Harvard faculty proposes cap on A grades, new internal ranking system; students say ‘there’s no benefit’
Harvard faculty proposes cap on A grades, new internal ranking system; students say ‘there’s no benefit’Harvard College may soon implement a major overhaul of its grading system, following a faculty committee proposal that would sharply limit A grades and introduce an internal ranking metric. The changes aim to address long-standing concerns about grade inflation and the meaningfulness of academic distinctions.If approved, the reforms would take effect in the 2026-27 academic year and could roughly halve the percentage of As currently awarded to undergraduates. The proposal also introduces a new “average percentile rank” (APR) system to determine honors and awards, replacing GPA as the primary metric of student distinction.A Sweeping OverhaulA 19-page proposal released Friday recommends capping A grades at 20 percent per course, with flexibility for up to four additional As. The plan comes after a report by Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh found that over 60 percent of undergraduate grades were As, concluding that the system had become so compressed at the top that grades no longer effectively signaled mastery or guided evaluation for honors, fellowships, and postgraduate opportunities.Faculty have already reduced the proportion of As from 60.2 percent to 53.4 percent last fall, but the committee argued that voluntary reductions were insufficient to restore the A as a mark of “extraordinary distinction.”How the New System Would WorkThe proposed cap would apply only to flat A grades; no targets are suggested for other letter grades. Faculty could opt out by grading courses on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis, but such courses would be excluded from internal honors calculations to prevent renewed grade inflation.The APR system would rank students within each course based on raw numeric scores, offering more differentiation than GPA, particularly at the top end. Unlike GPAs, APRs would not appear on transcripts.Committee chair Stuart M. Shieber ’81 told The Harvard Crimson, “While smaller classes could still allow a higher proportion of As overall, students in those courses would face greater risk in percentile rankings, dampening incentives to game the system by chasing small seminars perceived as grading havens.”Faculty and Admissions PerspectiveThe proposal includes feedback from law and medical school admissions deans, who The Harvard Crimson reported “unanimously agreed” that limiting A grades would make Harvard transcripts more informative. One medical school dean said, “The Harvard A doesn’t make as much of an impression… because there are so many.”The committee also suggested that most employers no longer screen candidates by GPA, and fellowship committees evaluate students holistically.Student ReactionThe proposal has sparked widespread student criticism. Many argued the changes could intensify competition, misrepresent mastery, and harm postgraduate prospects.“You accept a bunch of top 3 percent students in the country and then get surprised that we’re getting all As,” Harlow W. Tong ’28 told The Harvard Crimson. Ricardo A. Fernandes Garcia ’27 added that the plan “cuts collaboration… encourages people to reserve their own knowledge for the sake of beating everybody in the classroom.”Bhargavi A. Limbachiya ’29 warned the policy would raise stress and anxiety, saying, “It would create so much pressure where life wouldn’t be worth that much to live.” Others, including Lily S. Madison ’29, argued that the cap arbitrarily limits recognition for strong performance: “There’s no benefit that is derived from just giving fewer people the grades they deserve.”Some students expressed cautious optimism. Helen H. Mancini ’29 told The Harvard Crimson that stricter grading could reinforce academic rigor, particularly in the humanities, while Christo P. Velikin ’29 suggested that reducing grade inflation could improve Harvard’s academic reputation: “The immediate effect will be pretty harsh on some of the students here… but long-term, it’s a natural byproduct.”Next StepsThe proposal has yet to be voted on by the full Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Dean Claybaugh encouraged students and faculty to attend upcoming town halls to provide feedback, telling The Harvard Crimson, “These recommendations will form the basis of eventual formal faculty legislation, but we look forward to hearing feedback from faculty and students during the upcoming town halls.”Peer institutions, including Princeton University and Wellesley College, have attempted to curb grade inflation, but none have adopted the specific combination of A-grade caps and percentile-based rankings Harvard is considering.
