debt, and then they cannot find a job based on that "education." In the meantime, employers are struggling to fill good jobs requiring actual skills, not a degree in ... What are the kids getting degrees in, these days?

Female Students Spoke Harshly to the Criminals

It didn't end well for the students. York Pennsylvania: Female Students Brutally Assaulted by Mob

I don't like to blame victims, but I do have to call out stupidity. And this is monumental stupidity. No, mountainous stupidity. This is stupidity that exists on a planetary scale.

According to testimony provided by the victims, a crowd of at least 30 people associated with illegal street racing had gathered near their property when the assault occurred. The altercation escalated after one of the racing vehicles crashed into a car parked outside the students’ home, prompting the residents to ask the crowd to clear their private property.

In response, the mob surrounded one of the students, dragged her into the street, and beat her severely. The victim reported being kicked simultaneously by as many as 12 individuals, causing her to lose consciousness twice from repeated strikes to her head and ribs. Other female students who attempted to intervene were dragged by their hair and physically assaulted.

York, Pennsylvania, is about 45 miles north of Baltimore, or about a 95 mile drive west of Philadelphia. It is home to York College, whose administration made a statement about student safety. Penn State has a satellite campus in the area. They don't call the home occupied by a bunch of coeds a sorority, but that is sure what it sounds like.

Now these are college coeds, so they are slightly to the Left of Chairman Mao, and none of them would be caught in possession of a firearm. But how stupid do you have to be to confront a group of 30 criminals with nothing more durable than a strong word. What did they think would happen? Why didn't they call 911 before the assaults started? Did they really think that street racers would just bow down to their complete-lack-of-authority, and decide to suddenly start obeying the law? Or are they so entitled that they think they deserve to be obeyed, and will therefore be obeyed, by anyone to whom they give orders?

But then I expect these are all Karens in training. What do you call a group of Karens? A flock? A sorority? A homeowners association?

They did call 911 after the bad things started happening, and then they were dismayed by the fact that cops didn't arrive instantly. (Seconds count... minutes away.) Click thru for those details.

Another Student Essay on First Exposure to Firearms

If you haven't noticed, I really like Professor Yamane's students' writing on their first interaction with firearms. “My Opinion Has Become More Complicated”

This is a fairly common starting position.

Before this trip, I had never touched a gun or ever wanted to be near one. I have always held the belief that I am against guns, largely based on my fear of them. Despite my grandfather being a Marine and a New York City cop, I have always feared guns and associated them with violent actions.

Most of my understanding of guns has come from what I have seen in the media and heard about gun violence, rather than from actually being around firearms.

Starting from the media-induced fear and loathing, this student at least saw a small change in her relationship to firearms, by realizing that the fear is not the whole story.

One of the things I like about Professor Yamane's writing, and what I know of the way he runs his seminar, Sociology of Guns, is that he is all about facts and truth. Guns are dangerous. Guns are fun. Guns are used for bad acts, and for legal self-defense. He doesn't vilify one side, or sugarcoat anything.

Click thru for the details on the seminar, and more on this particular student's experience.

Professor Yamane on The Reload

This video came to me by way of Open Source Defense. And if you read this blog, you know that I like Professor Yamane's take on gun culture. I don't agree with him on everything, but I agree with him, more than I disagree with him, and I appreciate his perspective. And I think he has to be a cool professor, even if he tries to undercut that with the bow tie.

It is a podcast in video format, so you really need to listen, and not watch. That is important because the podcast is just over one hour long.

This is The Reload's video Teaching a College Course on Guns in America (Ft. Wake Forest's David Yamane)

Student Essays on First Exposure to Firearms

Every year that Professor Yamane teachs (runs?) his seminar on the Sociology of Guns, he posts some of the student essays, if they grant him permission to do so. They are usually interesting. We have 2 such essays today.

The first meeting of the seminar is actually a field trip to a local range. (If I remember, they actually go in small groups, which helps with safety, and the length of time the students are just standing around.) Students must attend the field trip, but they do not have to shoot any of the firearms.

