[qF]

I have no data to back this up but anecdotally I once had a professor explain how some, if not most, professors would adjust their grading to get to a specific average for exams and essays.

However we use numbers (1 till 10, 10 being best) here and from my understanding they would try to average it around 7.5. Having all your grades an 8 (or higher) translates to graduating cum laude, basically turning cum laude into 'just above average'.

I assume this is due to management tactics that involve investigating classes that deviate from grade averages rather than trying to judge based on course quality.

[arghnoname]

How cum laude is awarded differs somewhat between universities, but the University of Maryland, for one, does not confer latin honors to any student below the 10th percentile in their college. Here are the GPA requirements for this past semester for the college of engineering:

  GPA Ranges for Latin Honors: May 2011
  
  Summa:            4.000 - 3.976
  Magna:             3.975 - 3.912
  Cum Laude:      3.911 - 3.825
  

This is still well above 'just above average.'