Thank GOD covered grades are gone, right? Personally I never hated my time at Hopkins more than when I was very calm about my grades first semester freshman year. A lot of people are curious of why this decision was made, and here are a few speculations of why the Homewood Academic Council eradicated that ridiculous process from our lucky freshman in 2017.
1. Students enjoy themselves far too much freshman year. Hopkins is supposed to be a place in which you always fear for your GPA. Freshman should have the same bone-crushing fear as everyone else.
2. Freshmen have too many friends. They need to spend more time on C and D level rather than sitting in FFC interacting with other humans.
3. A really compelling reason was to increase the sales in Brody Cafe. The more people in the library, more money spent on coffee at 11:50 at night.
4. Most Ivy League schools practice inflation of grades. We would like differentiate ourselves from the very beginning by showing freshmen how much we deflate them.
5. The decision was announced during finals period, when we are all at our most joyous due to various factors (lack of sleep, low on money, terrified for our lives), so of course this joy should be spread to all members of the Hopkins student body.
6. Going from getting easy straight A’s in high school to struggling to attain a C+ in every class is very helpful for the new college student’s mental health.
7. Every single freshman needs to focus solely on attaining a decent GPA their first semester, rather than silly other factors such as joining clubs, sports teams, or anything else that would keep them sane.
8. This will encourage freshmen to never drink. Because no one ever drinks when they’re stressed.
9. The idea of a “learning curve” never helped anyone anyway.
10. Freshmen should know right from the start that Hopkins will crush your soul.