Combating Gradeflation

Harvard is taking a red pen to its own grading curve.

On Wednesday, the oldest college in America announced that faculty had voted overwhelmingly to cap A’s at roughly 20% per undergrad course, and have Latin honors (think: cum laude) hinge on percentile rank, not GPA. There remains no limit on the number of A-minuses that can be awarded.

Gradeflation, a trend across higher education for decades, has accelerated since the arrival of ChatGPT in 2022. At Harvard, A’s have ballooned from 25% of grades in 2005-06 to 60% last year, prompting one prof to call the top grade “meaningless.” However, nearly 85% of undergrads disapprove of the change, arguing it could “heighten competition, discourage intellectual risk-taking, and infringe on faculty autonomy.” 

The new rules won’t touch current undergrads—just future Crimson classes.

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CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE
The grind of working for worldly merits can feel discouraging. Christians can rejoice because we serve an honest master who is far more generous with us than we deserve. In all your endeavors, work to please Him.

“Don’t work only while being watched, as people-pleasers, but work wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people, knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ.”
Colossians 3:22–24 (CSB) (read full passage)