The Rising Generation of Wunderkinder

Here is one very startling piece of data that offers a peek into how colleges have adjusted their expectations downward for students over the past six decades. A full-time college student in 1961 dedicated forty hours per week to attending classes and studying for those classes (1). The general logic was that pursuing a college education should take the same amount of effort that one would need to devote to a full-time job—forty hours a week. However, this number has been steadily declining since that year. In fact, the typical college student surveyed from 2011-2015 committed 3.5 hours per weekday both to attending classes and studying (2). In case your math is not so great, that means the typical college student in the last decade spent 17.5 hours per week pursuing his education. Remember, this number includes both attending class as well as studying in preparation for class. Assuming that the typical student was taking the standard minimum of twelve credits for full-time status, then at least twelve of those seventeen and a half hours would have been spent attending the actual class.

Stated another way, a 1960s college class required more than five times as much studying to prepare for than the current typical college class.

So these students were putting in, at most, about five and a half hours per week studying, when their 1960s ancestors were studying twenty-eight hours. Or, stated another way, a 1960s college class required more than five times as much studying to prepare for than the current typical college class. Another survey from 2023 showed college freshmen studying outside of class fewer than five hours per week (3). That is shocking. It might just be that expanded campus amenities are distracting from, rather than enhancing, the actual mission of the college.

Yet, even though their hours committed to studying have decreased, the grades of today’s college students have climbed steadily higher and higher. In 1960, approximately 15% of college students received A’s, while 35% of them received C’s. But since the year 1960, A’s have become more and more common, while C’s, D’s, and F’s have become rarer. American colleges have experienced six decades of severe grade inflation.

Our current college classes give out A’s like participation ribbons.

Like Little League games where no score is kept and all participants are declared winners in order to protect their supposedly fragile egos, our current college classes give out A’s like participation ribbons. In 1998, the A became the most frequently awarded grade in American college classes. And in our present day, a full 45% of all grades are A’s. On average, GPAs have climbed by 0.14 points every decade since the 1960s (4). Although today's college students study for less time than their predecessors in the 1960s, they are three times more likely to obtain an A grade.

Although today's college students study for less time than their predecessors in the 1960s, they are three times more likely to obtain an A grade.

Either we have just managed to raise the most gifted and amazing generation of wunderkinder that the world has ever seen, or (and I think this is a little bit more likely) college studies have become easier and easier. Our grade inflation indicates an edumucation deflation.

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1. Philip S. Babcock & Mindy Marks, 2010. "The Falling Time Cost of College: Evidence from Half a Century of Time Use Data," NBER Working Papers 15954, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. p 19.
2. https://www.bls.gov/tus/charts/students.htm
3. https://nsse.indiana.edu/nsse/reports-data/data-displays.html
4.  http://www.gradeinflation.com/ Incidentally, the more exclusive the college is, the higher the grade inflation is.