Harvard faculty votes to make it more difficult for undergrads to earn A’s
CNN • • general
Key Points:
- Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted to limit the number of A grades awarded to undergraduates, aiming to address grade inflation and restore the meaning of top grades.
- Starting in fall 2027, instructors can give A grades to no more than 20% of students in a class, plus four additional students, while other grades like A-minus will not have limits.
- The reform seeks to ensure that Harvard A grades accurately reflect exceptional achievement, responding to data showing over 60% of recent undergraduate grades were in the A range.
- The policy will be reviewed after three years and includes a shift to using average percentile rank rather than GPA for honors and awards; a proposal to allow courses to bypass the cap with a new grading system was rejected.
- Harvard joins other institutions confronting grade inflation, though past attempts such as Princeton’s 2004 policy faced criticism and were eventually abandoned.