Harvard Needs a Cap on A Grades

Each year, the undergraduate college at Harvard awards the Sophia Freund Prize to the graduating senior with the highest GPA. For decades, the prize went to one student, sometimes two if there was a tie. In 2025, there was a 55-way tie. The top students all had a perfect GPA. Hundreds more were nearly perfect. Last year, flat A’s accounted for 66 percent of grades. A’s and A–’s accounted for 84 percent.In Harvard’s Student Handbook, an A represents “extraordinary distinction”—an assessment that makes no sense if it applies to two-thirds of students. To restore meaning to student transcripts, Harvard’s grading committee, of which I am a member, has proposed capping all flat A grades to around 33 percent across undergraduate courses. Our recommendation follows a three-year investigation by Amanda Claybaugh, the dean of undergraduate education at Harvard, that found that the school’s current grading system is “damaging the academic culture of the College.” Grade inflation is about more than numbers. Putting a perfect GPA in reach of so many students perversely deters them from taking classes that could threaten it. It’s as if students start college with a shiny new car and hope to go four years without a scratch. Who would dare go off-road? If educators want to revive academic risk-taking, engagement, and inquisitiveness on college campuses, then we should liberate our students from the tyranny of the impeccable transcript.When I was asked to join Harvard’s grading committee last year, I wasn’t sure that there was a problem. Given that students have a tougher time getting in now than they did in my day—the acceptance rate has fallen from about 15 percent in the 1990s to about 4 percent now—the surfeit of A’s might simply reflect the strength of the students. Yet faculty who have taught the same courses for decades report no dramatic improvement in academic performance. In fact, many professors say that students seem less invested in academics and less motivated to do a