Harvard’s faculty is set to vote next week on a faculty committee proposal to cap the number of A grades per course in an effort to curb grade inflation.
The proposal, which was first reported earlier this year by the Harvard Crimson, Harvard’s student newspaper, would cap A grades to 20% of students in a course, with an allowance for four additional As. It also would introduce a new internal “average percentile rank” system, which would rely on raw scores rather than grade point average (GPA) to determine honors and awards.
If approved, the policy would take effect in fall 2027, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The proposed cap has faced criticism from students, including those on the Crimson’s editorial board, which claimed it “falls flat” in trying to resolve concerns over grading.
F that. Just give ppl what they deserve and curve base on difficulty like a normal school. If everyone got A then its easy or everyone worked for it. If everyone got c then its too hard and curve.
I remember a Harvard professor saying someplace that at Harvard, great papers get A+, good ones get A, average ones get A-, and bad ones get B. Give someone a C and you’ll have a whole mess on your hands with student, parents, admin, etc.
Doesn’t this just assert that grades themselves are somewhat meaningless?
Just that the range of lables is arbitrary.
Not that grades as a concept is meaningless.
Is this from a class or just some guy?
At Duke it’s quite similar. Most receive A-/A’s with profs acting like a 1/3 a letter grade somehow affects students. Told to go for a 92 total average for classes
The university I went to is a state university that isn’t nearly as well known as Duke and Harvard are.
Letter grades spanned the whole spectrum. I had one friend fail a calc class two times before finally passing with a B on his third attempt.
Is the issue that professors are afraid of giving lower grades? Seems like a simple pass/fail would be more effective if the letter itself has no meaning.
Same! I love my state schools. Often they’re as good if not better, sometimes better funded, and real people.
I’ve been told multiple times that the students at Duke are just better, lol!
You clearly didn’t go to UW. There were no letter grades.
Tf, which UW? I go to UW Milwaukee and I’ve gotton a few Ds.
Or do you mean Washington?
Nope, I went to school in Missouri.
Mizzou?
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Nope. Same system, different school though.
