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As if college students didn’t have enough to worry about, now undergrads at Harvard University may see their A grades go up in smoke. <\/p>\n
With over 60% of Harvard students getting A’s <\/a>in the mid-2025 academic year, faculty are currently weighing a proposal that would cap that to no more than 20% of the class, plus four students. (A more detailed breakdown<\/a>: 66% of undergraduates earned A\u2019s, and 84% earned an A or A-minus in the 2024\u201325 academic year.)<\/p>\n “The Student Handbook recognizes an A grade as one reserved for work of ‘extraordinary distinction.’ We recommend returning to this definition,” the February 2026 proposal<\/a> reads. “While any changes to grading policies may raise concerns about fostering a competitive culture, we believe that these recommendations take critical steps toward the College\u2019s goal to re-center academics, restoring confidence in the College’s grading system, and better aligning incentives with pedagogical goals.”<\/p>\n Just for context, less than half of the Ivy’s student body earned an A back in 2006. Also, as the administration clamped down on grade inflation during the fall 2025 semester, the number fell to 53%.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s kind of nutty,\u201d Steven Levitsky, a Latin American studies professor at Harvard, told<\/a> Inside Higher Ed. \u201cWe\u2019ve completely erased the distinction between an A and A-minus,” he said, adding that the proposal is the “least bad solution.\u201d<\/p>\n Faculty are voting on the measure this week, with results due next Wednesday, May 20. It’s unclear whether it will pass, as students\u2014already dealing with a weak job market<\/a> and skyrocketing tuition costs<\/a> (now surpassing $80,000)\u2014are said to be furious<\/a>, with some 85% opposing the cap, per the Harvard Crimson<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Of course, grade inflation at Harvard, and other U.S. colleges, isn’t anything new. It can be traced back to the Vietnam War<\/a>, when professors used it to protect students from being drafted.<\/p>\n More recently, from 1990\u20132020, grade point averages (GPAs) at four-year colleges increased\u00a0more than 16%<\/a>, according to a post by the U.S. Department of Education<\/a>. It cited students’ “consumer demand” for higher grades, and the rating of professors, in driving the trend.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s true that grades always seem to be rising [at Harvard] . . . and has become extreme in recent years,” says a 2025 report<\/a> about grading trends at Harvard from Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh. “A slow rise in the early 2010s, continuous with longstanding trends, followed by a more rapid rise in the late 2010s, then an additional spike during the year of remote instruction and a flattening out after that.”<\/p>\n As students await a decision, one thing to note: Recent attempts at Princeton University and Wellesley College to rein in runaway grade inflation failed, Bloomberg <\/em>reported<\/a>.<\/p>\nGrade inflation isn’t anything new<\/h2>\n