Harvard Gets Ready to Vote on Curbing Too Many A's

Harvard may soon be putting the brakes on its 'A' train. Faculty at the university are slated to vote next week on a proposal that would limit that grade in each course to 20% of students in the course, plus four extra As, starting in fall 2027 if approved, reports the Wall Street Journal. The plan, crafted by a grading subcommittee and first detailed by the Harvard Crimson, also calls for a new internal "average percentile rank" system based on raw scores, which would be used to determine honors and awards instead of GPA, per the Guardian.

The move is aimed at what the committee calls a "qualitative failure" in grading, noting that roughly two-thirds of letter grades bestowed at Harvard are now As, with nearly 85% falling in the A range. Students are overwhelmingly against the cap—about 94% opposed it in a poll—and the Crimson's editorial board has argued it would fuel competition rather than restore academic rigor, pointing to Princeton's abandoned A-cap experiment as a warning. "Overcomplicated and underconvincing" is how the student publication most recently described the plan. Faculty reaction is more divided: Some see a needed check on grade inflation, while others worry it could deter students from taking tougher classes and infringe on professors' control over grading.