Curving Grades in Graduate Sociology?

[Socio]

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?

[rising_star]

In general, graduate school isn't for worrying about grades. Worry about your research, publishing, and teaching, but not about grades.

[That_One]

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.

[Anonposter84]

Princeton Sociology, for one, does not have grades. I think thats the way it should be!

[rising_star]

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".

[doctoraldude]

I thought grad school was about intrinsic motivation ...

[Tritonetelephone]

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.)

[rising_star]

Both of my graduate programs (MA in the past; PhD now) do annual reviews of all enrolled graduate students.