While we're ranking schools, we'd better rank majors as well.  Without going
into debates about relative difficulty of majors, I will put forward that:
 
1.  Not all majors have equal "degree of difficulty"
2.  Therefore, each major (or academic department, at least) would have
             to be assigned a "degree of difficulty"
 
After all, at least at BU, a grade could be worth no honors in one school, but
could get you honors in another school.  I imagine that this is the case at
other uniersities as well.
 
If you want to bestow honors on student-athletes who are excellent students,
ways to do that already exist.
 
 
 
 
On Feb 23,  9:35am, Paula Weston wrote:
> Subject: Academic Elitism and the PWR
>--snip--
> Yeah, Bob, there's a whole lot that's not self-evident.  Just who decides
> whose academic institution is more rigorous?  Those who make the same
> policies on more rigorous campuses where grade inflation is so rampant that
> it warrants serious discussion in "The Chronicle of Higher Education?"  Do
> we judge by the courses of studies offered?  If so, who is to say that
> University X (perhaps the fabled Jock U of previous posts)--the large,
> midwestern land-grant university--is offering a less-challenging course of
> study than Rigorous U?
>
> What criteria shall we use?  Who is to determine the criteria?
>
>--snip--
>-- End of excerpt from Paula Weston
 
 
 
--
Carl Ford  BU '93                                            (202) 767-6418
ICM Mechanical Engineer                                  FAX (202) 404-2057
Spacecraft Engineering Department
Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC
 
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