In order to win the college war, there are three primary battles
a college student must fight during their freshman year. The
battles involve grades, alcohol and sex. These are the knock-down
drag-out fights that almost every student must triumph over, lest
the issues consume their energy and time. The first battle to
tackle–though it’s hardly ever the first fought–is the battle of
the grades.

It must be autumn; the smell of the leaves, the crisp mornings,
the substantial number of drop forms being filled out. Midterms
were just a few weeks ago, did you notice? Academic advisors
certainly knew it, judging by the number of rather abrupt
withdrawal forms that were filled out in the last week of October.
The swarm of “W’s” is only natural, and is proof enough
that–oops!–some college students were in over their heads.

Grades can end up controlling our lives. For some students
differentiating between social and school life is complicated, and
their grades reflect that difficulty. While students have
discovered that going to class in college is usually encouraged but
still optional, many students find themselves regretting not
exercising that option. Some soon figure out that they should have
gone to more classes–especially when they sit in front of their
exam book and start to cry.

If students do not learn from their classes, they can always
learn from their grades. The midterm grades are a wake-up call for
many–to use an FBI term–“sleeper” students. (These students
attend the University according to all rosters and lists, but no
one knows where they are!) It is most fortunate for many of the
freshman that midterm grades are not permanent transcript material,
for they would surely spell the doom of half the first semester
students.

Midterms should in no way be used to judge a student’s prowess
in the classroom, but should be used as a simple indicator for
students. Let me explain.

To judge whether a student is in fact a “good” student during
their freshman year–and for the sake of experimentation, let’s say
the first semester, too–is unfair. Grades given during the first
six weeks of college should be considered a form of cruel and
unusual punishment. A student is more than a good essay or a
fantastic eight-page paper.

Those grades during the first six weeks are unfair for the
students because of the enormous task set before them: the task of
adjusting to college life.

Grades begin to control our lives from the youngest age, whether
it be with gold stars in preschool or an “A” on a college
presentation. An argument could even be made that the paychecks we
receive from our job in the workforce is a negative type of
positive reinforcement, whereby the paycheck begins to control you,
instead of the other way around.

Is it too much of a stretch for schools and universities around
the world to realize that grades are unfair? Consider a
hypothetical situation . . .

We have two students, and for the ease of reading they have
simple names, Student A and Student B. Now suppose that Student A
is a stereotypical “bad” student, meaning he doesn’t go to class,
he parties all the time and is an all around bad influence.

Let us suppose that Student B is the perfect student, that is,
he goes to every class–even when sick–and studies all the time,
applies himself and even attends study sessions.

The wrench in this hypothetical situation is that Student A gets
better grades than Student B. “How can this be?” you ask in
amazement. Well, it’s quite simple, really. All grades measure one
thing: how well a student can B.S.

A student that studies all the time but can only pull mediocre
grades, like our sad friend Student B, are penalized for trying.
Try, try as they might, they can never seem to rise above their “C”
position, and will end up being categorized as an “average”
student, when in fact, they may be quite better than average in
many other valuable ways. Just because a student receives “average”
grades doesn’t mean that he is only average himself. A student is
more than a G.P.A.

As though battling the predestination of grades wasn’t enough,
freshmen have two more battles to fight before they can even hope
to win the war . . .

To be continued . . .

Andrew Emmerich is a freshman studying English.