College Grades: We're not just whining

Can you remember a time you thought that you were about to fail at some task, but triumphed? Conversely, recall a time you felt utterly confident just to find yourself helplessly defeated. The former is an inspirational as the latter is vicious, yet universities all over the country perpetually set their students up for failure.

There is a whole host of differences between high school and college level academics: scheduling, time management, amount of work, difficulty of work, different relationships with educators, and that collegiate work in far more academic fields than were available in high school. As students transition from high school to college, they realize that a new set of expectations will gauge their progress. They expect assignments to be more difficult. They expect the course material to be more difficult. They also expect that they will succeed in classes where they word hard and understand that material. Unfortunately this last expectation, which is as fair as the others, is often violated.

It was my first semester at college. I had registered for my courses and was eager to explore an academic field inaccessible to be during my high school tenure: Philosophy. I was taking Ancient Greek Philosophy, an introductory level course that is a required part of the philosophy major and is taught by a well liked professor. The readings were interesting, the class atmosphere was enjoyable, and I would work longer than I needed to in order to ensure I properly grasped the ideas. I thought, "This is going to be great".

It wasn't.

I received my worst grade in a course... ever. I didn't understand. I thoroughly read and interacted with all of the texts, thoughtfully participated in class discussion, and my peers came to me for help understanding the concepts. I conducted myself like a perfect student, and failed. On the other hand I scored high marks on my other three courses, all of which I spent significantly less time on and cared for less. I got A's on material I didn't understand and C's on material that I did.

My disappointment turned into anger - anger that boiled over into an uncharacteristic confrontation with my professor. Our discussion was frustrating and her answers unsatisfying, until she commented that "you aren't writing like a philosophy major". I was curious, and asked her to explain. She noted the lack of first person narrative and awkward organization of my argument as the central issues with my papers. Before this point, it hadn't occurred to me that I was allowed to write in first person or that paragraphs were allowed to be of drastically variable sizes and constructions. Third person writing and cookie-cutter three point, five paragraph essays were staples of my high school education, and no one ever bothered to fill me in on what I was missing: writing varies tremendously by discipline.

Given that most college level disciplines were not taught in high school (philosophy included) it seems unfair to hold undergraduates to standards they couldn't possibly know yet. Addressing these disparities by offering courses or lessons in specifically intra-disciplinary writing would dramatically reduce misunderstandings between professors and students, while enhancing the quality of students' work.

Until our academic institutions not only recognize but also act on the importance of discipline specific writing, students will both continue to receive grades that don't reflect their level of comprehension and continue to resent their professors' grading.