Harvard faculty are voting this week on whether to cap the number of As earned in each undergraduate class in an effort to combat grade inflation at the Ivy League university.
Online voting on the proposal, which closes May 19, opened Tuesday. Faculty will decide whether to implement a 20 percent cap of A grades plus four in courses across Harvard College. The cap only affects As, not A- grades or other grades.
“Our grading is too compressed and too inflated, as nearly all faculty recognize;
it is also too inconsistent, as students have observed,” Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh wrote in a 2025 report. “More importantly, our grading no longer performs its primary functions and is undermining our academic mission.”
