Sophomore Lyndsey Wajert, the Hatchet’s contributing opinions editor, calls for higher education to take steps to curb grade inflation in both private and public colleges.

Oft-mentioned sentiments from experts in higher education and high school guidance counselors say that as long as students work hard and do their best, it won’t matter whether they choose a public university or a private one. After all, the amount of work students put in at either school should be proportional to the grade they receive. But a study released last month indicates otherwise.

According to the study published in the Teachers College Record, a comparison of 80 four-year colleges and universities showed that over the past 50 years, the rate of grade inflation has gone up, with private universities surpassing public universities in the trend. GW was one of the universities studied. Looking at contemporary grading data from 160 schools, private colleges had a grade point average of 3.3 while public schools had a GPA of 3.0.