Monro Lauds Princeton Grading Plan

Princeton students will be able to opt for course evaluations of pass or fail rather than conventional marks of one-to-seven when a plan approved by the faculty last Monday goes into effect next spring.

"Bravo for Princeton!" Dean Monro commented yesterday. Ungraded courses are "the ideal"; however, the practical task of getting students into graduate schools necessitates compromise, he qualified. Monro lauded Princeton for its "wild experiment--an idea both original and good."

According to the Princeton plan, each student will be able to choose one course per semester for which he will receive only a passing or failing grade. Concentration and pre-medical courses, as well as those which are specific preparation for graduate schools, will not be included in the program.

"Anytime you can get away from grade evaluations reasonably, it's a good idea," Monro remarked yesterday. He cautioned, however, that "graduate schools demand a recognizable transcript." Monro speculated that the maximum reasonable number of ungraded or informally graded courses would be about half of an individual's course load.

Epic Poetry

The only substitute for the conventional "signals" graduate schools need to evaluate applicants is a personalized letter for each course, according to Monro. "We just don't have the personnel to write 900 epic poems."

Monro pointed out that there are already several plans which enable Harvard students to spend much time taking ungraded courses. The difference is that these programs, except for freshman seminars must be in the student's field of concentration.

Tutorial is formally graded but "grading is friendly, to say the least," Monro said. It is usually fairly difficult to get on A, but it is at least as hard to get a D or E, he continued. He emphasized, however, that the University is quite willing to take the risk of a few unmotivated students.

"We put them on their mettle, but we don't test them once they're in," Monro said. He explained that tutors and Independent Study advisors may grade flexibly, but are not completely free of general College stipulations.

If a student chooses to take Independent Study as well as tutorial, half of his schedule is virtually ungraded.

The purpose of the Princeton plan, however, is to "have students elect courses, which they might not otherwise elect because of the pressure of grades for graduate school, over-all average, and the like," Dean Knapp of Princeton said Tuesday.

Monro indicated that greater freedom from grade pressure might enable students to take non-concentrational courses. But "we'll have to see how the faculty reacts to Princeton's plan," he added