What return can students expect on the thousands of dollars invested in their college educations? Preparation for a professional path, maybe. Self-enrichment, others say.
A Web site called Ultrinsic tries to make the rewards of studying more immediate. Students can make a small bet on how well they’ll do in a course, with a starting limit of $25 on how much they can earn. The students contribute a chunk of the money, and Ultrinsic puts up the rest. If they make the grade, they win it all. If they don’t, the students lose what they put in. And the higher students set their sights for their own academic performance, the bigger the payoff.
“I know at times it’s tough to study,” said Jeremy Gelbart, Ultrinsic’s president and a December graduate of Queens College of the City University of New York. “You want something now for it, not just a job in the future.”
Questions have been raised about the site’s legality, though, and whether it falls into the category of online gambling. Mr. Gelbart dismissed such concerns. To be considered gambling, an activity must rely on chance, he said, arguing that the bets students make on Ultrinsic depend on skill. “It’s completely within their control what grades they get,” he said. “If you study harder, you’ll do well.”
Mr. Gelbart came up with the idea for Ultrinsic with Steven Wolf, another recent graduate of Queens College, about three years ago. In 2009, they piloted the idea with a different model that put students in the same course in direct competition with each other. Last year, about 600 students from the University of Pennsylvania and New York University, the first two campuses where the company’s most recent iteration became available, made wagers on Ultrinsic.
The company is expanding to 36 more campuses this fall, and it now has a staff of 10 people. Ultrinsic is funded by private investors, Mr. Gelbart said. He declined to disclose how much the company made last year at Penn and NYU.
10 Responses to Web Site Lets Students Bet on What Grades They’ll Earn
iteachpsych - August 11, 2010 at 11:27 am
I’m concerned that this concept might encourage cheating to meet the target grade.
my2cents - August 11, 2010 at 4:09 pm
If only students were the ones to cough up $25 000/annum+ for their education, perhaps we wouldn’t need sites like this! “He declined to disclose how much the company made last year at Penn and NYU.” Seems wagers starting at $25 don’t really do the trick… I wonder how many students didn’t make their grade… And what the median monetary wager for them must be in order that they actually start to study hard…
jabberwocky12 - August 12, 2010 at 7:25 am
It’s a little like a performance bonus. Except that, unlike in the financial industry, you actually have to perform in order to earn the bonus.
bullski - August 12, 2010 at 10:20 am
I’m really worried about the student who bets big and then doesn’t get the grade. What if that student blames the professor? What if the amount lost is substantial enough for the student to ‘go ballistic’?
dank48 - August 12, 2010 at 10:27 am
Sounds like great training for Wall Street. Wharton School, Harvard Business: better watch out.
raza_khan - August 12, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Interesting idea. I have no problem with students placing bets for this “nobel cause”. Morevoer, interesting perspective on increasing retention and improving student performance.My slight concern is that it may lead to corruption…. a faculty member raising a grade from a B+ to an A and the student would share the dough…… :)Seriously now, has higher education come down to money? I think the whole idea of education for the betterment of a citizen and a society as a whole has been buried and lost.Raza_____________________Raza Khan, Ph.D., P.D.Carroll Community CollegeWestminster MD 21158
chriskox - August 12, 2010 at 4:40 pm
I’m with Raza on the potential for corruption, only, I’d bet against the students and grade accordingly.
ksledge - August 13, 2010 at 8:59 am
weird. I’m surprised it offers much incentive at all…I thought the grades themselves were the biggest incentive (which is already a little sad…the learning is no longer the incentive.)
botex - August 18, 2010 at 12:15 pm
I believe that this concept, at best, cheapens the process by implying that a earning a good grade can be equated gambling versus hard work. In my humble opinion, this is a very bad development and we in Higher Education should not be supportive. Indeed, these entrepeneurs may have already proven they can make money in the endeavor but it is the majority of students that participate who will find themselves unwittingly playing the victim role in an era where we, as a society, have literally priced higher eduation out of the reach of those who stand to benefit the most.Nothing good will come of this.
its2am - August 20, 2010 at 9:35 pm
If this is the caliber of student produced by Queens College they should loose their accreditation. So, congratulations on the graduation of Jeremy Gelbart and Steve Wolf, interesting no information is offered on their type of degrees or education? I spent an hour searcing and could not find one thing about their degrees or educaitonal backgrounds; I wonder what their GPA’s were. Plus, I have read 5 articles on this “incentive” program and none have reported a single looser, that’s slanted reporting, prick up your ears everyone. Plus, all report and blogs are shill, they are all basically worded the same way, this is a fed story. Remember, ALL BUSINESSES ARE IN IT TO MAKE MONEY!Reading between the lines, no one will talk about loss or profits, so we know none has been made, they need to tweek the system more. And if it was really about the grades, why offer insurance that you won’t make the grade?