2013 CUSA Champs - In the Classroom

[jdennis82]

In case you've missed it, the 2013 squad was not just Champion of the HOD Bowl but it was recently announced that during the fall semester, they were CUSA Academic Champs!

DENTON -- The North Texas football team had the highest grade point average of all Conference USA schools during the 2013 fall semester. The cumulative GPA for the Mean Green last fall was 2.70, which was higher than all 12 of the other football playing schools in the conference and well above the 2.53 league average.

http://www.meangreensports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/042514aaa.html

The success Mac has had turning around this, most critical, element of the program continues to impress me. If there were an opportunity for the students and coaching staff to let up in this area, it would've been last fall when on-field success could seemingly justify a lessened focus academically.

I'm sure this has and will continue to play well on the recruiting trail.

Edited April 26, 2014 by jdennis82

[Christopher Walker]

Better than Rice?? Woah...

Now granted, difference level in difficulty of coursework between the two...

[Ben Gooding]

Better than Rice?? Woah...

Now granted, difference level in difficulty of coursework between the two...

Sure.

[DeepGreen]

Better than Rice?? Woah...

Now granted, difference level in difficulty of coursework between the two...

And Tulane

And Tulsa

Just saying.......

[LongJim]

Some of you guys are hilarious. If Tulane and Rice students are scholastically good enough to get into the school, shouldn't they be pulling commensurate grades?

It's a great achievement for UNT. Why on earth people would damn it with faint praise is a real head-scratcher.

[NT03]

This is a great accomplishment. Hats off to coach Mac & staff.

[Green92]

I'll take it. Don't care who the competition was. Nice job boys!!

[Graddean]

That is really great. As far as Tice, Tulsa, and Tulane, every school from DIII up will have athletic friendly faculty and programs. Check and see how many of these schools (throw in the Stanford's of the world) have special admits in their athletic program. By the way, wasn't DT and another starter in graduate school. Not shabby at all.

[MeanMag]

Success, accomplishment, confidence and achievement in the classroom directly translates to performance on the football field. Making good grades makes everyone feel better about abilities in other areas.

[bleedgreen4ever]

And Tulane

And Tulsa

Just saying.......

This is a joke...just because a school has a better perception/image in the public's eye does not mean each and every one of their student athletes are in more "rigorous" classrooms or degree programs. Courses and programs vary in rigor within a university and certainly between universities. Some programs at UNT are more rigorous than some in top-tier academic institutions and grading is much dependent on the professor's style. Fact is, all student athletes are given the opportunity to succeed in the classroom in every D1 program...so you can't really make those assumptions based on a school's brand. I say this is a tremendous accomplishment by the UNT Football program! Keep it up!

Edited April 27, 2014 by bleedgreen4ever

[the green rokemi]

Great news, kudos to the staff and students

[oldguystudent]

Some of you guys are hilarious. If Tulane and Rice students are scholastically good enough to get into the school, shouldn't they be pulling commensurate grades?

It's a great achievement for UNT. Why on earth people would damn it with faint praise is a real head-scratcher.

I don't know about Rice or Tulane, but I can say with some certainty that it was much easier to obtain an A at North Texas than it was the other place I went. UNT relies heavily on a bell curve distribution of grades, so one merely need produce better work than one's immediate classmates. Other places rely heavily on the independent merit of any given piece of work without considering it relevant to others in a given class.

Still, it's gotta be a Herculean task to get decent grades while in the midst of a football season schedule. That's damn impressive.

[Mean Green 93-98]

I don't know about Rice or Tulane, but I can say with some certainty that it was much easier to obtain an A at North Texas than it was the other place I went. UNT relies heavily on a bell curve distribution of grades, so one merely need produce better work than one's immediate classmates. Other places rely heavily on the independent merit of any given piece of work without considering it relevant to others in a given class.

That certainly depends on your course of study and on your particular professors. I occasionally had classes at UNT that were graded on a bell curve, but for me it was the rare exception rather than the rule.

[oldguystudent]

That certainly depends on your course of study and on your particular professors. I occasionally had classes at UNT that were graded on a bell curve, but for me it was the rare exception rather than the rule.

Seems to be an unspoken policy in the school of business, particularly in the accounting department. I had more than one professor tell me that in upper division courses, they did in fact have complete authority over the grades they gave, but if the distributions started to skew too far in one direction or the other from a standard distribution curve, that they would get called in and spoken to about it. One professor went so far as to say in class that if every student in the class were to achieve 100% raw scores on every exam, that he would by definition have to give every student a C.

Edited April 27, 2014 by oldguystudent

[bleedgreen4ever]

I don't know about Rice or Tulane, but I can say with some certainty that it was much easier to obtain an A at North Texas than it was the other place I went. UNT relies heavily on a bell curve distribution of grades, so one merely need produce better work than one's immediate classmates. Other places rely heavily on the independent merit of any given piece of work without considering it relevant to others in a given class.

Still, it's gotta be a Herculean task to get decent grades while in the midst of a football season schedule. That's damn impressive.

When did you attend UNT and what program? Why are you generalizing UNT based on one program? It is not true that all professor and programs at UNT heavily rely on curve distribution of grades. Even within the same program, it heavily depends on the professor. Some programs don't have standardized grading expectations. Only a few out of all my courses at UNT (being there for 5 years) relied on curve distributions.

