More Students Are Turning Away from College and Toward Apprenticeships

Re:More Students Are Turning Away from College and Toward Ap... by OJFord on Saturday March 18, 2023 @05:50PM (#35213444)

People sometimes talk about it in terms of exams in the sense that they'd achieve a first overall if that exam was 'it', or that it brings their average up etc. - but strictly speaking you can only achieve first class (or any other) honours for the degree as a whole. It's commonly (but not necessarily) >70% overall. Equivalent to achieving some high GPA range.

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Re:More Students Are Turning Away from College and Toward Ap... by zinckiwi on Saturday March 18, 2023 @06:34PM (#35213847)

American translation: graduating with anything other than a 4.0 or a 1.0 is wasted.

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Re:More Students Are Turning Away from College and Toward Ap... by OJFord on Saturday March 18, 2023 @06:41PM (#35213914)

Or rather between them, yes. (Or a bit lower than 4.0, that's perfect right? Or do you not have to get full marks on every exam to achieve that?)

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Re:More Students Are Turning Away from College and Toward Ap... by antasvara on Saturday March 18, 2023 @07:17PM (#35214204)

4.0 would mean that you got a letter grade of "A" in every class. In the US, that usually means you got a final grade of 95% or higher in every class.

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Re:More Students Are Turning Away from College and Toward Ap... by TylerE on Saturday March 18, 2023 @10:19PM (#35215343)

95? I have never seen that. 10 point seems to be the most common (A=90+).

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Re:More Students Are Turning Away from College and Toward Ap... by AlchemistCamp on Sunday March 19, 2023 @05:16AM (#35217324)

At my school, 90, 91, and 92 were considered an A- and worth only 3.7 grade points.

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Re:More Students Are Turning Away from College and Toward Ap... by TylerE on Sunday March 19, 2023 @07:04AM (#35217821)

That’s a little more normal. In my state Grades 1-8 ran on a 7pt scale. A was 93+, B was 85-93

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Re:More Students Are Turning Away from College and Toward Ap... by wombatpm on Sunday March 19, 2023 @12:47AM (#35216138)

In high school maybe. All my stem classes in college were graded on a curve. First exam freshman year was physics. I walked out thinking I failed. There were questions I did not answer. Later that night they posted raw scores. Mine was 48 pts out of 100.

I was ready to withdraw and reconsider engineering as a major.

Later still they posted the cut offs. 40 was the cutoff for an A. Avg was 36 and the cutoff for a B. My 48 was the 4th highest score.

I would have preferred the British system

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Re:More Students Are Turning Away from College and Toward Ap... by zamfi on Saturday March 18, 2023 @11:23PM (#35215714)

C is often the lowest passing grade — so, same saying really.

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Re:More Students Are Turning Away from College and Toward Ap... by Balgair on Saturday March 18, 2023 @08:51PM (#35214811)

Oh got it now, thanks!

Here in the US we have a saying of " C equals Degree", so kinda the exact opposite of the UK saying. Strange!

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Re:More Students Are Turning Away from College and Toward Ap... by JamisonM on Sunday March 19, 2023 @01:13AM (#35216254)

I have always known it as "C's get degrees" but that's sort of a crass expression, not really the equivalent of the quote which is presented as "life advice" for the enrichment of those that receive it.

"C's get degrees": The bare minimum to get the credential is the optimal use of resources.

"You want either a first or a fourth. There is no value in anything between.": Either excel at school to maximize your achievement or don't worry about your grades and simply pursue whatever comes your way from the opportunity to be there to enrich your life.

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Re:More Students Are Turning Away from College and Toward Ap... by a_e_k on Sunday March 19, 2023 @03:12AM (#35216754)

Amusingly along those lines, I once had a prof in my Ph.D. program tell me that if I was getting all A's in my coursework, I was doing it wrong. (I.e., not spending enough time on research.)

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Re:More Students Are Turning Away from College and Toward Ap... by dilznoofus on Sunday March 19, 2023 @05:28PM (#35223843)

This is pretty common at other places - my PhD advisor was exasperated that a polymer chemist would get an A in Physical Chemistry II, when I had a national lab collaboration to work on, a fellowship to write, and a first-author paper to get out the door.

In retrospect? Yeah, I probably should have taken a B and finished relevant things faster. I have almost zero use for my understanding of the mathematic accounting of the particle-in-a-box.

Of course in grad school a C is a failure, so the wiggle room is slightly less generous.

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Re:More Students Are Turning Away from College and Toward Ap... by UncleEntity on Monday March 20, 2023 @08:47AM (#35230716)

Talk about grade inflation…

Back in my day it was “Ds get degrees”.

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