Senior earns perfect grades at Harvard

DR STRANGELOVE

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Simply amazing...



http://www.thecrimson.com/today/article348373.html

Lisa B. Schwartz ?03 has managed to achieve what most students consider impossible.
Over her four years at Harvard, Schwartz did not receive a single grade lower than an A?not even an A-minus, giving her a perfect 15.0 grade point average on Harvard?s 15 point scale.

Schwartz, also a Crimson editor, will receive the Sophia Fruend prize today, an honor awarded each year to the highest ranked summa cum laude graduate in the College.

But unlike most recipients of the award, Schwartz has a perfect academic record. The last person to earn this distinction was Lisa?s older brother Kevin S. Schwartz ?01, who was the first undergraduate in nearly 20 years to achieve such perfection.

Schwartz said that while she was proud of her brother when he won the award, she never felt pressure to repeat his success.

?I knew it was most important that I make the most of my own experiences at Harvard, so I never made it a goal to set any records,? Schwartz said.

Schwartz, who is graduating with a bachelor?s degree in government, said she took a wide variety of classes and tried to challenge herself academically.

?I?ve loved my time at Harvard,? Schwartz said. ? feel that I?ve learned something from all aspects of my experience here, so it?s definitely is a nice honor.?

Fellow students, advisors and professors were not surprised to hear of Schwartz?s perfect record.

Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures Maria M. Tatar predicted such a feat was within Schwartz?s reach during her freshman year when she took Tatar?s core class ?Fairy Tales, Children?s Literature and the Culture of Childhood.?

?Lisa is a natural in the academic world, achieving the impossible with power, control, rigor and real style,? Tatar said.

In addition to winning the Fruend Prize, Schwartz is also a Truman Scholar and is a member of the USA Today College Academic First Team.

?Lisa is such a self-starter and so motivated,? said Andrea L. Campbell ?88, an assistant professor of government and Schwartz?s thesis advisor.

Schwartz wrote her senior thesis on the little-known U.S. Judicial Conference, which makes policy for the federal justice system. The Conference is composed of the Supreme Court?s chief justice and other top federal judges.

Campbell said that Schwartz?s thesis, which she called ?extraordinary,? dealt with a topic that few have studied. ?It could easily be published as a book,? Campbell said.

The thesis, entitled ?Judging Policy: The U.S. Judicial Conference and the Politics of Judicial Involvement in Congressional Policy Making,? also won the James Gordon Bennett Prize for the outstanding Government thesis on a subject of American domestic or foreign policy?one of the top prizes awarded in the department.

Campbell predicted a bright future for Schwartz in public service.

?Well, she already worked in the House, the Senate, the United Nations and the Supreme Court,? Campbell said. ?She?ll most likely be a major figure and have a prominent future in public policy in some way.?

Ronald C. Chen, a law tutor in Eliot House who worked closely with her on business and law school applications, praised Schwartz?s commitment to excellence in both her academic and extracurricular involvement.

?Writing recommendations for Lisa was always a perilous task,? Chen said. ?One is not certain to succeed in conveying all that she has accomplished in her life thus far.?

Schwartz, who has worked in the office of Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, has been president of the Harvard Mock Trial Team, on the Institute of Politics? Student Advisory Committee and on the executive board of the Small Claims Advisory Service.

Schwartz will attend Harvard Business School in the fall, pursuing a JD-MBA degree with Yale Law School
:thumb: :clap:
 

kickserv

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was just going to say the same thing EZ said...............love to see what she looks like...........and wonder how good she is at capping :shrug: :D

maybe as good as BeanPoleprick :shrug: :shrug:

or Ace "I'm a helluva......whatever" :D :D
 

beantownjim

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WHO CARES WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE MAN THE LUCKY GUY WHO GRABS HER SHE WILL START OUT IN THE WORK FORCE MAKING 100,000 GRAND EASY AND IT CAN ONLY GET BETTER.JESUS CHRIST GUYS WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ITS ALL ABOUT THE MONEY NEVER MIND WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE SHE IS A CASH MACHINE TO SUPPORT YOUR DEGENERATE GAMBLING LYFESTYLE;) DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY GUYS WOULD MARRY HER EVEN IF SHE LOOKS LIKE PHYLLIS DILLER MYSELF INCLUDED:drinky: I WILL JUST DRINK A LOT BEFORE SEX:eek:

I WILL NEVER FORGET THE GREAT CASCADE ROBBERY OF 2003 THE DAY LENNY AND CASCADE SPORTSBOOK STOLE MY 660 DOLLARS THEN CALLED ME A SUCKER:thefinger
 

Felonious Monk

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2759.jpg


I was expecting worse but she actually looks pretty nice.
 

acehistr8

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Not to put the kaibosh on a great accomplishment, but the running joke if you can call it that is the hardest thing about Harvard is getting in. Looking at the back of my fiances law school transcript, here is what they have for a letter grades:

A- 74 - 76
A 77 - 79
A+ 80 and above.

Now I know its still no easy thing, but they just dont like giving out grades lower than a B and as it points out they dont even use a normal GPA scale, mostly for this reason.

Again, this is a great accomplishment, but I'm not surprised at all the article didnt mention this means she never got a grade lower than 77.
 

Spock

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according to one article I had read in a magazine couple of years ago .. 80 to 85% of all harward students are awarded an "A" in their courses ..

compared to this . .York .. my school has that many people in the "F" category ..

hmm .. economics rulez ? more failures .. more courses taken again .. more $$$ ..

Vs

All A + .. all get good jobs .. all never return .. .

:eek:
 

acehistr8

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I think its more than that, I think its simply a matter of "We dont want to be known as a school that gives F's if you could go to another prestigous school where grade inflation is more rampant. Thus we will inflate with the best of them." Over 90% !!! of Harvard students graduate with honors, thats ridiculous!

Boston Globe article/investigation

"Last June, a record 91 percent of Harvard students graduated summa, magna, or cum laude, far more than at Yale (51 percent), Princeton (44 percent), and other elite universities, a Globe study has found.

While the world regards these students as the best of the best of America's 13 million undergraduates, Harvard honors has actually become the laughingstock of the Ivy League. The other Ivies see Harvard as the Lake Wobegon of higher education, where all the students, being above average, can take honors for granted. It takes just a B-minus average in the major subject to earn cum laude - no sweat at a school where 51 percent of the grades last year were A's and A-minuses."


Also:
"According to the report, 48.5 of Harvard grades last year were A's and A-minuses, compared with 33.2 percent of grades in 1985. Grades in the three C categories fell from 10 percent in 1985 to 4.9 percent last year. D's and failing grades accounted for less than 1 percent each."
 
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Franky Wright

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Heaven, oh!!, this isn't it?!
Its all relative!!!

Its all relative!!!

Thanks Ace, I did not know that, and I think it is important that the whole story be told....good or bad.
My kid has been struggling with his grades this year always getting C's and some B's. Upon further investigation his school uses the old system of:
96>A
91-95=A-
91-94=B+
86-90=B
82-85=B-
79-81=C+
75-78=C
70-74=D
70< You guessed it!!
And he has 3-4 hours of homework a night! He is no genius but he does work hard.
Lets see, Ms. Schwartz would have been a C+ student at my kids school:rolleyes:
 

acehistr8

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Thats why I hate when they tell misleading stories like this. An 80 where I went to college was a B-, not an A+, big difference.
 
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