I've definitely seen plenty of these things at Madison--but I agree with statman that there's a definite difference between science/math/engineering courses and humanities. Grading is a very touchy subject and it varies greatly by department/major. I took Econ 101 last year, which is the "weeding out" class for economics/business majors. I was around the middle of the class but was completely shocked when I got an 'AB' in the class. It turned out they curved the class where 50% get an AB or higher. I was used to math classes, where 50% get a C or lower. I have heard stories of people complaining to professors that they "are paying too much money" to receive such a low grade in a class. In the end, I'm not sure how much it matters--the business students need to maintain a 3.7 or 3.8 to go anywhere, while science/engineers do just fine with a 3.2. I'm not really sure when we got away from the idea that a "C" was average, but Madison has a 3.1 average GPA, so I guess a "B" is average now--and that goes up to about 3.3 for seniors. In the end, the better students are going to make it out on top. However, it seems that the overall bumping up of the lower students reflects a general trend in society. The people that failed the most are the ones who are getting the government bailout money, right?