Harvard University will cap A grades at 1 out of 5 undergraduates next year in an effort to tame runaway grade inflation.
Faculty members voted 458-201 on Wednesday to approve the grade cap. It will limit A’s to 20% of students in each course starting in fall 2027, with room for up to four more at the professor’s discretion.
“This matters for our students above all,” members of the faculty subcommittee that developed the policy said in a statement. “A Harvard A grade will now tell them, as well as employers and graduate schools, something real about what a student has achieved.”
The Ivy League school’s faculty also voted 498-157 to use internal percentile rankings rather than grade point averages to determine future undergraduate awards and honors.
Finally, the faculty voted 394-292 against a third measure that would have let courses opt out of the cap by substituting “unsatisfactory,” “satisfactory” and “satisfactory-plus” marks for letter grades.
An October report found that 60% of all grades awarded at the top-ranked campus in 2024-25 were in the A range, up from 25% two decades ago.
The report raised questions about Harvard’s ability to distinguish exceptional work from high-achieving students. It also bolstered concerns that the perceived value of its degrees was declining.
In response, the student-run Harvard Crimson newspaper reported that the faculty cut the share of A’s to 53% last fall. But concerns persisted, setting up this week’s faculty vote.
Undergraduates broadly opposed the new policies. A February survey of 800 students conducted by the Harvard Undergraduate Association found that nearly 85% opposed the grade caps. More than 72% opposed the percentile rankings.
Keri Collins, president of the conservative Harvard Salient journal, questioned on Thursday whether the changes would reward excellence or create an arbitrary “sorting system.”
“This approach will not communicate which students have mastered a given subject matter, because that is not the goal,” said Ms. Collins, a rising sophomore economics and classics major from Austin, Texas.
The move to curb grade inflation comes as the Trump administration and other top Republicans have accused Harvard, which is in Cambridge, Massachusetts, of woke policies that reward students for liberal groupthink rather than merit.
Rep. Tim Walberg, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Education and Workforce Committee, said he was “encouraged to see Harvard finally taking the problem of grade inflation seriously.”
“Most recognize that grades simply don’t hold the significance they used to,” Mr. Walberg said in an email. “Honest grading can only help institutions ensure graduates leave with the skills they will need to succeed in the modern workforce.”
Some academics questioned Harvard’s policy changes. They warned the new policies could do little to stop unscrupulous professors from maintaining grade inflation by limiting class sizes and giving more A- marks.
“If a course has rigorous expectations and most students are meeting them, they should receive A’s,” said Jonathan Zimmerman, an education history professor at the University of Pennsylvania, another Ivy League school. “But too many professors have made their classes too easy.”
‘Signaling effect’
Higher education insiders say Harvard’s example could inspire other colleges to combat grade inflation, which they warn has become widespread the past 20 years.
“Grading at top colleges has long had a strong signaling effect on other institutions,” said Nora Demleitner, the immediate past president of St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. “If other institutions follow Harvard’s example, we can expect the upward pressure on grades at least to come to a stop.”
She said it’s “too early to tell” if Harvard’s new policies will create a fair distribution of grades or an “A- pileup” of students receiving the next-highest mark.
Veronica Bryant of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a liberal arts advocacy group, said a deeper problem could be that Harvard’s courses have become unserious.
Asked Ms. Bryant: “If the vast majority of Harvard students have achieved ‘full mastery of the subject,’ shouldn’t their professors challenge them more?”
Professors noted that students nationwide have increasingly used course evaluations as leverage for easy A’s. Tough graders with poor student reviews get smaller classes, fewer salary bumps and reduced career opportunities.
“It is documented that higher evaluations are significantly correlated with higher grades,” said Renita Coleman, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “These evaluations determine your yearly raise.”
’Customer satisfaction’
Conservative calls to put the brakes on grade inflation have long fallen on deaf ears at elite campuses — but broader trends suggest that could finally be changing.
Hundreds of colleges have closed, merged or purged liberal arts degrees in recent years to offset declining revenue, rising costs and falling enrollments. At the same time, technology and trade programs are booming as more teenagers question the value of degrees tied to low-paying careers.
Meanwhile, universities expect 15% fewer eligible applicants for this fall semester, due to fewer Americans having children after 2008.
“I think [Harvard’s grade cap] has less to do with the Trump administration specifically and more to do with broader anxiety about the value of elite degrees,” said Kaivan Shroff, a Harvard alumnus and senior adviser at the bipartisan Institute for Education.
“Employers and the public increasingly question whether grades and credentials still reflect real excellence,” he added.
Gary Stocker, a former private college administrator who founded College Viability to evaluate campuses’ financial health, said turning A’s into participation prizes has added to a growing perception that college degrees mean little.
“Students and families ask themselves if the cost is worth a college process where there is limited differentiation,” Mr. Stocker said. “So, they look at other options.”
Others noted that Harvard insisted for years that students deserved all of their A grades.
“It will be interesting to see whether Harvard’s action is the snowball that starts an avalanche or is the academic version of Custer’s last stand,” said Lance Izumi, an education analyst at the free-market Pacific Research Institute.
Robert Weissberg, a retired University of Illinois political scientist and expert in pedagogy, predicted that student complaints could make Harvard’s changes short-lived.
“Cutting back on inflated grades will not help much so long as the university is driven by a customer satisfaction model,” Mr. Weissberg said.
Contact the author
Please read our comment policy before commenting.