The following are excerpts from a New York Times article about grade inflation. "Dartmouth transcripts include median grades, along with the number of courses in which the student exceeded, equaled or came in lower than those medians." "At Reed College, transcripts are accompanied by an explanatory card. Last year's graduating class had an average G.P.A. of 3.20, it says, and only 10 percent of the class graduated with a G.P.A. of 3.67 or higher." "In 1996, Cornell's faculty adopted a "truth in grading" policy, and median grades were posted online starting in 1998. The policy called for median grades to be shown on transcripts as soon as student-records technology made that possible, but that did not happen until a full decade later. And while the median grades were available only online, a study by three Cornell economists found a large increase in enrollment in courses with a median grade of A further driving grade inflation. 'At least when the grades were only online, the main users of the information seemed to be students shopping around for easier classes,' said Talia Bar, one of the three economists. Ms. Bar said there is no consensus on the right way to grade