I had an interesting experience in my freshman seminar, too. Everyone in the class had likely gotten mostly As throughout high school, and they had all placed out of the writing 5 requirement, meaning they had scored 760 or higher on the Reading portion of the SAT. On our first paper, out of 16 students, one got an A-, another an A-/B+, and the rest were in the B range. Suffice to say, people, myself included, were surprised.

Right, this is exactly what happened to me. I placed out of Writing 5 at Dartmouth because I had a really high verbal SAT score (and AP literature scores). My first paper for that class — evocatively titled “Silicon Valley” — scored a nice big ‘C’.

I had an interesting experience in my freshman seminar, too. Everyone in the class had likely gotten mostly As throughout high school, and they had all placed out of the writing 5 requirement, meaning they had scored 760 or higher on the Reading portion of the SAT. On our first paper, out of 16 students, one got an A-, another an A-/B+, and the rest were in the B range. Suffice to say, people, myself included, were surprised.

[Note: The SAT detail is just to give context to the surprise, I don't think the SATs are effective indicators of anything important or that students with lower scores on the Reading section would be less surprised.]

(During my second semester(?!)lol)

For example, I know a certain professor at my university who gave, in one class, one B, five C’s, and the rest F’s. The B student had taken the class before

I strongly object to this. This does happen, but anyone who does this is writing his ticket out of academia EVEN if he is an emeritus/tenured (not all professors are fully tenured). You have to report grade distributions in nearly ALL cases and they can’t be suspiciously off in any way (i.e. 10% students get A’s in a class that normally has 20%). It indicates in most cases that in comparison with other people, you’re a bad teacher. I have NEVER been in a class where NOBODY got an A.

In fact, here’s a case where somebody lost their job for too many F’s: http://hamptonroads.com/2008/05/nsu-professor-loses-job-dispute-over-grades?page=2

I think maybe the real lesson here is the importance of verifying how the grades work so you won’t stress out when no stress is necessary.

Exactly. A syllabus is like a contract. Not having a syllabus or not specifying how grades are given out in many cases should warrant not taking the class.

Would you say that “extracurriculars are meaningless” goes for master’s degree programs as well?

I would guess that grades in your major, research experience, and, when relevant, test scores would still dominate.

For example, I know a certain professor at my university who gave, in one class, one B, five C’s, and the rest F’s. The B student had taken the class before

This is rare. But I’m glad you brought it up. I think maybe the real lesson here is the importance of verifying how the grades work so you won’t stress out when no stress is necessary.

For example, I know a certain professor at my university who gave, in one class, one B, five C’s, and the rest F’s. The B student had taken the class before. It depends on the school’s policy and on the professor’s policy. Here’s the advice you need to be giving: read your syllabus. It’s the only way to know the grading policy for sure.