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Education

The Interesting Thing We Found Surrounding Obama’s Grades in College

Nov. 2, 2012 10:06am Charles C. Johnson

This article is a contribution by freelance writer Charles C. Johnson.

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Few issues arouse so much interest as Barack Obama’s grades. Everyone from Jodi Kantor, columnist for the New York Times, to David Maraniss of the Washington Post to Donald Trump has weighed in on what they are or might be. Despite the interest, however, we still don’t know what they are — Obama has not yet released his academic records from Occidental (1979-1981), Columbia (1981-1983), or Harvard Law School (1988-1991).

Theories abound as to why, but one that has largely been ignored is that maybe they’re hidden because they reveal Barack Obama was entirely average. How so? New research into the Occidental and Columbia archives by TheBlaze shows that Obama transferred from Occidental during a time of rampant grade inflation and entered Columbia during one of the easiest years to transfer in recent memory.

Newspaper accounts from Occidental show grade inflation was rampant for the years 1977-1981, the year that Barack Obama transferred to Columbia. It was so bad that, according to the student newspaper at the time, the dean of faculty had to intervene in the fall of 1981. (Barack Obama transferred in the spring of 1981 as a sophomore, meaning he would have enrolled.)

Grade Inflation Could Explain How Obama Got Into Columbia

A cartoon from the Occidental newspaper at the time mocks the rampant grade inflation at the school.

During that five-year period, “average GPAs ran 3.11, 3.07, 3.01, 3.08 and 3.08, respectively,” wrote Michael Bruce Abelson for The Occidental on February 19, 1982. “A statistical study by Dean of Faculty James England printed in this month’s [February] edition of the Faculty Newsletter, assails the college’s rising grade point average and makes a direct appeal to faculty members to reconsider the basis upon which grades are given.”

To put these high GPAs in perspective, consider that were Occidental College’s entire student population to apply to Columbia College in ’81, half would have had sufficient GPAs to be admitted at the New York Ivy League school.

The only reason that is possible, however, is because Columbia’s transfer student standards during that same period were very low. At Columbia, the quality of the transfer student had declined so much so that the average admitted transfer student’s GPA was a meager 3.0 and the average SAT score an 1100 (out of a possible 1600).

Jeremy Feldman, a student newspaper writer at Columbia, documented the lower standards in a Nov. 18, 1981 and quoted admissions officials: “On paper at least, the quality of the students accepted [as transfers] has declined along with the number of applicants, the officials say.” (Columbia Spectator, “Tight Housing Discourages Transfer Applications to CC)

Feldman, quoting Robert Boatti, Assistant Dean of Admissions, as well as the former college Dean Arnold Collery, continued:

Boatti also attributed the drop in transfer application to the College’s policy of requiring transfer students to take courses in its core curriculum and to the limited availability of financial aid for them.

He added a “majority” of the transfers come here from college in the New York area. Many come from community colleges, rather than the nation’s top schools.

In grades and other indicators of academic performance, the crop of transfer applicants “doesn’t stand out the way they did before,” [Dean Arnold] Collery said.

Boatti confirmed Dean Collery’s observations:

Among accepted transfer students, the average combined math and verbal score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test is a 1,100 and their grade-point average at their former schools is about 3.0, Boatti said.

The freshman class at the College had a combined SAT score more than 100 points higher.

Only 450 students applied to transfer to Columbia in 1981 and sixty-seven were admitted, according to the Columbia Spectator, compared to 650 applicants just four years before.

Interestingly, Obama’s GPA may not have mattered to get into Columbia at all.

“GPAs were dropped from student transcripts [at Occidental] during the late 1960s, in an effort to de-emphasis grades and stress learning for its own sake,” wrote Arpie Balekjian in the student newspaper, The Occidental on March 13, 1981. On March 11, 1981, Occidental’s faculty voted to reestablish GPAs on transcripts, but by then, Obama had already filled out an application to transfer to Columbia and been accepted. Impossible though it may seem, he may very well have been admitted to Columbia without ever having to reveal his grades.

And that may not be far-fetched considering Columbia’s lower standards at the time, which were in part fueled by a housing crunch that forced the college to lower standards in order to attract transfer students.

Barack Obama did not graduate with honors at Columbia and so his acolytes make much of his time at Harvard where he was president of the Harvard Law Review and where he graduated magna cum laude. Many ignore that his magna cum laude honors may well not been magna cum laude today. Under the system in place when Obama was a student, only one third of a graduating class did not receive honors. For the class of ’95, a whopping 71.3 percent of the student body graduated with honors, doubling the number of students graduating with honors since 1972 and tripling the numbers receiving magna cum laude. Receiving magna cum laude may be impressive, but it is less so, if one in six students win it.

