’Tis the Season: How the Grinch Stole College Admissions

It’s that time of year again, the time right after Thanksgiving Break when there are only two weeks left in the semester before finals, and many parents think they can finagle some kind of hat trick with teachers to turn a 3.5 into a 4.0 — ensuring an admissions spot at a Who’s Who College.

Bullying for grades is nothing new, but it seems to have gotten worse since Spring 2019 when public schools across the nation adopted a Covid Grading Scale awarding higher grades than students deserved to offset the myriad challenges of online learning.

Buffered with a sense of academic inflation, entitled students and parents now have a distorted sense of what constitutes exceptional performance. And, so amidst the Christmas bells and Hanukkah dreidels, arrives the Grinch of College Admissions and three weeks of grade-grubbing, bullying, and lawyering.

“Michael is applying to Northwestern Early Decision. He can’t get anything less than an A,” asserts Mr. Grinch, his hyper-competitive father who lives on the outskirts of Who-ville,

According to Mr. Grinch, “Michael needs to retake the last two exams because he wasn’t feeling well on those days.”

“That’s not possible,” you say.

“Giddap!” Mr. Grinch snaps. “Your students aren’t interested in reading those old books like Oedipus Rex anyway. The Four Agreements, now that’s a good book.”

“Michael simply needs to start working.”

Rather than parent Lil’ Grinch on the importance of a work ethic, Mr. Grinch “slithered and slunk” off to the Administration who is fascinated and who-struck by the Who’s Who of North Who-ville.

“I know just what to do!” he retorts.

Mr. Grinch as well as all the other Grinches of American education makes up a new entitled world order, but you are old-school; you have old-school standards. Yes, it’s the holidays, but grades are not gifted; grades are non-negotiable; they are earned. At least they were back in the day.

Poor Mr. Grinch can’t fathom that his special snowflake evaporates a few droplets short of brilliance. Lil’ Grinch is not a dolt; he’s just not exceptional. Mr. Grinch doesn’t care to understand that gifting his adolescent an A will diminish those students like Rodrigo who earned his A through studying and hard work. (Rodrigo wasn’t born to an exceptional Grinchy parent who will grade-grub for him.) Since Mr. Grinch doesn’t respect the educational system and the importance of academic integrity, he believes he can “make one instead!”

“Let the teacher, Be ‘the first thing to go!’ he jubilates.

Mr. Grinch throws tantrums, flings character assassinations, and threatens lawsuits when he doesn’t get his way. Like the Grinch who stole Christmas, he tries to push those in his way off the edge, stealing futures and opportunities doing so.

More often than not, administrators take the Grinch’s side, unaware that perhaps the Grinches of the world have some kind of Trumpian personality disorder.

Defamed and victimized, some teachers do surrender to Grinchy grade-grubbing tactics rather than endure the flogging. Some teachers gift As to everyone. ’Tis the season after all.

But…. academic integrity is not for sale in this neck of Who-ville,

The question is whether Mr. Grinch and the other grade-grubbing grinchy parents like him will have that epiphany, that “miraculous moment” of realization that …

Maybe grades can’t be stolen.

Maybe College Admission “doesn’t come from a store.”

Maybe Education “…perhaps… is a little bit more!”