This essay is their reaction to field trip. The majority of students, even at a university in South Carolina, have no experience with firearms. A few identified themselves as having "a small amount" of experience, and only 2 identified themselves as having "significant experience with firearms."

First up we have Hannah: “The more we did it, the more natural it became”

My first time ever holding a gun was only a week before visiting the shooting range with my group. Before visiting, I was filled with anxiety. I wasn’t expecting this, even though I grew up in Florida and was constantly surrounded by talk of guns. Even holding one made me nervous because I had never touched one before.

Next, we have Robert: “The smell, recoil, and weight of the firearm quickly bring you to reality”

Entering the range today, I had very little prior experience with guns. My knowledge and perspective of guns were influenced by video games (Call of Duty) and the news. These video games fueled a small fascination with guns that was never fully realized.

Click thru for the essays in question.

This year students have been particularly reluctant to give permission. Cancel culture is a thing, after all. See The Best Student Essays I May Never Post, for the reasons.

Unlike years past, I am facing an interesting dynamic right now: The reflections were collectively the best set I have received, but the students are collectively more reluctant to share them than ever. If I don’t post as many range reflections as I have in previous years, this is why.

And you should be reading Light Over Heat with Professor David Yamane. It is usually an interesting read, even when the Professor and I disagree about something. We actually agree about more than you might think, but then I disagree with the NRA about a lot of things as well.

Sociology of Guns Update from Professor Yamane

I find the Professor's posts about his seminar very interesting. I'm continually amazed that a university lets him run it every year, including a trip to a gun range. Light Over Heat with Professor David Yamane has the latest update. Illuminations #11. Seminars, Shooting, and Stringing (Tennis Rackets)

has the latest update.

Central to my Sociology of Guns seminar is the class field trip to the gun range. Students are required to go to the range but not to shoot, though every year since 2020, all of the students have at least tried each gun. This included 10 of the 16 students who had never fired a gun before.

Some, though not all, of his students usually grant him permission to publish their essays/reflections on the range trip. It has always produced some interesting perspectives.

As for the tennis rackets:

Some of you know that being a tennis racquet technician was a hobby that turned into a side hustle that turned into an insane adventure over the past 18 years.

Part of that insanity is spending 10 days every August since 2011 (excluding the COVID year 2020) stringing at Winston-Salem’s ATP 250 event. This year, because of age and the overlapping of the tournament with the first week of classes at Wake Forest, I moved from being one of the three main stringers to working the “front of house.”

There is more on both the field trip to the range, and tennis, and more, including a bit on Jordan Salinas, and stopping a mass shooting.

Professor Yamane Takes College Students to a Gun Range

Light Over Heat with Professor David Yamane - The Calm Before the Range

His course Sociology of Guns starts with taking students, in small groups, to the range. Students have a chance to fire a gun, but none are required to do so. Safety first.

I am only partially joking when I say that the class goes downhill from day 1. Look at these smiles.

The video is only 8 minutes. (And I'm jealous of the collection of firearms.)

I recorded this video before the students came to the range, so stay tuned for a follow-on post recapping the event.

I have trouble envisioning any Ivy League university, or most state universities, allowing this class to proceed. Wake Forest seems like it must be a special place.

I'm Shocked! Shocked I Tell You! ...

Who knew that college students do drugs? Shocking. Penn State frat brothers charged with running cocaine trafficking ring - CBS Pittsburgh

Two Penn State University fraternities are at the center of a cocaine trafficking ring bust, leading to charges against 14 people, authorities announced on Monday.

Is the DA up for reelection this year or something? Or was this just a slow news day? I guess it is news if they operation was large, but really this strikes me as a dog-bites-man sort of story.

Thirteen of the people charged were Penn State students at or around the time of the alleged drug trafficking ring, from around 2023 to 2024, prosecutors said. The 14th defendant, Thomas Robinson's father, is accused of trying to conceal evidence and obstruct the investigation.

The only thing that surprises me is that the authorities went after them.

Gives new meaning to the term "Higher education."