Eventually the Harvard Law faculty voted overwhelmingly to make it harder to get honors, a policy change that cut the number of students graduating with honors in half, according to The Harvard Law Record, a student newspaper of Harvard Law School. Under the old system, all students had to do was reach a GPA cutoff. Given the stiff competition, professors felt pressure to inflate the grades of their favorite students. Under the new system, only the top ten percent of students received magna cum laude. (Victoria Kuohung, “Class of ’99 May Find Honors Harder to Earn,” Harvard Law Record, February 16, 1996).

What does this all mean? Ultimately, given the grade inflation of the time at all three institutions Obama attended, the larger story isn’t about Barack Obama’s grades, but his courses and the radical professors who taught them.

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Comments (155)

gryffn
Posted on November 3, 2012 at 9:18am
Always knew he was a dumbazz

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chershaw8
Posted on November 3, 2012 at 9:08am
No wonder he’s such a dumba…..ss! Marxist piece of cr….!

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BIGWUN
Posted on November 3, 2012 at 7:53am
Is the fact that O is an idiot considered a a clue to this mystery???

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Advection
Posted on November 3, 2012 at 4:56am
The reason Obama hides his achievements is as plain as the face on his head. Obama is a mediocre guy who suffers from malignant narcissism. Any objective observation would burst the fake bubble he’s constructed.

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Obamujahadeen
Posted on November 3, 2012 at 12:22am
” On March 11, 1981, Occidental’s faculty voted to reestablish GPAs on transcripts, but by then, Obama had already filled out an application to transfer to Columbia and been accepted. Impossible though it may seem, he may very well have been admitted to Columbia without ever having to reveal his grades.”

I’ve been saying it since I’ve been coming here and that is, Obama is the pinnacle of why Affirmative Action is very dangerous. He is so unqualified yet he whittled through top universities my younger bro went to and paid for and I take it personal. I had a UVA education, graduated and was denied HBS admission, but my Cornell undergrad younger brother was at the top of his class was accepted and makes about 5 million more a year than I do for that distinction, frankly..

There’s no other reason for hiding these records, any black man should be parading down the street with his supposed pedigree. All Affirmative Action lies.

This guy shouldn’t even have graduated Occidental and he’s a Union bus driver the rest of his life… Period. But in their zeal to fall all over themselves to ‘be fair’ they’ve excluded countless whites and handed primo educations over to people like Obama who didn’t and don’t deserve them and they’re now all in positions of power abusing it racially the other way around!!!!

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- Advection
  Posted on November 3, 2012 at 4:58am
  Affirmative Action is obviously racism.
  
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Proverbs17-12NLT
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 11:46pm
obama was too high on Pot and cocaine to get good grades, and he was selling drugs to make money.

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Karliner
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 11:00pm
Anyway, Obama would have skated especially if he entered as an exchange student or some weird thing.College was pretty easy to get into back then not like now. There were a LOT of good jobs just for JC and HS guys and gals if they were energetic and entrepenueurs9 i lived in Santa Cruz and worked a lot in Silicone valley, and then Silicone Guloch, Scotts valley) and designed a LOT of homes and a lot of commercial while going to college. That’s what makes me nostalgic. I mean I had my four years of HS drafting and enginering classes and was doing construction and started designing for contractors( no CAD remember) and built a business while in college.
They were hard times but if one wanted to work there were entry level computer assmbly soldering, cannery, fishing, logging, name it, there were tions of jobs and tons of opportunities.
Okay i wrote 1.5 posts; just saying obama grades could have been way worse than 3.0 and he’d probably get in I was no MIT whiz, but after the army I probably could have tried if I had the initiative.

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ddg7
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 10:58pm
Is ‘Barack’ muslim for dick?

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Karliner
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 10:52pm
Got accepted undeclared( worked three jobs so my grades were not too good) at Peoples Republic of Berkeley with a bit over a 3.00 GPA at a JC but my engineering and math grades were about 3.66. Anyway I could have gotten in to Pomona in engineering school with a 1.9 GPA in 1977.
Took one semester and got in to engineering at Berkeley but I just refused to take student loans and work was killing me so after my BA i joined the army. Put all that engineering to good use and had my own business for years9 still do but no one is building custom homes anymore around here).
Nevertheless schooling was pretty good back then but one must remember these were years after nam collapsed9 i gaduated HS a month after nam collapsed at 17) and college back then was a weird after thought. Lot of drifters and grifters and returning vets just thousand yard stares9 who could blame them) and I think, just my idea it took until the mid eighties to have gotten the hatred of “Amerika” and the hippie to yuppie generations kids started growing up.
I hope this isn’t too tangential but really after the war, Nixon, Ford, then Carter it took four years of Reagan and finally people were starting to be proud of America again and things had calmed enough for kids to really consider college after high school instead of the draft or the number system and all the madness that went with it.
I sure am nostalgic for them days sometimes. Now a 4.0 wouldn’t be enough for my ed. In all college( 3-degs ended u

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right-wing-waco
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 10:51pm
Maybe Obama just called out “present”, and never really attended college.

