Below-C Rector


Our department was discussing whether or not to accept graduate students whose undergraduate average grade is below the current cutoff point C.

The chairman said: "If we do that, we will lose more than half of our good ('above-C') students!"

The rector (provost) overruled him, and decided that the department should accept 1% 'below-C' students.

At the end of the year, the rector said: "What was all the fuss about? The department accepted 1% below-C students at the beginning of the year, and by the end of the year the percentage of the above-C students dropped slightly from 99% to 98%.

What did the chairman say?


Answer

The chairman said: "I told you so! We lost more than half of our above-C students!"

Indeed:

And the rector gets a failing, below-C, grade ... But that is probably just wishful thinking :-)


P.S. This riddle appears in David Gale, Tracking the Automatic Ant, Springer (1998), page 81



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