FW: Important Announcement Regarding Business School Grading System

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Sibble, Sam

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Apr 27, 2011, 10:56:41 AM4/27/11

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Good news for you guys!!!!!!

From: Hubbard, Glenn
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2011 10:49 AM
To: Bell, Ryan; Ruiz-Reyes, Benis; Moore, Steven; Revol, Cindy; Kalish, Yaniv; Linetsky, Yakov; Osborn, Andrea; Skeeter, Coleman; Baghdasaryan, Anna; Devleeschouwer, Darren; Hayat, Tal; Ahamed, Adeel; McDonald, Todd; Kaufman, Shawna; Stanga, Lindsay; Carey, William; Levy, Nimrod; Jacobson, Lindsay; Calinawan, Karla; Sibble, Sam; Koren, Benjamin; Paley, Amit; Von Koeller, Magnus; Tan, Tao; Wiener, Matthew; Columbus, Mikki; Dimopoulos, Georgios; Nathusius, Ariela; Kothary, Avani; Baah-Dwomoh, Akosua; Coe, Adam; Yakovlev, Rostislav; Sterns, Stefan; Dubnow, Jordan; Kaumanns, Jan; Fernandez, Blaire; Connor, Michael; Soffian, Miranda; Levin, Michelle; Camier, Jerome; Touff, Daniel; Small, Andres; Shea, Timothy; Williams, Zachary; Wohns, Sage; Wall, Brandon; D'onofrio, Amy; Goff, Veronica; Henderson, David; Izzo, Daniel; Gupta, Saurabh; Cortado, Myra; Hubina, Steven; Harding, Henry; Lee, Tae; Stephenson, Jenna; Lacey, Ethan; Brasfield, Tyler; Wolkoff, David S
Subject: Important Announcement Regarding Business School Grading System

Good morning,

The announcement below will be released to the Business School community later this morning. I thank all of you for your feedback and your willingness to take on important leadership roles within the School community.

With regards,

Glenn Hubbard

Dear Students:

I am writing to announce an important change to the grading system for graduate-level courses at Columbia Business School: The School will revert to its H/HP/P model, with grades of Honors, High Pass, Pass, Low Pass, and Fail, and will calculate grade-point averages on a 10-point scale. This change will preserve the faculty option to award pluses and minuses under certain circumstances, and it will not change the current grading curves that are outlined in the online student guide.

The change from A/B/C to H/HP/P will be retroactive, such that all grades given under the A/B/C system will revert to the equivalent grade in the H/HP/P system. While final course grades for the Spring 2011 and Summer 2011 terms will initially appear on student transcripts as A/B/C, they will be converted to H/HP/P by Fall 2011.

The School adopted the more traditional A/B/C grading system last summer in order to achieve better alignment with partner schools, consistency with the University’s grading structure, and closer alignment with a traditional system that is widely accepted as standard in the United States. Consistency with the University was particularly important for dual-degree students and for Business School students who elected to cross-register for courses in other Columbia schools and departments.

While these factors remain important, a careful review of the policy has made it clear that the change in grading systems has had a real effect on the student community, particularly among our first-year students. (All major policy changes at the School are subject to formal review within one year of implementation.) Based on discussions with students and faculty, my colleagues and I understand that the change has contributed to decreased collaboration and increased competition among students, lower community engagement, and a heightened emphasis on grades. This change has troubled me, not least because the best investment any student can make in the MBA program is to focus on learning rather than on letter grades. The undeniably negative, albeit inadvertent, effect the change has had on our community and the overall student experience at Columbia Business School outweighs the benefits derived from adoption of the new system.

I would like to thank each of you who shared your experiences and points of view with me; your feedback has been invaluable in arriving at this important decision. My focus continues to be working with our talented faculty and staff to provide you with the best possible business education to prepare you for your lifetime career.

Vice Dean Amir Ziv will hold office hours to address any questions or concerns you might have, and of course the Office of Student Affairs is available to you as well.

I wish you the best for a successful end to the semester.

With regards,

Glenn Hubbard

Dean and Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics

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