Northwestern University Ends African Studies

The Post Millennial brings us the update. Northwestern University to end African studies program

OK, it isn't ending. It is "transitioning," to something besides "an Office for Research university-wide research institute and center."

Northwestern University is reportedly planning to end its African studies program by the end of the month.

According to The Purple Wire, two sources at the university said administrators informed staff that the program would end at the end of August. One staff member said that staff was not given a reason for the closing.

Wailing and gnashing of teeth from the Left to ensue in 3, 2, 1, ...

“They told us that the center is closing, so all staff are being laid off because there will be no center to employ you,” a staffer said.

There is some question about if, or how, some other part of the university will absorb the program.

Northwestern University is located in Evanston, Illinois, directly north of the City of Chicago. It is bordered by Chicago to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north.

Academia and Jason Arday

From Richard Hanania's Newsletter: They're the Ones Who Told Us to Pay Attention to Jason Arday

Jason Arday was a professor at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. He was lauded as the “youngest black professor at Cambridge.” He had been guilty of excessive plagiarism, and when he had been called out, in a way that no one could dispute, he killed himself.

This reminds me of something an old professor told me when I was in graduate school. He was a historian who had grown disgusted with the direction in which academia had gone. In his class, we would dig deep into some of the work of prominent political scientists and expose the flaws in their papers and books. This was effective in puncturing the aura that surrounded high-status figures in academia, and we would wonder how they got away with producing such drivel. He told us that many academics saw their work “like a game.” You don’t care all that much if someone you know cheats in a board game. Who cares? Why start a conflict? We’ve all got a nice thing going here, and it’s better if we all just continue getting along.

I have seen several folks on the Left blaming the people who exposed the plagiarism for his death. As far as I'm concerned, that is just self-delusion. No one is to blame for his actions but himself. While you can make a case that the Left that celebrated him without bothering to validate any of his claims for some of the blame, in my estimation he is responsible for his own actions.

Still people are looking at academia over this issue. (Academia is under scrutiny for many reasons, but I'm just focusing on one thing.)

It’s become a cliché at this point to say that the Arday story is more interesting as an indictment of academia than of him as a person. The New York Times just ran a brutally frank article about how unqualified he was for his position, and how the committee that hired him at Cambridge had experts in autism who should have been aware that his story about being nonverbal until 11 and then becoming a scholar couldn’t have been true.

And this didn't happen at some 3rd rate college in the middle of nowhere. Cambridge University is one of the premiere universities in the UK, or Europe, or the world.

This may be the ultimate DEI fable.

An Update to the Gun Curiosity Seminar

Light Over Heat with Professor David Yamane has an update on the Professor's popular course. An Invitation to Gun Curiosity: The motivation for my Sociology of Guns seminar redesign

In a recent post about my revamped Sociology of Guns seminar, I discussed moving from a topic-based approach to a question-based approach to the material. I connected this shift to the increasing importance of intellectual virtues like curiosity, open-mindedness, and humility as learning outcomes for the course, but I didn’t fully explain the reasoning behind it.

Briefly: questions open up inquiry and conversation in ways topics do not. A topic like “gun violence” or “concealed carry” can be covered and closed. A question keeps going. As Peter Berger put it in Invitation to Sociology, the first wisdom of sociology is that “things are not what they seem.”

This put me in mind of a Zen koan.

The koan is about A Cup of Tea:

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”

“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

One of the major problems with the world we live in today, is that everyone is so sure of what is true, or they have abandoned the idea of objective truth completely, in favor of personal feelings. Not sure how you do inquiry in the face of that. (If you know the acceptable answer, before you do the study, why bother to do the study?)

There are more details about the class, a photo of a very-nice AR, and another of some snacks, that made me hungry for dessert. Click thru.

Professor Yamane, with the approval of his students, has posted some of those students work from the past seminars. They have been fascinating reads. I look forward to seeing what this year will bring.

Where Did America's Tradesmen Go?

