A new company is offering students the chance to bet on their grades. Ultrinsic was piloted at NYU and UPenn last year. This year it is expanding to 34 additional schools. Students at these schools will be able to bet on what grade they will earn in a particular course or what their overall GPA will be.
An article in the NY Times questions whether or not the site is legal. The question is whether or not the student wagers actually involve skill. The company claims that the outcome of the wager is controlled by the student, since the student has control over how much they study for the course.
Inside Higher Ed writes about the ramifications of using money as an incentive for studying. Some college officials worry that this may increase cheating and provide more fuel to the “grade obsession” fire that exists on college campuses. Others question how this contributes to one of the most important reasons for attending college: to obtain knowledge. With the opportunity to gamble for grades, students are no longer learning for the sake of learning.
The company maintains that they are simply trying to improve student grade performance by providing a much needed incentive. But how will the company handle students who don’t, or even can’t, pay their debt if the desired grades are not achieved? If a student does not meet their goal one semester will it force them to place riskier bets on their grades the next?
Providing incentives for good grades is not a new concept, however there is usually a “nothing to loose” clause for students. If Mom and Dad offer to pay $20 for each “A” earned, the student does not have to pay up if they don’t quite reach that goal. It will be interesting to see how Ultrinsic contributes to student debt. That experience may be the tough lesson learned.
Technorati Tags: money incentives for grades, student gambling, ultrinsic, gambling for grades, gambling on college campuses
- Home
- College Selection
- Do You Want Good Grades? Now You Can Bet On It.
Mark Montgomery
Mark is the Founder and CEO of Great College Advice, a national college admissions consulting firm. As a career educator, he has served as a college administrator, professor of international relations at the University of Denver and the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, program consultant at Yale and the University of Kansas, government instructor at Harvard and Tufts, high school teacher of French, and a Fulbright teacher of English in France. He has personally helped hundreds of students from around the world map their college journeys. Mark speaks on college preparation, selection, and admission to students and parents around the world, and his views have been published in major newspapers and journals.
Categories
Archive by Date
Recent Posts
- Community College vs. University: A Personal Educational Discovery
- How to Get Great Teacher Recommendation Letters in the Weird World of Covid
- The Demise of the SAT2 Subject Tests: Good News or Bad News for College Admission?
- Why Student Debt Is So Excessive – And How You Can Avoid It
- How to Get Great Teacher Recommendation Letters in the Weird World of Covid
Mark Montgomery
Mark is the Founder and CEO of Great College Advice, a national college admissions consulting firm. As a career educator, he has served as a college administrator, professor of international relations at the University of Denver and the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, program consultant at Yale and the University of Kansas, government instructor at Harvard and Tufts, high school teacher of French, and a Fulbright teacher of English in France. He has personally helped hundreds of students from around the world map their college journeys. Mark speaks on college preparation, selection, and admission to students and parents around the world, and his views have been published in major newspapers and journals.