Harvard will now limit the number of A grades it gives to undergraduates in hopes of reversing years of grade inflation — much to the disappointment of students.
Faculty on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly in support of the measure, which would cap straight A grades at roughly 20 percent of a class roster, with up to four additional A’s allowed in smaller courses, starting in the fall 2027 semester, the Washington Post reports.
Universities have long been grappling with grade inflation, a trend where, over time, schools award higher and higher grades to succeeding classes, making the median grade “inflated.”
“This is a consequential vote. It will, I believe, strengthen the academic culture of Harvard; it will also, I hope, encourage other institutions to confront similar questions with the same level of rigor and courage,” Amanda Claybaugh, the dean of undergraduate education, said in a statement.
At Harvard, grade inflation has been rampant. During the 2024-25 school year, roughly 60 percent of all undergraduate grades were A’s, a dramatic increase from just 25 percent in the 2005-06 academic year. “It would be flippant to say that [Harvard] grades are useless,” a law school dean told the Post, “But they’re almost useless.”
Supporters of the change say it makes top grades more meaningful and show students, as well as employers and graduate schools “something real about what a student has achieved,” the subcommittee that put forward the proposal said.
“An A will once again be what Harvard’s guidelines have long said it is: a mark of extraordinary distinction. And an A- need no longer be a source of anxiety, encouraging students to explore new subjects and take intellectual risks,” the subcommittee added.
Faculty on Wednesday also overwhelmingly voted in favor of using a student’s average percentile rank, instead of grade point average, for comparing performances for purposes of honors, prizes or awards.
Staff rejected a third proposal that would allow courses to opt out of the A-grade limit if they came up with an alternative grading system.
Harvard said the new policy, which only applies to undergraduate students, will be implemented during the 2027-28 academic year. School officials will then present a review of the change to faculty after three years.
Despite faculty being overwhelmingly on board with the new measure, students have been adamantly against the change. Nearly 85 percent of students who responded to a February survey by the Harvard Undergraduate Association said they disapproved of the proposal, according to the Harvard Crimson, a student-run newspaper.
Discussions about grading are also happening at Yale, as the college’s Dean Pericles Lewis told the student newspaper, The Yale Daily News, that he didn’t want an A at prestigous college to be seen as weaker than the same grade from its competitors.
Meanwhile, Princeton University capped A’s more than 20 years ago but lifted the policy in 2014 after finding it caused stress to students.
Artificial intelligence is worsening grade inflation, according to a recent study from the University of California, Berkeley. The research found that professors teaching AI-exposed classes awarded students about 30 percent more A’s.
In the age of AI, schools and universities are being forced to take extra measures to keep students honest about their work. Most recently, Princeton University strayed from its 133-year-old honor code, and said it would now require exams to be supervised.
While the school’s honor code previously allowed students to take exams without a professor present, faculty voted this month to require proctoring for all in-person exams starting this summer.
A “significant” number of undergraduate students and faculty requested the change, “given their perception that cheating on in-class exams has become widespread,” the college’s dean, Michael Gordin, wrote in a letter, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Despite the changes to the policy, Princeton will still require students to state: “I pledge my honor that I have not violated the Honor Code during this examination.”
