Students bet on their own transcripts

Ultrinsic.com

Avert your eyes, Alfie Kohn.  You might find this upsetting.

Ultrinsic.com allows students to place bets on their academic performance, either that they will do well or that they will do poorly.  According to the site, Ultrinsic is “an ULTerior motivation that produces intRINSIC love of knowledge.”  Students provide the site with their academic history, and based on their goals (or what GPA they think they will achieve that semester) Ultrinsic will calculate an appropriate cost per expected outcome.  Members can purchase “Grade Insurance”, essentially selling their own GPA short if they think they will do poorly, or they can pay for the possibility of “rewards”, which pay out if they hit some academic goal.  Students can choose to “incentivize” themselves (or, place a bet) per course grade, group of courses, an entire semester’s GPA, or, if they’re a freshman, opt to go in on the special 4.0 GPA reward, which pays up to $2000 for an overall GPA of 4.0.

http://ultrinsic.com/

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