Harvard institutes new policies after rampant grade inflation among Ivy League schools

After accusations of racism and unfairness from students, Harvard University has approved a grade cap aimed at curbing grade inflation and better distinguishing the highest academic performers.

The measure, approved May 19 and taking effect in fall 2027, caps the number of A grades awarded in each course at 20% of students, plus up to four additional A’s. Harvard Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh proposed the measure after publishing a study of academic grading and student workload at the Cambridge, Massachusetts, university.

Claybaugh said she is committed to making Harvard the rigorous institution it should be, telling The Lion that goal motivated her push for change.

“Our current grading practices were an impediment to that goal,” she said in an email. “Faculty who dared to offer tougher courses risked lower course evaluations and enrollments, while students who dared to take them risked lower GPAs. I realized we had to change the incentive system, and that meant changing the culture of grading.”

Students had come to expect an A rather than viewing the grade as a mark of exceptional achievement, Claybaugh said in her study.

“When the median grade is an A, a 4.0 is no longer a goal that a small number of students are pursuing, but rather a default that many students are trying to maintain,” she wrote in her report. “‘We are terrified of the A-minus,’ one student confided, and so they act in the ways that research on loss aversion would predict.”

Grade inflation affects educators from elementary school through college, Claybaugh wrote. She cited several contributing factors, including the role of student evaluations in tenure decisions. Professors may replace high-stakes exams with lower-pressure assignments to earn more favorable reviews from students.

“My sense is that other schools are grappling with similar problems as well, and I hope that they’ll find solutions that make sense for them,” Claybaugh told The Lion. “Some are already working to do so.”

While Claybaugh did not explicitly identify mental health concerns as a reason for reform, other institutions have.

Princeton University abandoned its decade-long grade-deflation policy in 2014. The policy, adopted in 2004, required departments to award no more than 35% A grades in coursework and no more than 55% A-range grades in junior- and senior-level work.

Following a 2014 report, Princeton officials removed those numerical limits and cited student mental health as one reason.

“They add a large element of stress to students’ lives, making them feel as though they are competing for a limited resource of A grades,” the report states.

Princeton instead chose to monitor grading patterns. After the new policy was discussed but before it was formally adopted, grade point averages began to decline as professors adjusted their grading practices. Researchers concluded the written policy itself was not the primary factor driving stricter grading.

“If effort that truly leads to top-quality work does not result in equivalent grades, the psychological impact can be a kind of fatalism or at least a heightened level of uncertainty about how well one is doing and whether the reward system is functioning rationally,” the report states.

By 2023, the average GPA at Princeton had risen to 3.7, up 0.2 points from 2018, according to survey results reported by The Daily Princetonian.

Yale University joined the debate over grade inflation with a new policy report released April 10 that examined whether Yale grades remain as meaningful as they once were.

“The question is whether that judgment can be exercised transparently and whether academic criteria remain visibly at the center,” the report states. “At Yale, the primacy of academic criteria should be non-negotiable.”

By tightening grading standards, the Connecticut school hopes to restore confidence in letter grades and make a 3.0 GPA the norm.

“Grade like we mean it,” the report states.

Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, reports an average student GPA of 3.5, according to the registrar’s office. David Whalen, Hillsdale’s associate vice president for curriculum, told The Lion that efforts to curb grade inflation are admirable, but he anticipates implementation challenges.

“There will be too many complications in implementing it, too many exceptions needed or requested, and too much student and parent resistance or confusion,” Whalen said in an email. “Workarounds will multiply, so I am not confident in the solution, but I admire their desire to do something about the issue.”