#grad school progress

I emailed my favorite professor today to ask about my grades on the take home and in class finals. I got a little flirty at the end and then suspected he wouldn't respond at all. In contrast, it was the quickest response to any email I've ever written to him and his responses were the BEST.

Him: Your 531 Final….Take home: 133/160 points.  Ranked 7th out of 26.  A or A-  

Me: You just HAD to include the rankings and crush my competitive ego (I'd prefer to be blissfully ignorant). I thought I did better but I guess that's not horrible. 

Him: Your grades are really good, dummy.  I wasn’t trying to crush anything.  You had the 2nd highest final exam and overall grade in FIN 511.  Is your ego happy now?

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Me: And I'm not really complaining, but how does a 56% become a B? How is it beneficial for us to not actually be given the grades we got? Or is it not supposed to be beneficial for us? In undergrad, every grade is a true reflection of your mastery of the subject, here they make me feel like a phony. Why have grades at all and not just give us gold stars and pats on the back?

Him:   It really is a fair question, and we do struggle with it.  But, again, we generally decide that if you’re good enough to be in the program, you have to show us that you don’t belong.  I did give several people B- this term.  Anything below that would be due to pure negligence.  Yes, there can be a big difference in terms of effort by or quality of students, and maybe we should fail more people than we do.  But that may not be in everyone’s best interest.  The laggards generally prove themselves over time.  As do the smarties.  Keep being a smarty.  It will be worth it.  Promise.

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Me: And sorry if I sound super ungrateful in my expressed frustrations above, I'm super thankful for your teaching style and the class grades I've "earned" in your classes and legitimately learned so much from you (which is the real accomplishment). If there was a class where you just tell me every thing you know about every thing I would take it in a heartbeat (I mean that in the least creepy way possible).

Him: I’ll talk to the dean.  Because that would be a way fun class to teach….you know, in a totally non-creepy way.

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Me: Happy Holidays,

Him: You, too, Sarah.  Be happy.  Be proud of yourself.  Don’t feel ungrateful.  Just keep working hard and appreciating what you’re doing.  It’s really good stuff.

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sigh.