Harvard Faculty Approve 20% A-Grade Cap for Fall 2027, Rejecting Opt-Out Plan

9 articles · Updated · Harvard Crimson · May 20

A 458-201 faculty vote approved Harvard College’s toughest anti-grade-inflation move in decades, limiting A grades in undergraduate courses to 20% of enrollment, with up to four extra A’s, starting in fall 2027.
More than 60% of undergraduate grades in 2024-25 were A’s, and faculty leaders argued that compression at the top had made transcripts less able to distinguish extraordinary work from merely strong performance.
A separate 498-157 vote also replaced GPA with average percentile rankings for internal honors and awards, while a third proposal to let some satisfactory-based courses opt out failed 292-364.
The plan was softened before passage — split into separate votes and delayed by a year — but still passed despite strong student opposition, with nearly 85% of respondents in a February survey saying they disapproved.
The decision marks a sharp escalation from Harvard’s recent voluntary effort, which cut A grades by nearly 7 percentage points in the fall semester, and could pressure other elite schools weighing similar grading reforms.

Princeton repealed its grade cap due to student stress. Can Harvard's new policy avoid the same fate?

With AI fueling grade inflation, is capping grades a real fix or just a temporary patch on a systemic problem?