In the heady days of the late 20th century, the best way to get ahead was to slap a dot-com after your name. Internet start-ups were all the rage, and with the stock market surging, they seemed headed for a brilliant future.

 For example, Boo.com raised almost $120 million of venture capital in 1999. Pets.com went public in February 2000, and pocketed $76 million on its first day of trading.

But when the high-tech bubble burst, investors quickly learned which companies enjoyed real value and which were empty shells. By September 2000 Boo.com, Pets.com and dozens of other Internet companies were out of business.

 This month, tens of thousands of students will graduate from America’s leading colleges and universities. After four years -- or sometimes more -- at Duke, Harvard, Stanford, Yale, etc. they, too, seem headed toward a brilliant future.

 But in fact, they may also be on the edge of a bubble that’s about to explode. Because their expensive degrees may be meaningless.

 Professor Stuart Rojstaczer explained why earlier this year in a Washington Post op-ed. “I recently handed in my grades for an undergraduate course I teach at Duke University.  There were no C's of any flavor and certainly no D's or F's. It was a good class, but even when classes aren't very good, I just drop down slightly, to grades that range from A-minus to B-minus.

 “The last time I gave a C was more than two years ago.”

 Rojstaczer blames the free market for the widespread practice of grade inflation. “Given that students are consumers of an educational product for which they pay dearly, I am expected to cater to their desires… So I don't give C's anymore, and neither do most of my colleagues. And I can easily imagine a time when I'll say the same thing about B's.”

 Of course, when most students are making A’s -- and more than half of all grades at Duke, Harvard and Columbia are A’s -- making an A becomes meaningless. So, eventually, the degree awarded based on those phantom A’s becomes meaningless, as well. Continued...