[82lsju]

[quote author=fullmetal link=topic=14656.msg157494#msg157494 date=1456787955]
There's a bit of sink-or-swim at Stanford too.  Neither school is for the faint of heart or weak of will.

Have you ever been in a class where half of the students flunked? I have!
[/quote]

one Chemical Engineering class of mine, ~30 students, on the mid-term, the mode was zero and the mean was ~30.  I had the 8th highest final grade in the class (a C+) and was pleased as punch to get that.

The same professor had taught the same class a couple of years earlier and his preliminary final grades flunked about half the class.  This was a required senior year class that was offered once a year (winter quarter) so theoretically all the students would have to come back for at least a quarter the next year.  After some discussions (and apparently the threat of him having to teach the class to the same students the next quarter) everyone passed.

[82lsju]

[quote author=fullmetal link=topic=14656.msg157494#msg157494 date=1456787955]
There's a bit of sink-or-swim at Stanford too.  Neither school is for the faint of heart or weak of will.

Have you ever been in a class where half of the students flunked? I have!
[/quote]

one Chemical Engineering class of mine, ~30 students, on the mid-term, the mode was zero and the mean was ~30.  I had the 8th highest final grade in the class (a C+) and was pleased as punch to get that.

The same professor had taught the same class a couple of years earlier and his preliminary final grades flunked about half the class.  This was a required senior year class that was offered once a year (winter quarter) so theoretically all the students would have to come back for at least a quarter the next year.  After some discussions (and apparently the threat of him having to teach the class to the same students the next quarter) everyone passed.