Median Grades for Undergraduate Courses

Dartmouth College: A.B. Degree

On May 23, 1994 the Faculty voted that transcripts and student grade reports should indicate, along with the grade earned, the median grade given in the class as well as the class enrollment. Departments may recommend, with approval of the Committee on Instruction, that certain courses (e.g., honors classes, independent study) be exempted from this provision. Courses with enrollments of less than ten will also be exempted. At the bottom of the transcript there will be a summary statement of the following type: 'Exceeded the median grade in 13 courses; equaled the median grade in 7 courses; below the median grade in 13 courses; 33 courses taken eligible for this comparison.' This provision applies to members of the Class of 1998 and later classes.

Further implementation details regarding this policy are given below. The revision voted by the
COI on May 3, 2022, removed the original implementation detail that stated median grades and
course enrollments of non-exempt courses should be made publicly available.The revision voted by the COI on May 3, 2022, removed the original implementation detail that stated median grades and course enrollments of non-exempt courses should be made publicly available.

Further implementation details voted by the COI on October 18, 1994, and revised on May 3, 2022.

1. If there is an exact tie for the median grade in a class, a notation such as B/B+ will appear as the median grade, with an explanation on the reverse side of the transcript that this means that the cut-off for the median grade was exactly between B and B+ .
2. Courses with enrollments under 10 will be exempted from having the median grade appear. Departments chairs will be asked if any other of their courses meet the provisos of the Faculty motion (honors classes, independent study, etc.) and should be exempted. The COI will make the final determination of what courses will be exempted.
3. The calculation of the median course grade will be made at the time that all grades have been submitted for a term. It will be recalculated at the end of the next term to account for grade changes, resolution of Incompletes, etc., but will not be recalculated again even if there are further changes in grade.
4. The grades of all students, whether matriculated Dartmouth undergraduates or not, who are officially enrolled in a class and are graded under the A-E grading scale, will be used in calculating the median grade for the class.
5. The enrollment and median grade for a class will not appear on the transcript of a student whose final standing in the class is NR as a result of the use of the Non-Recording Option and failure to achieve the student's grade limit. The actual letter grades assigned to students who receive a standing of NR will be used in the calculation of the class median grade.