Friday, November 09, 2007

Give me an "A"

A study of 15 years of grade point averages for business school grads found that students whose names began with C or D earned lower GPAs than those whose names began with A or B.

Scrutinizing data on 170 law schools and 392,458 lawyers, the researchers found that the higher the school’s ranking the higher the proportion of lawyers with the initials A or B.

Cow, being a "C" now has a solid scientific explanation for her "C" average.

Douglas Galbi has done some fascinating research on the frequency of given names. If Cow understands it, his study was more along the lines of how information spreads. This study finds the effect of names on outcomes. Were Cow only a teensy bit smarter, she would find a way to associate such patterns of information communication with the bias towards higher academic achievement of those with initials in the beginning of the alphabet.

7 Comments:

Blogger The Topiaryiest Bunny said...

Bunny thinks people who are "Bs" just try harder than Cs.

Hippity-hop!

1:02 PM  
Blogger The Zero Gravity Janitor said...

Um. Janitor vaguely remembers something from grad school about how information is communicated.

Those at the top of their profession communicate ideas personally. Those more removed from actual knowledge creation receive information second or third hand.

(changing my name to the "Atomic Zero Gravity Janitor."

Cleanup on first names, stat!

1:04 PM  
Blogger watercolordaisy said...

So us P's and L's just have to really work our tooshies off... lol!

9:13 AM  
Blogger Kevin Musgrove said...

You also need to take into account the number of given names:

1 name = stolid, dull dependable parents

2 names = indecisive parents

3 names = toffs (second-class) and rugby players

4+ names = the products of 800 years of inbreeding.

Well-known universities have special degrees that can only be taken by this last group. The final examinations include viva voce questions like:
"Who were the opposing generals in The Battle of Pancake Tuesday?"
"Uncle Frederick and Cousin Clarence. I think some of mother's people were involved, too."

10:30 AM  
Blogger Webmaster said...

It just sounds like a crock to me. Really. Intelligence and academic achievement are not based on whatever your name is.

10:36 AM  
Blogger The Topiary Cow said...

Obviously, these researchers forgot about the "toff" factor.

Topiary Cow Arthur George IV

7:24 AM  
Blogger The Zero Gravity Janitor said...

I think what the researchers were measuring was unconscious bias, such as names beginning with "K" creating certain sports outcomes.

And names beginning with A or B influencing, subtly, teachers to give that letter grade.

Those with names which did not correspond to a letter grade, such as S (sandi!) weren't associated with a grade, so just earned the grade they were given.

Unless perhaps sandi received a lot of "satisfactory" passing grades! Haha.

7:28 AM  

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