From Summer 2023 through Spring 2024, 58.82% of course letter grades awarded were A grades, according to data obtained by the Nexus from the UC Santa Barbara Office of the Registrar via a Public Records Act Request.
Courses with less than five students and independent studies courses were not included in the data. The acquired data includes the total number of students receiving each grade — before pass/fail and satisfactory/unsatisfactory conversions for optionally-graded courses.
The 2023-24 school year marks the fifth consecutive academic year — since the 2019-20 school year — when the majority of grades awarded at UCSB were A+, A or A- grades.
The proportion of A (A+/A/A-) grades awarded slowly increased from the 2013-14 school year until the 2019-20 school year, when the number of A grades awarded increased by approximately nine percentage points. Similarly, the proportion of B grades and C grades awarded slowly decreased from the 2013-14 school year until the 2019-20 school year, when the number of B grades and C grades awarded decreased by approximately four and three percentage points, respectively. Since the pandemic, the proportion of A grades awarded has slowly increased each school year and the proportion of B grades and C grades awarded has slowly decreased each year.
The proportion of D grades and F grades awarded each academic year have generally remained constant.
This data, in addition to individual grades by course and instructor from Fall 2009 to Spring 2024 obtained through prior requests, is published and visualized on the Daily Nexus Grades Search website.
Per Section 2, Regulation 20 of the UCSB Academic Senate Regulations of the Division, A grades are awarded for “excellent” work and worth four grade points, B grades are awarded for “good” work and worth three grade points, C grades are awarded for “adequate” work and worth two grade points, D grades are awarded for “barely passing” work and worth one grade point and F grades are awarded for “not passing” work and worth zero grade points. Grades may be modified by pluses or minuses, where minus grades carry three-tenths of a grade point less per unit and plus grades — except for an A+ — carry three-tenths of a grade point more per unit.
Students who choose a Pass/No Pass grading option will receive a P if they receive a C grade or higher and an NP for any grade C- or lower, according to the Regulation. As of June 1, 2023, during their first three academic terms, undergraduate students in good standing when a course was offered may retroactively change a letter grade of C- or lower to NP within one subsequent term. Pass/No Pass grades do not affect a student’s grade point average.
During the 2013-14 school year, the average GPA of UCSB’s letter-graded courses — undergraduate and graduate — weighted by the number of students enrolled in those courses, was 3.091. That average GPA increased by approximately 0.072 points over the next five years, but during the 2019-20 school year, the average GPA increased by 0.159 points from the previous year.
While there was a slight dip in average GPA during the 2021-22 school year, the average GPA has continued to slightly increase each year since then, up to 3.341 during the 2023-24 school year.
The average GPA of UCSB’s letter-graded courses, weighted by the number of students, has generally increased over the past decade. (Siddharth Chattoraj / Daily Nexus)
The Department of Biomolecular Science and Engineering (BMSE) awarded the highest proportion of A grades during the 2023-24 school year, with all students in BMSE courses receiving either an A, A- or A+. However, the department only awarded 23 letter grades from included courses in the data.
The Department of Biomolecular Science and Engineering awarded the highest proportion of A grades and the Department of Chemistry awarded the lowest during 2023-24. (Siddharth Chattoraj / Daily Nexus)
In contrast, the Department of Chemistry — which awarded the highest proportion of C+/C/C- and D+/D/D- grades during the 2023-24 school year — awarded 17,740 grades from included courses.
The Astronomy and Astrophysics group of the Department of Physics offered four courses and awarded the highest proportion of F grades: 9%. ASTRO 1 — which had between 100 to 250 students enrolled — had an average course GPA of 2.998, 2.555 and 2.667 in Fall 2023, Winter 2024 and Spring 2024 respectively. ASTRO 2 had an average GPA of 2.943 among its 51 students when it was offered in Spring 2024.
Course grades for these 2023-24 top departments include those affixed with pluses and minuses. (Siddharth Chattoraj / Daily Nexus)
According to the UCSB New Faculty Handbook, there is no uniform campus policy regarding grading beyond the qualitative letter grade definitions.
“Some professors grade on the curve, others use absolute standards. Talk with colleagues about the norms for your department,” the handbook states. “Average undergraduate grades campus wide are B-, with a slightly lower average for lower division courses and slightly higher for upper division.”
Lisa Hajjar, professor and chair of the Department of Sociology, said in an email statement to the Nexus that sociology professors determine their own grading standards but that student feedback of their courses is an important part of faculty evaluations.
“In general, faculty are entirely responsible for their own standards and grading; there is no departmental grading policy,” Hajjar said. “Student evaluations constitute an important factor in faculty personnel cases for merit and promotion.”
Alison Brysk, distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Political Science — which awarded 4,318 grades from included courses, said in an email statement to the Nexus that political science faculty determine course grading criteria and structure on their own but that the department collaborates on academic integrity standards and staffing shortages.
“Faculty are free to determine the grading criteria and structure appropriate to their field and methodology, but our Department faculty and Undergraduate Committee periodically discuss best practices and challenges such as those related to maintaining academic integrity, screening for inappropriate use of AI, and providing good assessments with declining TA staffing and interruptions,” Brysk said.
Approximately 45.3% of all grades awarded by the Department of Political Science during the 2023-24 school year were B grades. Brysk said that her department administration analyzes grades each quarter to account for potential grade inflation.
“Our Department Chair and Vice-Chair review grading patterns at the end of each quarter and contact instructors with atypically high grades and little variation to check for grade inflation–or determine if there is a reasonable explanation such as a small advanced class with pre-selected students,” Brysk said in the statement. “Instructors are encouraged to incorporate student feedback in course design and assessment, but it is individualized.”
David Lawrence — the lead health professions advisor at UCSB — said in an email statement to the Nexus that his advising team recommends utilizing campus resources, such as UCSB Campus Learning Services (CLAS), for students looking to succeed in difficult courses.
“It’s hard to say definitively how many pre-med students we lose due to the ‘weeder’ courses of gen chem, intro bio, or organic chemistry. With respect to surviving (or, preferably, thriving in) those difficult courses, such as organic chemistry: there is no template per se. We recommend the usual resources, such as CLAS, office hours, etc.” he said.
For more information about CLAS — which provides free instructional tutorial services and academic skills development to all students — please visit https://clas.sa.ucsb.edu/. They offer a variety of services, including drop-in tutoring, writing tutoring, skills workshops and group tutoring for specific courses in biology, chemistry, economics, statistics, math and physics.
To view all UCSB grades from Fall 2009 to Spring 2024 sorted by course, instructor, and general education courses, please visit the Daily Nexus Grades Search Website at https://dailynexus.com/interactives/grades/.
A version of this article appeared on p. 12 of the Aug. 29, 2024 print edition of the Daily Nexus.
