Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences is set to vote next week on a sweeping plan that would sharply limit how many A grades instructors can hand out in each course. The proposal would cap flat A grades at about 20 percent of a class, with an extra allowance of four additional A's per course, and it could also reshape how academic honors and prizes are awarded. The fight over the plan has turned into a campus-wide argument about fairness, teaching, and whether a Harvard diploma should still signal “extraordinary distinction.”
How the cap would work
Under the committee's March revisions, letter-graded courses could award A grades to no more than 20 percent of the final letter-graded enrollment plus four additional A's. The same document recommends that internal honors be calculated by an average percentile rank (APR) instead of a traditional GPA, and it gives courses an escape hatch: instructors could opt out of the cap by switching to SAT/UNSAT grading with a new SAT+ marker for exceptional work. The committee sets an implementation window, stating that the policy would take effect beginning in the fall 2027 term, according to Harvard University.
Backers say it would restore rigor
Supporters say the cap is overdue because of what they describe as severe grade compression. Committee figures and national reporting show that A-range grades climbed to roughly two-thirds of all letter grades in 2024-25, making it harder to distinguish among top-performing students. “The way things are now, it's like every student starts college with a shiny new car,” said Joshua D. Greene, who helped draft the plan. Backers argue the cap would prod students to refocus on learning rather than collecting easy A's. The underlying statistics and broader reporting on the proposal were detailed by Inside Higher Ed, while the committee's internal debate has been covered in outlets including The Boston Globe.
Critics call it blunt and risky
Plenty of faculty members are not sold. They warn that a fixed quota could act as a blunt instrument that punishes unusually strong cohorts and forces instructors into uncomfortable, zero-sum ranking decisions. Critics worry the policy could ratchet up cutthroat competition and twist incentives in the classroom. Those objections, raised repeatedly in faculty meetings and campus conversations, have been a recurring theme in coverage by The Harvard Crimson.
Student reaction and peer examples
Students are split. Town halls and opinion pieces show one camp arguing that grades at Harvard should actually mean something again, and another insisting that a hard cap would punish collaboration and hurt graduates when they apply to jobs or further study. Commentators keep pointing to earlier attempts at grade deflation at Princeton and Wellesley, both of which later rolled back or revised their policies, as a cautionary tale. Those precedents and the student debate have been laid out by Harvard Magazine.
Timeline and next steps
Faculty members will cast their votes by email from May 12 through May 19, with results expected on May 20. If the measure passes, the committee's March revisions specify an effective date of fall 2027. The voting schedule was first reported by The Harvard Crimson, and the implementation timeline appears in the committee's written proposal. Administrators say that, if approved, the policy would be followed by additional guidance and the creation of an implementation committee.
Why this matters beyond Cambridge
If Harvard adopts the cap, other selective colleges, graduate programs, and employers may need to rethink how they read GPAs from the university. Higher education observers note that the fight in Cambridge is part of a broader national reappraisal of grade inflation and what transcripts from elite institutions are supposed to signal, a trend that has been tracked by Inside Higher Ed.
