Teaching fellows who have taught both Cores and departmental classes say that they do not grade papers differently in either type of courses--but many say they keep in mind the obvious--that, English concentrators, for example, may write better English papers in Literature and Arts A courses than will biochem concentrators. So they say they adjust accordingly, careful not to punish students who have never taken a literature course.

"The main challenge in grading Justice papers is that most of the students are from concentrations other than Government, Philosophy or Social Studies," Johnson says. "I try to keep this in mind as I grade, and limit the use of jargon in my comments."

However, some students still say that it seems as though the curve in some classes is unnecessarily harsh. An oft-mentioned Annenberg rumor holds that teaching fellows have been told to crackdown on grade inflation.

Elizabeth R. Kessler '02 says the perceptions do not come from the anxious void of student experience--though she says that she has not personally experienced teaching fellows avoiding the standard Harvard grading paradigm.

"I have sensed certain professors or teaching fellows in the Core might grade harsher in an effort to emphasize that their course is in fact not easy and not 'just a Core,'" she says.

Administrators and teaching fellows deny these claims.

"From time to time the faculty has discussed grade inflation, but I have not heard about teaching fellows being told to 'crackdown on grade inflation,'" Lewis says. "I think that I might have heard if such directives were being issued in Core courses."

Social Analysis 10: "Principles of Economics" administrator Judith A. Li, who is an assistant professor of economics, said the College's most heavily-attended course has not changed its grading policies in the recent past.

"[I]t would be difficult to say that we have participated in a 'crackdown' of grade inflation in the last few years," she says.

A final factor that may contribute to the perception that Core grading is only fuzzily tied to achievement: size.

Dean of Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles says that he thinks that, all other things being equal, big classes have lower grades then small ones, regardless of whether they are part of the Core program.

"Although I don't have the data, Lewis says, "I believe that the grades in large courses tend to have slightly lower grades than small courses."

"In large courses with lots of different TFs you have to address the question of common grading standards, so that all students are getting equivalent grades for equivalent work," says Elizabeth B. Clark, the head teaching fellow for Historical Studies A: "Women Feminism and History."

Easy As ABC

So are Core courses easier because they are more general?

Indeed, Lewis says, they are required to be accessible to students who do not have a college background in that area.