Why do people listen to "educators?" These are the people who destroyed math education. These are the people who decided we didn't need phonics, and ushered in an epidemic of illiteracy. These are the people who championed the "open concept" classroom. (Look it up!) Have they gotten anything right? America Didn't Lose Its Tradesmen by Accident | RealClearMarkets

Somewhere along the way, America decided that a four-year degree was the only respectable answer to the question of what comes after high school. The plumber who just handed you a $250 bill to replace a faucet cartridge never got that message. He also doesn't have $50,000 in student loan debt. The joke, it turns out, was on the rest of us.

America didn't stop needing tradesmen. It spent thirty years telling young people not to become one.

Read the whole thing.

College Students Can't Do Middle School Math

I'm not surprised. The "system" they use to teach math is insane, and needs to be dropped. 1,000 University of Calif Professors Revolt: Students Can't Do Middle School Math, Demand Return of SATs - Geller Report

Over a thousand University of California professors signed an open letter to the Board of Regents demanding they bring back standardized testing after it was removed during covid for equity.

They reveal that many STEM students are below Middle School level in Math. The poison fruit of leftwing policies. Dumb students, an obvious consequence of avoiding reality.

When the Liberals have lost university professors in California, this shows that they are so far around the bend, that they can't see it in the rear-view mirror.

Click thru.

The End of Literacy

Tyler Jagt at The Chronicle of Higher Education has bad news for the future. My Students Can’t Read: The generational collapse in literacy is measurable, persistent, and likely to get worse.

Six weeks into the term, I assigned my rhetoric and writing students a 20-page article. It was the same length I had assigned for five years and the same length I had read without complaint as an undergraduate a decade ago. Not one student finished it.

When I asked why, a student answered honestly: It was too long, and she kept losing track of what the paper was about.

My first day of Literature, Philosophy, and History my freshman year in college, (way back in the dark ages) we were assigned approximately the first 150 pages of a book to read by the next class. Herbert Marcuse's One-Dimensional Man, is technically an essay, an awful work, and a slog to get through.

What does it say about the state of American education that people in college - they graduated from high school - cannot read a 20 page article?

I miss civilization.

Academics Have Noticed that the Value of Higher Education Is Falling

Campus Reform brings us some observations from Rob Jenkins, who is a Higher Education Fellow with Campus Reform and a tenured associate professor of English at Georgia State University - Perimeter College. Dear Academe: You have done that yourself

After a bit of reminiscing about Star Wars, as it was before it was destroyed by Disney, we get to the heart of the matter.

I think about that scene every time I hear academics complaining about the current state of higher education—the fact that trust in the institution has plummeted and the value of a degree isn’t what it used to be. “It’s your own fault,” I want to tell them (perhaps a bit less stoically than ObiWan). “You have done that yourself!”

Apparently, I am not alone. A recent report from Yale University, of all places, reached much the same conclusion. According to Campus Reform, the report blames the ongoing erosion of trust in higher ed on lack of intellectual diversity and political conformity, among other things.

I would say that the lack of rigor in various studies, and the wildly increasing costs of an education relative to the salaries that graduates can command isn't helping.

I have a degree in mathematics, but I attended a Great Books college. We read Plato, and Plutarch. We studied the history of the Roman Empire, and the founding of the Soviet Union, with all of the atrocities that involved. We read Alexis de Tocqueville and Descartes. We studied both Marx and Adam Smith. I am no opposed to higher education that includes things like literature, and philosophy, and history. But the current state of higher education is almost completely worthless.

Read the whole thing.

Concealed Carry Still Not Allowed on Florida College Campuses

Which I will never understand, and don't understand how this will pass muster under the Bruen decision, but here we are. DeSantis Signs Law Arming Trained College, University Faculty After FSU Shooting - South Florida Reporter

A year after a gunman opened fire on Florida State University, trained college and university faculty can carry guns onto campus under a bill Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Friday.

The training is fairly involved, but at least the campuses will not be completely disarmed.

Under the new law, HB 757, the program will be extended to colleges and universities. Staff hoping to become guardians must complete 144 hours of training — 132 hours with firearms. Although the program isn’t mandatory, college and university presidents have the power to appoint their school guardians.