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ehayes2006
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 10:33pm
Obama’s America, 2016. Dreams of my Real Father.

Fool Me Twice.
yeah.

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ehayes2006
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 10:28pm
Lawdy, lawdy chilluns. All hail Obama, our first AFFIRMATIVE ACTION president. Doesn’t it make you proud? (SATIRE)

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god
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 10:22pm
obama was always a step ahead the pamperd kids he prepped with and matriculated with.
they were and still are putty to be molded into his toys.
even if he loses out on a 2nd potus term, the cast has been set.
america is dead. and obama was the trigger man.

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- ehayes2006
  Posted on November 2, 2012 at 10:30pm
  America aint dead yet, you socialist bastard. We still have the second amendment. Look at firearm sales. Thank gawd I have stock in Sturm Ruger, Inc and Smith & Wesson. As much as I dislike Obama, he’s a GREAT firearm salesman. He’s doubled my money.
  
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quackertwo
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 9:53pm
WILL we ever find out who BHO IS?

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- ehayes2006
  Posted on November 2, 2012 at 10:36pm
  BHO is one of those malicious Browser Helper Objects that put viruses into your computer, much like Mywebsearch.com, ASPCA reminder, and “Browse for change”. They like to SEEM like they are doing good, when all the time they are watching you do bank transactions online (STUPID!) and gathering your vital info. SUCKERS!!!!!!
  
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RushEcho2
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 7:57pm
Tri-OX is right! “BENGHAZI! … Never forget!”

Remember the Alamo! . . . “Remember Benghazi.”

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ghostsouls
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 6:15pm
I do not think it has a thing to do with obama’s grades. Who cares, Fast and Furious and Benghazi won’t unseat him from his throne, they will just laugh at the grade thing. I think he received foreign student aid, which would prove dual citizenship.

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zoro51
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 6:00pm
B. F. D. america IS not a SOCIALIST NATION..IMPEACH N THROW OUT OF THE USA OBAMA NOW HES NOT AMERICAN BORN N HAS LIED ABOUT THAT FAST N FURIOUS. BEGHAZI… REMOVE HOM NOW

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Ironeagle
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 5:31pm
I didn’t realize puppets like Barry “Corpsman” Osama had any IQ. About the only thing he’e proven is he has an ability to read a teleprompter at the 8 grade reading level.

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bdandsl
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 5:24pm
So, obama went to colleges where everyone got a trophy. Explains a lot.

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bdandsl
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 5:00pm
The only people that thought obama was so smart were the ones dumber than obama. And those that also benefited from this lack of academic integrity are working in msm.

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howdyrl
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 4:03pm
I think many colleges and universities were lax in grading students in the late 1970s and early 80s. I served on an Advisory Council at the University of Texas during this period. As I remember about 50% of the liberal art students were on the Dean’s list. My Advisory group were up in arms – the President explained that the Natural Science and Engineering faculties listed 10% or less.
I hope we never again fall into this trap. However, it does point our the difference in educational patterns – jobs come to those in the more difficult curriculums.

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ECOREPUB
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 3:35pm
Ok, even if Obama was a B student, then, so what? there have been several US presidents that are average students in college before. I think there are more important issues we should be looking at here. just my $0.02

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AdinaF
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 3:25pm
It is really neither here nor there, regarding his actual grades, simply because he has already proven himself to be academically sub par in his knowledge base.
However, it is more intrinsic to note how he got from there to here, and under whose bootstraps-http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/09/25/the-ties-that-bind-the-islamist-in-chief-to-sunni-islam-making-sense-out-of-a-potus-bowing-to-a-saudi-monarch-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/
This is where the story is.
Adina Kutnicki, Israel

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- revelation2012
  Posted on November 2, 2012 at 5:22pm
  http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/Articles/Egypt_and_Beyond.htm
  
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Sadamerican
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 3:11pm
This is why Obama has spent millions to keep the rest of the world from knowing the truth about him. Hard to believe that a man like this could become President of the United States.

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watashbuddyfriend
Posted on November 2, 2012 at 3:04pm
Afirmative Action at its best!

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