Tack on a "Freshman Incentive Fee" of $10-$20 for all incoming freshmen at a university. Assuming all classes grade on a curve (big assumption, but let's run with it...) there are only so many "winning" grades. You'd have to work out the numbers, but maybe every "A" gets $500, every "B" gets $200, etc. Might not compell a student to study through an entire semester/quarter, but broke students on the verge of a good grade might put in a little extra study time if there's a reward on the line...
-- JT, Jul 06 2000

There's already a much larger incentive for getting good grades: You get a high-paying job and have a successful life. On a smaller scale, merit scholarships already exist. I don't think that your award is going to motivate very many people any more than they are already.

It would have made me very angry to have to pay an extra fee on top of my tuition to reward the people who got better grades then me.
-- dominus, Jul 06 2000


It would totally motivate lots of folks. Money == beer!

Particularly mercenary parents could do this themselves, of course. There are always apocryphal stories of parents offering new cars and stuff to their kids if they get their grades up.

(And then they go back on the offer, and the kid sues, and...)
-- egnor, Jul 06 2000


If they did this in High School, I might have actually had more attendances than truancies.
-- AfroAssault, Oct 19 2000


Really bad idea, sport. One, people would take easier classes to get more money. Two, grades aren't that important anyway: the material is.
-- Vance, Jan 29 2001


Ummmm, what does education have to do with success anyway?
-- Louie, Jan 04 2003



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