I think the culture of the institution plays a big role, too. I had my ass lovingly handed to me by the good professors of University of Illinois Urbana-Champa

I think the culture of the institution plays a big role, too. I had my ass lovingly handed to me by the good professors of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. They were more than happy to hand out Bs and Cs even with "a good effort" and wouldn't bat at eye at giving a D or F to someone who didn't do the homework / didn't do well on tests / didn't show up to class. I always got the sense that big public schools have more of a "your education is your responsibility" ethic about them, encouraged by the class sizes (large -- hundreds of students -- especially in lower-level classes) and general "machine like" feel. Whereas private schools, with their smaller class sizes, huge endowments, etc. felt more like the student's education is the professor's responsibility, and a failing grade for the student was as much a reflection of the instructor's ability to teach, as the student's work/study habits, or academic performance. In any case, I'd really love to see how much grade inflation affects schools like the big 10, vs. the Ivy League. I suspect it's much less of a problem in big anonymous public schools, but just a hunch.