More than half of all grades awarded at Harvard College are now A’s, according to a new report that has sparked renewed debate over grade inflation at the Ivy League university.
The report, released Monday by Harvard’s Office of Undergraduate Education and reported by Bloomberg, found that roughly 60 percent of grades handed out in undergraduate programs are A’s. This number represents a sharp increase from 40 percent a decade ago.
Harvard Undergraduate Dean Amanda Claybaugh, who authored the report, urged faculty to take action, warning that the trend is undermining academic standards.
“Current practices are not only failing to perform the key functions of grading; they are also damaging the academic culture of the college more generally,” Claybaugh wrote.
The report cites several causes for the rise in grades, including professors’ fears of being seen as too harsh compared to colleagues and concerns that stricter grading could deter students from enrolling in their classes. Faculty have also been encouraged by administrators to consider factors such as “imposter syndrome” and personal hardships when evaluating students.
For the class of 2025, the median GPA at Harvard College was 3.83, up from 3.64 for the class of 2015. By 2020, most grades given were already A’s, and the trend has continued since then.
The findings come as Harvard faces scrutiny over academic integrity and political bias. The Trump administration has pressured Harvard and other elite universities to commit to a federal compact promoting “grade integrity” and “defensible standards” in student evaluations.
Claybaugh’s report also cautioned against assuming that grade inflation reflects declining student effort. Using data from Q reports, student-submitted course evaluations, the study found that the amount of time students spend on coursework outside of class has remained largely unchanged over the past twenty years.
“Workload is notoriously difficult to measure, but our data suggest that students are working as hard as they ever have — if not more,” she said.