But they can't allow legal adults with concealed carry licenses on college campuses. Oh, no. Because while they can be armed in most places in the state of Florida, when they step onto a college campus they lose the ability to be responsible. Or something. Or is it just that the college students don't "feel safe" unless they are in a defenseless victim zone.

It is the 21st Century and feelings are important. [Heavy sigh]

I'm sure the Left, especially the college professors and students will be screaming and crying and running for their safe spaces in no time.

The Origin of Woke

And how Woke took over academia. From The Other McCain: ‘There Is No Truth … Only Power’

Any argument must stand or fall on its own merits. As every educated person knows, attempting to refute an argument by attacking the personality of its proponent is a logical fallacy known as ad hominem. Nonetheless, it has been my observation that advocates of unusual arguments — ideas that seem destructive or counter-factual — generally have something in their biography which helps explain their motives.

tl:dr on that - "Bad causes attract bad people."

The 3 people (that this article attributes) that formed the basis of woke:

1. Foucault taught that truth does not exist, only power exists. (Your truth)
2. Derrida taught that texts have no stable meaning (redone for a "modern audience")
3. Deleuze taught that we should prefer desire to the law, becoming to being, difference to identity. (feelings)

From three philosophers imported from France, we get the state of higher education today, which for the most part doesn't educate, but indoctrinates. We get a generation of "writers" who have no idea how to write a story that anyone is interested in; they can only write for themselves.

There is much more, and if you start following links, the rabbit hole is pretty deep. Still, I think it is worth a bit of your time.

University Students Shocked They Live in the Real World™

Even in Oklahoma, they are pampered children. Stillwater shooting leaves one injured during busy weekend | KFOR Oklahoma City

There was a shooting near a stip of bars in the vicinity of OSU. Cops are searching for "person of interest." Click thu for those details.

Ashlyn Caldwell is apparently a student at OSU, getting notifications from the university. She was on the strip and disturbed to discover that there was a shooting.

“You hear about shootings every day, but you never think that you’re going to witness one or like be in the same proximity as one, and it’s weird to see the strip today, it’s completely normal,” said Caldwell. “It’s like nothing happened, but I was here just 12 hours ago or whatever, and there was a shooting here.”

As Tolkien said, you can fence yourself in, but you cannot fence the world out. OSU and environs are not Mayberry RFD, they are in fact part of the Real World were crime can, and often does, happen. You are not protected by your zip code.

I doubt this will change Ashlyn Caldwell's outlook on life, or the outlook of any other university student in 2026.

Department of Education Drops the Hammer on Useless Degrees

From the University Herald: The Department of Education Just Proposed a Rule That Could Cut Federal Aid to Thousands of College Programs. Here's How It Works.

The April 17 NPRM Establishes a Single Earnings Test for Every Postsecondary Program in America — From Culinary Certificates to Law Degrees — With Federal Student Loans at Stake for Programs Whose Graduates Don't Earn Enough

This is, if memory serves, basically the same test given for for-profit schools. It was instituted because some administration (Obama?) decided that some programs were just scams. The usual suspects got a carve out. If you were a "regular university" you got a free pass. This facilitated stuff like the various studies majors, and the other insane degrees.

Hat tip to Clayton Cramer, who sums up my take on degrees that don't pay for themselves.

Is there value in programs that do not contribute to a decent paycheck? Certainly. But the government need not subsidize a program that satisfies your desire to learn about Victim Studies.

There used to be a lot of talk about how Germany (and maybe a few other European countries) pay for college educations. I'm not sure what the current situation is, but 30 years ago, Germany didn't pay for everyone to go to college.

If you scored high enough on test taken, basically at the end of high school, AND you were going to major in something the Germans felt was worthwhile, (i.e. engineering, pre-med, etc.) then they would pay for your education. If you didn't score high enough, or you wanted to major in something they didn't care about, you didn't get free tuition.

Of course that was before Germany decided to destroy their industrial base by making electricity expensive and unreliable at the same time.