Socio Posted March 16, 2009 Share Posted March 16, 2009 I have a friend (in an average economics PhD program) who seems to be worried about grades all the time (apparently grading is based on a curve). I thought that always sounded very "undergraduate" since graduate students should mostly be preoccupied with understanding material instead of whether or not they pass a class. My undergraduate degree is not in Sociology, but in a more quantiative field, so I am not familar with grading in Sociology. But I performed exceptionally as an undergraduate (although very few of my classes involved grading on a curve), still I am wondering how much Sociology PhD programs require you to obssess about grades? Is grading in graduate sociology based on a curve? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rising_star Posted March 16, 2009 Share Posted March 16, 2009 In general, graduate school isn't for worrying about grades. Worry about your research, publishing, and teaching, but not about grades. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
That_One Posted March 16, 2009 Share Posted March 16, 2009 In general, graduate school isn't for worrying about grades. Worry about your research, publishing, and teaching, but not about grades. Well, that certainly depends on how well you do! Graduate schools, after all, require you to maintain a minimum GPA in order to keep your funding. Some departments also plan to get rid of the "excess package" by filtering out students before or after they take qualifying examinations. So the first couple of years one might have to worry about grades...but later on (assuming your survive), you are likely to be more worried about research, publications and teaching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anonposter84 Posted March 16, 2009 Share Posted March 16, 2009 Princeton Sociology, for one, does not have grades. I think thats the way it should be! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rising_star Posted March 17, 2009 Share Posted March 17, 2009 Honestly, even most programs that have grades don't really use them. My school uses A/B/C/D/F. Since anything below a 3.0 is failing, a B is a warning shot and a C is an indication someone doesn't think you belong in the program. I asked a prof about his grading for one class and he said most grad students get As. I asked if those are grad school As or As and he answered, "Grad school As". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctoraldude Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 I thought grad school was about intrinsic motivation ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tritonetelephone Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 One of my prospective schools does annual evaluations of their grad students, which the student gets to read with their advisor. I think that's a really good system - much more meaningful feedback than a letter grade (which they also do). (And no, I've never heard of a graduate program that curves the grades.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rising_star Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Both of my graduate programs (MA in the past; PhD now) do annual reviews of all enrolled graduate students. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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