Edited April 27, 2014 by bleedgreen4ever

[oldguystudent]

When did you attend UNT and what program? Why are you generalizing UNT based on one program? It is not true that all professor and programs at UNT heavily rely on curve distribution of grades. Even within the same program, it heavily depends on the professor. Some programs don't have standardized grading expectations. Only a few out of all my courses at UNT (being there for 5 years) relied on curve distributions.

Good god man, It's not like I kicked your puppy in the nuts or anything. I did the tax program in the accounting department from 2008-2011. Sorry to step on your sensibilities. The degree has been very good to me. I'm in a great place of work thanks to the degree and contacts I made while at UNT and attending athletic events. That said, I'm not going to create fantasies about how things were while I attended.

[bleedgreen4ever]

Good god man, It's not like I kicked your puppy in the nuts or anything. I did the tax program in the accounting department from 2008-2011. Sorry to step on your sensibilities. The degree has been very good to me. I'm in a great place of work thanks to the degree and contacts I made while at UNT and attending athletic events. That said, I'm not going to create fantasies about how things were while I attended.

Looks like someone else is the sensible person here...all I did is ask very pertinent questions. If that makes you feel insecure, then so be it. And haha...I am glad you're not "going to create fantasies about how things were" while you attended the school. That would be kind of strange. You just clearly don't understand what generalizing does to an institution, so I'd just try to prevent that if I were you. You can say the UNT tax program or perhaps business school focuses to some degree on curves but you don't know about the rest of the programs. My point is that it works the same way at every other school and hence it's very dangerous to generalize based on a school's brand name.

[Ben Gooding]

I don't know about Rice or Tulane, but I can say with some certainty that it was much easier to obtain an A at North Texas than it was the other place I went. UNT relies heavily on a bell curve distribution of grades, so one merely need produce better work than one's immediate classmates. Other places rely heavily on the independent merit of any given piece of work without considering it relevant to others in a given class.

Still, it's gotta be a Herculean task to get decent grades while in the midst of a football season schedule. That's damn impressive.

I graduate in 2 weeks and I can count on one hand the amount of classes I have had that a curve was involved in anything. So, don't know what program you were in or how long ago you attended North Texas, but that is incorrect.

As far as football players getting good grades, CUSA averaged a 2.5 GPA. That's nothing to hang your hat on, but nothing to party about either. You also have to consider that most, not all, football players in comparison pretty easy degrees. And that includes your Rices and Tulanes.

[bleedgreen4ever]

I graduate in 2 weeks and I can count on one hand the amount of classes I have had that a curve was involved in anything. So, don't know what program you were in or how long ago you attended North Texas, but that is incorrect.

As far as football players getting good grades, CUSA averaged a 2.5 GPA. That's nothing to hang your hat on, but nothing to party about either. You also have to consider that most, not all, football players in comparison pretty easy degrees. And that includes your Rices and Tulanes.

Hey man, don't go there with him because the guy will call you out on your "sensitivity." But you're correct, it is invalid to say "UNT" uses curves heavily as an institution. Maybe his program did but that is one program out of several. Also, all schools' programs for the most part have different grading schemes within the same institution, so when someone says "so and so institution is harder or better" ...I always laugh and ask "which program are you talking about?" And also important to mention that all football programs put their athletes in a comfortable positions with lots of resources to succeed in the classroom if they choose to. It's a very good accomplishment and says a lot about the UNT football program and its high quality. This should be emphasized greatly for recruiting purposes.

[Mean Green 93-98]

Looks like someone else is the sensible person here...

That's kinda funny.

[bleedgreen4ever]

That's kinda funny.

Yup, sarcasm for some is kinda funny. Didn't use "sensitive" for a reason.

[meangreendork]

I don't know about Rice or Tulane, but I can say with some certainty that it was much easier to obtain an A at North Texas than it was the other place I went. UNT relies heavily on a bell curve distribution of grades, so one merely need produce better work than one's immediate classmates. Other places rely heavily on the independent merit of any given piece of work without considering it relevant to others in a given class.

Still, it's gotta be a Herculean task to get decent grades while in the midst of a football season schedule. That's damn impressive.

I don't know about UNT relying on bell curves as a way to describe how every instructor handles grades. Only a handful of the classes I was in ran via bell curve, and those were often the larger, lower level classes.

[forevereagle]

I don't know about UNT relying on bell curves as a way to describe how every instructor handles grades. Only a handful of the classes I was in ran via bell curve, and those were often the larger, lower level classes.

I can't speak for everyone, but I never had a professor that ran final grades from a bell curve. They usually used them to look at test grades and adjust the scores for the tests if it looked like the test graded out in a way that indicated it was not on a curve (too hard, whatever), and I don't recall anyone getting a lower grade because of the curve either. Whatever the final grade was, that was your grade with no curve applied. That was in COBA, but not accounting, so things may have been different there.

[outoftown]

I just wanted to say to the original topic: well done boys, coaches and tutors.

[Elvis]

That is really great. As far as Tice, Tulsa, and Tulane, every school from DIII up will have athletic friendly faculty and programs. Check and see how many of these schools (throw in the Stanford's of the world) have special admits in their athletic program. By the way, wasn't DT and another starter in graduate school. Not shabby at all.

There is around a handful of players, several of them starters, in grad school.