On average, all students pay grade penalties when taking large introductory STEM courses. It has been suggested that female students exhibit increased grade sensitivity in economics courses [27{29] and the physical sciences in general [2], so that grade penalties per se are more likely to drive them away from these courses and majors. The ubiquity of gendered performance differences in these courses significantly exacerbates this problem. The impact of grade penalty on persistence for male and female students in STEM disciplines in this data set will be explored in detail in a forthcoming paper.