I'm so sorry your son has to deal with that - my university is something like that. Not really a concrete curve like the one your son is experiencing but more of a general grade deflation. I go to a fairly selective liberal arts college and it seems that in order to preserve such a high rank among the liberal arts school, professors feel the need to basically beat down students. I'm pretty sure that a C at my school is the equivalent of an A at "normal" schools... It's super frustrating and sometimes I wonder why I don't just transfer to a school where I could get good grades for the same amount of work. This summer I took 3 courses at 2 pretty decent institutions and made straight A's - couldn't help but think whyyyy??? Grade deflation and curves are not fair! Students who work hard should get the grades they deserve, regardless of what the grade distribution is in a class.