Overview
- Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted to limit flat A grades to roughly 20 percent of students in each undergraduate course with up to four exceptions and scheduled the policy to take effect in fall 2027.
- Faculty also approved replacing GPA with average percentile rank for internal honors and prizes to provide sharper differentiation among top students.
- Many undergraduates oppose the change and warn it will heighten competition, push students away from difficult or exploratory courses, and disproportionately harm first-generation and low-income students.
- Analysts caution the cap may shift inflation into A– and B+ bands or be sidestepped by alternative grading systems, and point to past experiments that produced enrollment drops and unequal harms for Black students.
- The reform grew from a 2023 Office of Undergraduate Education report documenting a rise in A-range grades from about 25 percent two decades ago to roughly 60 percent in 2024–25 and officials say broader coordination will be needed to fully restore grading standards.