Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted earlier this month to make it harder for undergraduate students to earn straight A’s, limiting how many A-range grades instructors can award in letter-graded courses, the university said Wednesday.
The change follows faculty concern that top grades have become so widespread that they no longer reliably distinguish exceptional work, according to university data cited in discussions supporting the measure. In recent years, more than 60% of undergraduate grades have fallen in the A range, based on that cited university data.
The reforms were developed by a faculty subcommittee, and psychology professor Joshua Greene—who served on that subcommittee—described the intent as reducing what he called “the tyranny of the perfect transcript.” Greene said that if straight A’s become less common, students may feel freer to take academic risks and focus on learning rather than preserving a flawless record.
In a statement, members of the faculty subcommittee that proposed the changes said the goal was to “make their grades mean what they say they mean.” They said the reform would ensure that “a Harvard A grade will now tell students, as well as employers and graduate schools, something real about what a student has achieved.”
In addition to the A-grade cap, faculty approved a separate change affecting how students are compared for academic recognition. The university said faculty would use average percentile rank rather than GPA when comparing students for honors, prizes and awards.
The vote also drew comparisons to earlier efforts at other elite universities. Princeton University adopted a policy in 2004 to limit A-range grades to 35% of those awarded, though it abandoned the system a decade later after criticism that it disadvantaged students in competition for jobs and graduate school admission.
Harvard government professor Alisha Holland, co-chair of the faculty subcommittee, said Harvard designed a narrower approach by limiting only A’s and not A-minuses, in an effort to reduce potential impacts on students’ GPAs. Holland also said the change is intended as “a pro-student reform” aimed at restoring meaning to Harvard transcripts, and she argued the decision has broader significance amid scrutiny of what universities do.
Harvard’s dean of undergraduate education, Amanda Claybaugh, called grade inflation a “complex and thorny issue” that has been widely recognized but not solved, in a statement on Wednesday. Cognitive scientist and Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker said in an email to The Associated Press that he was “delighted” by the result, arguing that without addressing grade inflation, professors who set challenging material and high standards could see enrollment decline.
Pinker said that “grade inflation forced a race to the bottom” and that universities could only solve the issue through a university-wide policy. Student leaders also weighed in: the co-presidents of the Harvard Undergraduate Association, Zach Berg and Daniel Zhao, said in an emailed statement that they recognized concerns with grading but were disappointed that student voices “have not been centered throughout the decision-making process,” citing a February survey in which nearly 85% of roughly 800 respondents opposed the proposal.
Under the new plan, instructors in letter-graded courses at Harvard College will be allowed to award A grades to no more than 20% of students in a class, plus four additional students, beginning in fall 2027. Faculty also considered—and rejected—a proposal that would have allowed some courses to opt out of the A-grade cap by switching to a satisfactory/unsatisfactory system with a new SAT+ designation for exceptional performance.
Outside researchers and academics praised and questioned the prospects of broader adoption. Northeastern political science professor Max Abrahms called the vote “a huge win for higher education” on X, and Stuart Rojstaczer, a former Duke University professor who has tracked grade inflation, said it represents “a real cultural shift,” while adding that whether other universities adopt similar policies and whether the changes last is hard to predict.
Harvard said the new policies will be reviewed after three years. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the university said, is Harvard’s largest school and encompasses Harvard College and all of its Ph.D. programs.