tinyurl.com/dco6d -> www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/06/07/yale_grades_portray_kerry_as_a_lackluster_student?mode=PF
The Boston Globe Yale grades portray Kerry as a lackluster student His 4-year average on par with Bush's By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff | June 7, 2005 WASHINGTON -- During last year's presidential campaign, John F Kerry was the candidate often portrayed as intellectual and complex, while George W Bush was the populist who mangled his sentences. But newly released records show that Bush and Kerry had a virtually ident ical grade average at Yale University four decades ago. In 1999, The New Yorker published a transcript indicating that Bush had r eceived a cumulative score of 77 for his first three years at Yale and a roughly similar average under a non-numerical rating system during his senior year. Kerry authorizes release of his full military and medical records. Kerry, who graduated two years before Bush, got a cumulative 76 for his f our years, according to a transcript that Kerry sent to the Navy when he was applying for officer training school. He received four D's in his f reshman year out of 10 courses, but improved his average in later years. The grade transcript, which Kerry has always declined to release, was inc luded in his Navy record. During the campaign the Globe sought Kerry's n aval records, but he refused to waive privacy restrictions for the full file. Late last month, Kerry gave the Navy permission to send the docume nts to the Globe. Kerry appeared to be responding to critics who suspected that there might be damaging information in the file about his activities in Vietnam. Th e military and medical records, however, appear identical to what Kerry has already released. This marks the first time Kerry's grades have been publicly reported. The transcript shows that Kerry's freshman-year average was 71. He scored a 61 in geology, a 63 and 68 in two history classes, and a 69 in politi cal science. His top score was a 79, in another political science course . Another of his strongest efforts, a 77, came in French class. Under Yale's grading system in effect at the time, grades between 90 and 100 equaled an A, 80-89 a B, 70-79 a C, 60 to 69 a D, and anything below that was a failing grade. In addition to Kerry's four D's in his freshm an year, he received one D in his sophomore year. Kerry's weak grades came despite years of education at some of the world' s most elite prep schools, ranging from Fessenden School in Massachusett s to St. It is noteworthy, however, that Kerry received a high honor at Yale despi te his mediocre grades: He was chosen to deliver his senior class oratio n, a testament to his reputation as a public speaker. He delivered a spe ech questioning the wisdom of the Vietnam War, in which he would soon se e combat. Kerry gradually improved his grades, averaging 81 in his senior year. His highest single grade was an 89, for a political science class in his se nior year. Despite his slow start, he went on to be a top student at Nav al Candidate School, command a patrol boat in Vietnam, graduate from law school, and become a prosecutor, lieutenant governor, US senator, and p residential candidate. In his Navy application, Kerry made clear that he spent much of his colle ge time on extracurricular activities, including the Yale Political Unio n, the Debating Association, soccer, hockey, fencing, and membership in the elite Skull and Bones Society. Asked to describe nonschool training that qualified him for the Navy, Kerry wrote: ''A great deal of sailing -- ocean and otherwise, including some navigation. He said his special interests were ''filming, " writing, and politics, noting that the latter subject occupied 15 hour s per week. Gaddis Smith, a retired Yale history professor who taught both Kerry and Bush, said in a telephone interview that he vividly remembers Kerry as a student during the 1964-1965 school year, when Kerry would have been a junior. However, Smith said he doesn't have a specific memory about Bush . Based on what Smith recalls teaching that year, Kerry scored a 71 and 79 in two of Smith's courses. When Smith was told those scores, he responde d: ''Uh, oh. Those aren't very good grade s" To put the grades in perspective, Smith said that he had a well-earn ed reputation for being tough, and noted that such grades would probably be about 10 points higher in a similar class today because of the impac t of what he called ''grade inflation." his highest grades were 88s in anthr opology, history, and philosophy, according to The New Yorker article. H e received one D in his four years, a 69 in astronomy. Like Kerry, Bush reportedly suffered through a difficult freshman year an d then pulled his grades up.
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